Showing results by author "Sarah Dunant" in All Categories

Rodrigo Borgia picks up his papal skirts and walks out on to the public balcony.Sixty-one years old. How many years does he have in front of him? By his age, four of the five popes he had served were already rotting in their tombs. Sixty-one. Three sons, a ripening daughter and a sublime young mistress, ready to drop more fruit.Borgia blood. Thick with ambition and determination. How long does he need? Give him another ten - no, fifteen - summers and he will have the bull crest emblazoned over half of Italy.

Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her prosperous father brings a young painter back from Holland to adorn the new family chapel. Fascinated by his ability she is lured into closer involvement. On the streets of Florence she observes a terrible evil stalking the city and a fiery priest, who has set out to rid the city of vice, even art itself.

The year is 1527. While the Papal city of Rome burns, two of her most interesting and wily citizens slip away. Though almost as damaged as their beloved city, Fiammetta Bianchini and Bucino Teodoldi, a fabulous courtesan and her dwarf companion, are already planning their future. They head for the shimmering beauty of Venice, a honey pot of wealth and trade where they start to rebuild their business. As a partnership they are invincible. Venice, however, is a city that holds its own temptations.

In the Name of the Family - as Blood and Beauty did before - holds up a mirror to a turbulent moment of history, sweeping aside the myths to bring alive the real Borgia family: complicated, brutal, passionate and glorious. Here is a thrilling exploration of the House of Borgia's doomed years, in the company of a young diplomat named Niccolo Machiavelli.

From the acclaimed author of The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan comes a vibrant exploration of the Italian Renaissance through the character of Isabella d’Este, the first female art collector and patron of her time. Her famed collection has long since dispersed or been lost, but what remains is her correspondence–thousands of letters preserved in a deconsecrated church and convent in the archive of Mantua.

1527. While the Papal city of Rome burns, brutally sacked by an invading army including Protestant heretics, two of her most interesting and wily citizens slip away, their stomachs churning on the jewels they have swallowed as the enemy breaks down their doors.

Before the Corleones, before the Lannisters, there were the Borgias. One of history’s notorious families comes to life in a captivating novel from the author of The Birth of Venus. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY COSMOPOLITAN (UK) AND THE TIMES (UK) “In the end, what’s a...

Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her prosperous merchant father brings a young painter back with him from Holland to adorn the walls of the new family chapel. She is fascinated by his talents and envious of his abilities and opportunities to paint to the glory of God. Soon her love of art and her lively independence are luring her into closer involvement with all sorts of taboo areas of life.

«В обществе куртизанки» - это яркий портрет одного из величайших городов мира в самый важный период его существования и, одновременно с этим, история о желании и обмане, грехе и величии, верности и дружбе.

My lady, Fiammetta Bianchini, was plucking her eyebrows and biting color into her lips when the unthinkable happened and the Holy Roman Emperor’s army blew a hole in the wall of God’s eternal city, letting in a flood of half-starved, half-crazed troops bent on pillage and punishment. Thus...

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is...

The year is 1570, and in the convent of Santa Caterina, in the Italian city of Ferrara, noblewomen find space to pursue their lives under God’s protection. But any community, however smoothly run, suffers tremors when it takes in someone by force. And the arrival of Santa Caterina’s new...

My lady, Fiammetta Bianchini, was plucking her eyebrows and biting color into her lips when the unthinkable happened and the Holy Roman Emperor’s army blew a hole in the wall of God’s eternal city, letting in a flood of half-starved, half-crazed troops bent on pillage and punishment. Thus...

Монастырь Санта-Катерина - пристанище дворянок, живущих под защитой Бога. Многим из них не хватило денег на хорошее приданое и замужество, и они были вынуждены пойти в монашки.

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is...

Rom, im August 1492. Schon am frühen Morgen ächzt die Stadt unter der Gluthitze des Sommers. Der Lärm in der engen Gasse lässt Lucrezia aus dem Schlaf fahren. Kann es wahr sein, was der Bote schreit? Ihr Vater, Rodrigo Borgia, der neue Papst? Die Nachricht stellt Lucrezias Leben und das ihrer drei Brüder auf den Kopf: Plötzlich sind sie die mächtigste Familie der Stadt, und das zwölfjährige Mädchen muss in Windeseile erwachsen werden. Denn ihr ehrgeiziger Vater weiß nur zu genau, dass die Hand seiner Tochter mehr wert ist als alle italienischen Ländereien zusammen.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Italian Renaissance novels—The Birth of Venus, In the Company of the Courtesan, and Sacred Hearts—has an exceptional talent for breathing life into history. Now Sarah Dunant turns...

Året er 1527 og vi befinder os i renæssancens Italien. Her møder vi kurtisanen Fiametta og hendes trofaste ven og følgesvend dværgen Bucino. På flugt fra Rom og de indtrængende soldaters hærgen, sætter Fiametta og Bucino kursen mod Venedig. Med sig har de kun de diamanter, de kunne nå at sluge. De når til tops i den farverige by med rigdom, kunst og skønhed og møder alverdens spændende personligheder - alle med skjulte motiver.

Elizabeth Skorvecky sidder alene i sit store hus i en forstad til London og oversætter en ekstremt voldspornografisk kriminalroman fra tjekkisk. Hun er nervøs og forvirret, har netop afsluttet et syv år gammelt parforhold, hører mystiske lyde inde og ude og fornemmer, at nogen kommer og går i huset og flytter rundt på hendes ting. Gradvist smelter voldsthrillerens fantasiverden sammen med hendes egen virkelighed. Da voldsmanden vitterligt en nat dukker op, er hun parat.

Når et menneske, vi elsker, pludselig forsvinder, er fantasien det eneste, vi har tilbage. En dag pakker Anna sin kuffert uden at fortælle nogen, hvor hun skal hen, eller hvorfor hun rejser – hun siger bare, at hun snart er hjemme igen. Da hun går om bord på et fly, forestiller hun sig, at denne rejse vil give hende mulighed for at tænke over sit liv. En kvinde på vej til de 40, journalist og alenemor. Hun har ingen anelse om, at hun snart vil figurere på listen over forsvundne personer.