In this robust historical set during the Romanov twilight, Alexander (The Kitchen Boy) chronicles the careers of two emblematic individuals—the real-life Grand Duchess Elisavyeta (Ella), sister of Alexandra, the last tsarina, and the fictional Pavel, a young revolutionary. The author's extensive knowledge of Russia allows him to invigorate the narrative with telling details that bring the aristocrat Ella, who eventually became an Orthodox saint, convincingly to life. His depictions of workers' miseries, from the breadlines to sausage made from cat, are especially strong.
It's the sweltering summer of 1911, and one Friday evening a special train rolls into York station. It carries a young aristocrat recently found guilty of murdering his father in the sleepy village of Adenwold.
Added by: deception | Karma: 319.20 | Fiction literature | 16 January 2010
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Jeffrey Archer - A Prisoner Of Birth
If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson the day before, or the day after, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend. And when the four prosecution witnesses are a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat and the youngest partner in an established firm's history, who is going to believe his side of the story?
Available for the first time in English, this is an entertaining, if lesser novel of the great master. Unlike Dumas's rollicking historical romances, it is a morality piece, strictly 19th century in tone. Fernande, a beautiful, witty aristocrat, becomes a courtesan after being seduced at a young age by her guardian.
This finely illustrated book explores over seven hundred years of European warfare, from the time of Charlemagne to the end of the middle ages (c. 1500). The period covered has a distinctive character in military history.
It was an age when organization for war was integral to social structure, when the secular aristocrat was by necessity also a warrior, and whose culture was profoundly influenced by martial ideas.
