Author: Keith E. Beery File Type: pdf

Author: Thomas Asbridge File Type: epub Richard Is reign is both controversial and seemingly contradictory. One of Englands most famous medieval monarchs and a potent symbol of national identity, he barely spent six months on English soil during a ten-year reign and spoke French as his first language. Contemporaries dubbed him the Lionheart, reflecting a carefully cultivated reputation for bravery, prowess and knightly virtue, but this supposed paragon of chivalry butchered close to 3,000 prisoners in cold blood on a single day. And, though revered as Christian Europes greatest crusader, his grand campaign to the Holy Land failed to recover the city of Jerusalem from Islam.Seeking to reconcile this conflicting evidence, Thomas Asbridges incisive reappraisal of Richard Is career questions whether the Lionheart really did neglect his kingdom, considers why he devoted himself to the cause of holy war and asks how the memory of his life came to be interwoven with myth. Richard emerges as a formidable warrior-king, possessed of martial genius and a cultured intellect, yet burdened by the legacy of his dysfunctional dynasty and obsessed with the pursuit of honour and renown.**About the Author Thomas Asbridge is the author of The Crusades and The Greatest Knight. He was the historical consultant on the film Kingdom of Heaven and presented and wrote the BBC television series The Crusades.

Author: Andrea Stuart File Type: epub The acclaimed biography of Josephine Bonaparte, the Caribbean-born Creole who became the first wife of Napoleon and Empress of France. One of the most remarkable women of the modern era, Josephine Bonaparte was born Rose de Tasher on her familys sugar plantation in Martinique. She embodied all the characteristics of a true Creolesensuality, vivacity, and willfulness. Rescued from near starvation, she grew to epitomize the wild decadence of post-revolutionary Paris. It was there that Josephine first caught the eye of Napoleon Bonaparte. A true partner to Napoleon, she was equal parts political adviser, hostess par excellence, confidante, and passionate lover. Josephine managed to be in the forefront of every important episode of her eras turbulent history from the rise of the West Indian slave plantations that bankrolled Europes rapid economic development, to the decaying of the ancien regime, to the French Revolution itself, from which she barely escaped the guillotine. Using diaries and letters, Andrea Stuart brings her so utterly to life that we finally understand why Napoleons last word before dying was the name he had given her Josephine. A comprehensive and truly empathetic biography. Andrea Stuart, who was raised in the Caribbean, combines scholarly distance with a genuine attempt to understand her heroine. The Washington Post **From Publishers WeeklyBorn in Martinique, her name was Rose when she arrived in France at age 15 to marry her first husband, a handsome man-about-court who quickly neglected his disappointingly provincial wife. Rose matured and built alliances in unlikely places, including the convent where her husband forced her to retire and the prison where she spent the last months of the French Revolution. It was after this period and her husbands execution that she became one of Pariss great hostesses and attracted the attention of an awkward but rising military hero named Napoleon Bonaparte. Stuart (Showgirls) captures the tentativeness of their first years of marriage, when letters of the often-absent, sexually inexperienced Napoleon raged with jealousy while Rose, whom he renamed Josephine, continued to have the affairs common in her social circle. Sources provide a challenge to the biographer, who must wade through material written much later when writers were fully aware of the importance of the actors and scenes they described. The twin dangers of contemporary romanticization and criticism haunt Stuarts text, yet the shifting sands of identity they create seem appropriate, for Rose and Napoleon were both remaking themselves. The almost pathological ways they complemented each other remain painfully clear as Stuart traces the denouements of their lives. It was hardly a happy marriage, and Stuarts argument that the emperors harsh treatment of women in the Code Napoleon reflected the dynamics and frustrations of his own marriage seems quite convincing in this context. 16 pages of color illus. not seen by PW. Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. From Booklist Even though the lives of lovely Josephine and her insanely ambitious second husband, Napoleon Bonaparte, have become legendary, Stuart takes a fresh and revelatory approach to portraying the Creole from Martinique who became empress of France by emphasizing both Josephine and Napoleons outsider status as emigres from small islands. She was from a lush Caribbean wonderland poisoned by slavery, and he hailed from Corsica, and both were greatly underestimated when they first arrived in Paris. Writing with magnetic animation and vivid specificity, Stuart tracks the astonishing vicissitudes of Roses life (Napoleon called her Josephine) as she evolved from a gauche country girl into a seasoned voluptuary, a high priestess of style, and the famously kind, poised, and diplomatic wife of the most powerful man in Europe. Part and parcel of this gripping tale of love, adversity, loss, and survival is the story of the rapidly fluctuating status of women in France and the terrors of the French Revolution, harsh realities Stuart chronicles with acumen and finesse. But what makes this altogether moving biography truly unforgettable are Stuarts deep insights into Josephines devotion to beauty, adaptability, compassion, and capacity for joy and love. Donna Seaman American Library Association. lt

Author: Thomas Thwaites File Type: pdf