The Reluctant Empress

The Reluctant Empress PDF Author: Brigitte Hamann
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Extremely interesting biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the beautifland mysterious Queen who was the Romantic idol of 19th-century Europe and wasassassinated in 1898.

The Reluctant Empress

The Reluctant Empress PDF Author: Brigitte Hamann
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Extremely interesting biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the beautifland mysterious Queen who was the Romantic idol of 19th-century Europe and wasassassinated in 1898.

The Reluctant Empress

The Reluctant Empress PDF Author: Brigitte Hamann
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571287565
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The real-life tale behind Netflix's Empress Sisi and the Anarchist, whose assassination in 1898 shocked the world. Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known to her family as 'Sisi', belongs to a famous love story of European royalty. In 1853 the Emperor Franz Josef, the most eligible bachelor in Europe, fell in love with her at first sight when she was 15. They were married the next year. On the surface, it was a fairy-tale marriage, all the more poignant, with hindsight, because her tragic death augured the twilight years of the Habsburg Empire. First published in 1988, Brigitte Hamann's definitive biography tells Elisabeth's story from her birth into Bavarian nobility to her assassination at the hands of an Italian anarchist. In her lifetime she was idolised solely for her grace and beauty; but Hamann shows us a stronger character, bitter at her marriage, seeking independence, and struggling against the powerful influence of her mother-in-law, the Archduchess Sophie.

The Reluctant Empress

The Reluctant Empress PDF Author: Teresa Howard
Publisher: Champagne Books
ISBN: 1947128396
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Ninallia is young, young and desperate. She decides to sell the only thing she owns to save her family: her body. Believing family stories that she descends from royal blood, she agrees to become a surrogate for an infertile couple. The lucrative agreement will provide for her family for several years. Ninallia’s world is turned upside down when the Emperor and Empress are assassinated, and she discovers that the child she is carrying is the heir. Her life and that of her unborn child are in grave danger. Disguised as a boy, Ninallia flees. If she is to survive the power hungry lord hunting for her, she has to seek help. She finds two allies, a League Soldier and a Sister of the Order. Together they must keep Ninallia alive until her son is born and his blood tested to prove that he is the Imperial Heir. With everyone searching for them, will they live long enough?

Empress

Empress PDF Author: Karen Miller
Publisher: Orbit
ISBN: 0316032042
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
In a family torn apart by poverty and violence, Hekat is no more than an unwanted mouth to feed, worth only a few coins from a passing slave trader. But Hekat was not born to be a slave. For her, a different path has been chosen. It is a path that will take her from stinking back alleys to the house of her God, from blood-drenched battlefields to the glittering palaces of Mijak. This is the story of Hekat, precious and beautiful. A new fantasy trilogy of power and politics, treason and betrayal, and the rise and fall of Empires . . .

The Accidental Empress

The Accidental Empress PDF Author: Allison Pataki
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 147679023X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Discover the “captivating, absorbing, and beautifully told” (Kathleen Grissom) love story of Sisi, the Austro-Hungarian empress and wife of Emperor Franz Joseph—perfect for fans of the Netflix series The Empress! The year is 1853, and the Habsburgs are Europe’s most powerful ruling family. With his empire stretching from Austria to Russia, from Germany to Italy, Emperor Franz Joseph is young, rich, and ready to marry. Fifteen-year-old Elisabeth, “Sisi,” Duchess of Bavaria, travels to the Habsburg Court with her older sister, who is betrothed to the young emperor. But shortly after her arrival at court, Sisi finds herself in an unexpected dilemma: she has inadvertently fallen for and won the heart of her sister’s groom. Franz Joseph reneges on his earlier proposal and declares his intention to marry Sisi instead. Thrust onto the throne of Europe’s most treacherous imperial court, Sisi upsets political and familial loyalties in her quest to win, and keep, the love of her emperor, her people, and of the world. With Pataki’s rich period detail and cast of complex, bewitching characters, The Accidental Empress offers “another absolutely compelling story” (Mary Higgins Clark) with this glimpse into one of history’s most intriguing royal families, shedding new light on the glittering Hapsburg Empire and its most mesmerizing, most beloved “Fairy Queen.”

American Empress

American Empress PDF Author: Nancy Rubin
Publisher: Iuniverse Star
ISBN: 0595301460
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
American Empress is a sweeping history of the dramatic life of heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, daughter of breakfast-cereal magnate C. W. Post. As a young girl growing up in the Midwest, Marjorie Post helped glue cereal boxes in her father's barn, later became a board member of his company, wed a diplomat and by late middle age was widely acknowledged as the unofficial "Queen of Washington, D.C." The glamorous and warm-hearted Mrs. Post was also mother to actress Dina Merrill. Throughout her life, she gave generously to hundreds of civic, artistic and philanthropic causes, among which were the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Ballet and the Kennedy Center. By virtue of her brains, beauty and great wealth, Mrs. Post was a woman well ahead of her era, whose natural business acumen created the frozen foods industry and transformed the Postum Cereal Company into the General Foods Corporation.

