Memoirs of a Dwarf at the Sun King's Court

Memoirs of a Dwarf at the Sun King's Court PDF Author: Paul Weidner
Publisher: Terrace Books
ISBN: 9780299205102
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Set in the over-scaled, decadent Versailles of Louis XIV, Memoirs of a Dwarf is the story of Hugues, an impoverished dwarf who maneuvers his way up into the very highest of court circles by clandestinely serving the needs of a mob of unscrupulous gamblers, of a priest notorious for saying black Masses at midnight, and--from under the gaming tables--of a number of sex-starved society women, including Louis's mistress. Along the way, Hugues finally discovers the truth of his own identity, a revelation which is a political bombshell and which subjects him to a grisly turn. The story combines historical events and characters--Louis, his mistresses, his outrageous brother Philippe, and many other baroque personalities--with fictitious ones. Hugues's tale reaches its climax during the famous affaire des poisons, the sexual and political scandal that thundered through the royal court and threatened wholesale destruction.

Memoirs of a Dwarf at the Sun King's Court

Memoirs of a Dwarf at the Sun King's Court PDF Author: Paul Weidner
Publisher: Terrace Books
ISBN: 9780299205102
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Set in the over-scaled, decadent Versailles of Louis XIV, Memoirs of a Dwarf is the story of Hugues, an impoverished dwarf who maneuvers his way up into the very highest of court circles by clandestinely serving the needs of a mob of unscrupulous gamblers, of a priest notorious for saying black Masses at midnight, and--from under the gaming tables--of a number of sex-starved society women, including Louis's mistress. Along the way, Hugues finally discovers the truth of his own identity, a revelation which is a political bombshell and which subjects him to a grisly turn. The story combines historical events and characters--Louis, his mistresses, his outrageous brother Philippe, and many other baroque personalities--with fictitious ones. Hugues's tale reaches its climax during the famous affaire des poisons, the sexual and political scandal that thundered through the royal court and threatened wholesale destruction.

Bolivar

Bolivar PDF Author: Marie Arana
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439110204
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
An authoritative portrait of the Latin-American warrior-statesman examines his life against a backdrop of the tensions of nineteenth-century South America, covering his achievements as a strategist, abolitionist, and diplomat.

A Woman's Life in the Court of the Sun King

A Woman's Life in the Court of the Sun King PDF Author: Charlotte-Elisabeth Orléans (duchesse d')
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780801856358
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
On 16 November 1671, Liselotte von der Pfalz, the nineteen-year-old daughter of the Elector of Palatine, was married to Philippe d'Orleans, "Monsieur, " the only brother of Louis XIV. The marriage was not to be a happy one. Liselotte (known in France as Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchesse d'Orleans, or "Madame") was full of intellectual energy and moral rigor. Homesick for her native Germany, she felt temperamentally ill-suited to life at the French court. The homosexual Monsieur, deeply immersed in the pleasures and intrigues of the court, shared few of his wife's interests. Yet, for the next fifty years, Liselotte remained in France, never far from the center of one of the most glorious courts of Europe. And throughout this period, she wrote letters - sometimes as many as forty a week - to her friends and relatives in Germany. It is from this extraordinary body of correspondence that A Woman's Life in the Court of the Sun King has been fashioned. As introduced and translated by Elborg Forster, the letters have become the remarkable personal narrative of Liselotte's transformation from an innocent, yet outspoken, girl into a formidable observer of great events and human folly.

Memoirs of Madame la Marquise de Montespan

Memoirs of Madame la Marquise de Montespan PDF Author: Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart marquise de Montespan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Favorites, Royal
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description


The Recollections of Alexis de Tocqueville

The Recollections of Alexis de Tocqueville PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3732632067
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Reproduction of the original: The Recollections of Alexis de Tocqueville by Alexis de Tocqueville

Red Virgin

Red Virgin PDF Author: Louise Michel
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817300635
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Louise Michel was born illegitimate in 1830 and became a schoolmistress in Paris. She was involved in radical activities during the twilight of France’s Second Empire, and during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the siege of Paris. She was a leading member of the revolutionary groups controlling Montmarte. Michel emerged as one of the leaders of the insurrection during the Paris Commune of March-May 1871; and French anarchists saw her as martyr and saint – The Red Virgin. When the Versailles government crushed the Commune in May 1871, Michel was sentenced to exile in New Caledonia, until the general amnesty of 1880, when she returned to France and great popular acclaim and support from the working people of the country. Michel was arrested again during a demonstration in Paris in 1883 and sentenced to six years in prison. Pardoned after three years, she continued her speeches and writing, although she spent the greater part of her time from 1890 until her death in 1905 in England in self-imposed exile. It was during her prison term from 1883 to 1886 that she compiled her Memoires, now available in English. These memoirs offer readers a view of the non-Marxist left and give an in-depth look into the development of the revolutionary spirit. The early chapters treat her childhood, the development of her revolutionary feelings, and her training as a schoolteacher. The next section describes her activities as a schoolteacher in the Haute-Marne and Paris and therefore contains much of interest on education in 19th-century Europe. Her chapters on the siege of Paris, the Commune, and her first trial show those events from the point of view of a major participant. Of particular interest is a chapter on women’s rights, which Michel saw as part of the search for the rights of all people, male and female, and not as a separate struggle. The Red Virgin: Memoirs of Louise Michel will be useful to both scholars and students of 19th-century French history and women’s studies.

Recollections

Recollections PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 081393902X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Souvenirs was his extraordinarily lucid and trenchant analysis of the 1848 revolution in France. Despite its bravura passages and stylistic flourishes, however, it was not intended for publication. Written just before Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte’s 1851 coup prompted the great theorist of democracy to retire from political life, it was initially conceived simply as an exercise in candid personal reflection. In Recollections: The French Revolution of 1848 and Its Aftermath, renowned historian Olivier Zunz and award-winning translator Arthur Goldhammer offer an entirely new translation of Tocqueville’s compelling book. The book has an interesting publishing history. Yielding to pressure from friends, Tocqueville finally approved its publication, although only after those portrayed in the work—most, unflatteringly—had died. After Tocqueville’s death, his grandnephew published a redacted version, but it was not until 1942 that French editors restored the potentially offensive passages. Goldhammer’s is the first English translation to do justice to Tocqueville’s original uncensored masterpiece of analytical description, stylistic subtlety, vivid social panorama, and incisive critique of political blundering and cowardice. Zunz’s introduction—and his addition of several of Tocqueville’s ancillary speeches, occasional texts, and letters—round out a unique volume that significantly enhances our understanding of the revolutionary period and Tocqueville’s role in it. In this new edition, Zunz highlights the persistent influence of the United States on the life and work of a man who tirelessly, albeit futilely, promoted the American model of government for the New French Republic.

Luxury Arts of the Renaissance

Luxury Arts of the Renaissance PDF Author: Marina Belozerskaya
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 0892367857
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.

Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahádee

Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahádee PDF Author: Robert Norris
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description


Memoir, Letters and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville

Memoir, Letters and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description