Empress

Empress PDF Author: Miles Taylor
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300118090
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
An entirely original account of Victoria's relationship with the Raj, which shows how India was central to the Victorian monarchy from as early as 1837 In this engaging and controversial book, Miles Taylor shows how both Victoria and Albert were spellbound by India, and argues that the Queen was humanely, intelligently, and passionately involved with the country throughout her reign and not just in the last decades. Taylor also reveals the way in which Victoria's influence as empress contributed significantly to India's modernization, both political and economic. This is, in a number of respects, a fresh account of imperial rule in India, suggesting that it was one of Victoria's successes.

Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi PDF Author: Jung Chang
Publisher: Random House Canada
ISBN: 0307363120
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
From the beloved, internationally bestselling author of Wild Swans, and co-author of the bestselling Mao: The Unknown Story, the dramatic, epic biography of the unusual woman who ruled China for 50 years, from concubine to Empress, overturning centuries of traditions and formalities to bring China into the modern world. A woman, an Empress of immense wealth who was largely a prisoner within the compound walls of her palaces, a mother, a ruthless enemy, and a brilliant strategist: Chang makes a compelling case that Cixi was one of the most formidable and enlightened rulers of any nation. Cixi led an intense and singular life. Chosen at the age of 12 to be a concubine by the Emperor Xianfeng, she gave birth to his only male heir who at four was designated Emperor when his father died in 1861. In a brilliant move, the young woman enlisted the help of the Emperor's widow and the two women orchestrated a coup that ousted the regents and made Cixi sole Regent. Untrained and untaught, the two studied history and politics together, ruling the huge nation from behind a curtain. When her boy died, Cixi designated a young nephew as Emperor, continuing her reign till her death in 1908. Chang gives us a complex, riveting portrait of Cixi through a reign as long as that of her fellow Empress, Victoria, whom she longed to meet: her ruthlessness in fighting off rivals; her curiosity to learn; her reliance on Westerners who she placed in key positions; and her sensitivity and desire to preserve the distinctiveness of China's past while overturning traditions (she, as Chang reveals--not Mao, as he claimed--banned footbinding) and exposing its culture to western ideas and technology.

The Phoenix Empress

The Phoenix Empress PDF Author: K Arsenault Rivera
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 0765392569
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
K Arsenault Rivera's second novel, The Tiger's Daughter, the continuation of a new epic fantasy trilogy "Rich, expansive, and grounded in human truth...simply exquisite.” —V. E. Schwab, New York Times bestselling author of the Shades of Magic series Once they were the heirs to a prophecy that predicted two women would save an empire. Now Shefali is dying—and her wife is unaware of the coming tragedy. Shizuka is too busy trying to reunite a fractured empire and right the wrongs of her ancestors. As the Imperial Army gathers against a demonic invasion, Shizuka must do all she can with an empire on the brink of civil war. Ascendant #1 The Tiger’s Daughter #2 The Phoenix Empress #3 The Warrior Moon At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Last Empress

The Last Empress PDF Author: Hannah Pakula
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439154236
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 850

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Book Description
With the beautiful, powerful, and sexy Madame Chiang Kai-shek at the center of one of the great dramas of the twentieth century, this is the story of the founding of modern China, starting with a revolution that swept away more than 2,000 years of monarchy, followed by World War II, and ending in the eventual loss to the Communists and exile in Taiwan. An epic historical tapestry, this wonderfully wrought narrative brings to life what Americans should know about China -- the superpower we are inextricably linked with -- the way its people think and their code of behavior, both vastly different from our own. The story revolves around this fascinating woman and her family: her father, a peasant who raised himself into Shanghai society and sent his daughters to college in America in a day when Chinese women were kept purposefully uneducated; her mother, an unlikely Methodist from the Mandarin class; her husband, a military leader and dogmatic warlord; her sisters, one married to Sun Yat-sen, the George Washington of China, the other to a seventy-fifth lineal descendant of Confucius; and her older brother, a financial genius. This was the Soong family, which, along with their partners in marriage, was largely responsible for dragging China into the twentieth century. Brilliantly narrated, this fierce and bloody drama also includes U.S. Army General Joseph Stilwell; Claire Chennault, head of the Flying Tigers; Communist leaders Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai; murderous warlords; journalists Henry Luce, Theodore White, and Edgar Snow; and the unfortunate State Department officials who would be purged for predicting (correctly) the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. As the representative of an Eastern ally in the West, Madame Chiang was befriended -- before being rejected -- by the Roosevelts, stayed in the White House for long periods during World War II, and charmed the U.S. Congress into giving China billions of dollars. Although she was dubbed the Dragon Lady in some quarters, she was an icon to her people and is certainly one of the most remarkable women of the twentieth century.