The Cardinal's Mistress
Author: Benito Mussolini
Publisher:
Published: 1928
Total Pages: 260
ISBN-13:
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Mistress of the Ritz
Author: Melanie Benjamin
Publisher: Dell
Published: 2019-05-21
Total Pages: 384
ISBN-13: 039918225X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA captivating novel based on the story of the extraordinary real-life American woman who secretly worked for the French Resistance during World War II—while playing hostess to the invading Germans at the iconic Hôtel Ritz in Paris—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator's Wife and The Swans of Fifth Avenue. “A compelling portrait of a marriage and a nation at war from within.”—Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network Nothing bad can happen at the Ritz; inside its gilded walls every woman looks beautiful, every man appears witty. Favored guests like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coco Chanel, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor walk through its famous doors to be welcomed and pampered by Blanche Auzello and her husband, Claude, the hotel’s director. The Auzellos are the mistress and master of the Ritz, allowing the glamour and glitz to take their minds off their troubled marriage, and off the secrets that they keep from their guests—and each other. Until June 1940, when the German army sweeps into Paris, setting up headquarters at the Ritz. Suddenly, with the likes of Hermann Goëring moving into suites once occupied by royalty, Blanche and Claude must navigate a terrifying new reality. One that entails even more secrets and lies. One that may destroy the tempestuous marriage between this beautiful, reckless American and her very proper Frenchman. For in order to survive—and strike a blow against their Nazi “guests”—Blanche and Claude must spin a web of deceit that ensnares everything and everyone they cherish. But one secret is shared between Blanche and Claude alone—the secret that, in the end, threatens to imperil both of their lives, and to bring down the legendary Ritz itself. Based on true events, Mistress of the Ritz is a taut tale of suspense wrapped up in a love story for the ages, the inspiring story of a woman and a man who discover the best in each other amid the turbulence of war. Praise for Mistress of the Ritz “No one writes of the complexities of women’s lives and loves like Melanie Benjamin. In Mistress of the Ritz, Benjamin brings wartime Paris brilliantly to life. . . . Intense, illuminating, and ultimately inspiring!”—Elizabeth Letts, New York Times bestselling author of Finding Dorothy
Mistress of the Vatican
Author: Eleanor Herman
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2009-10-13
Total Pages: 496
ISBN-13: 006182741X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEleanor Herman, the talented author of the New York Times bestselling Sex with Kings and Sex with the Queen goes behind the sacred doors of the Catholic Church in Mistress of the Vatican, a scintillating biography of a powerful yet little-known woman whose remarkable story is ripe with secrets, sex, passion, and ambition. For almost four centuries this astonishing story of a woman’s absolute power over the Vatican has been successfully buried—until now.
Mistresses
Author: Elizabeth Abbott
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2011-09-01
Total Pages: 526
ISBN-13: 1590208765
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“A lively and nuanced look at gender roles as they have been revealed by the lives of concubines and mistresses over the centuries” (Kirkus). She exists as both a fictional character and as a flesh-and-blood human being. But who is she, really? Why do women become mistresses, and what is it like to have a private life that is usually also a secret life? Is a mistress merely a wife-in-waiting, or is she the very definition of the emancipated, independent female? Elizabeth Abbott intelligently examines the motives and morals of some of history's most infamous and fascinating women, from antiquity to today. Drawing intimate portraits of those who have—by chance, coercion, or choice—assumed this complex role, Mistresses offers a rich blend of personal biography and cultural insight. “Ms. Abbott is delightfully indiscreet, with an eye for a good story and a colloquial style . . . She has done the ladies a service by bringing them out of the shadows.” —The Economist
The Kings' Mistresses
Author: Elizabeth C Goldsmith
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2012-04-03
Total Pages: 290
ISBN-13: 1586488902
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Mancini Sisters, Marie and Hortense, were born in Rome, brought to the court of Louis XIV of France, and strategically married off by their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, to secure his political power base. Such was the life of many young women of the age: they had no independent status under the law and were entirely a part of their husband's property once married. Marie and Hortense, however, had other ambitions in mind altogether. Miserable in their marriages and determined to live independently, they abandoned their husbands in secret and began lives of extraordinary daring on the run and in the public eye. The beguiling sisters quickly won the affections of noblemen and kings alike. Their flight became popular fodder for salon conversation and tabloids, and was closely followed by seventeenth-century European society. The Countess of Grignan remarked that they were traveling "like two heroines out of a novel." Others gossiped that they "were roaming the countryside in pursuit of wandering lovers. "Their scandalous behavior -- disguising themselves as men, gambling, and publicly disputing with their husbands -- served as more than just entertainment. It sparked discussions across Europe concerning the legal rights of husbands over their wives. Elizabeth Goldsmith's vibrant biography of the Mancini sisters -- drawn from personal papers of the players involved and the tabloids of the time -- illuminates the lives of two pioneering free spirits who were feminists long before the word existed.
The Cardinals
Author: Michael J. Walsh
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 257
ISBN-13: 0802829414
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAlthough a highly visible part of the ecclesiastical furniture of the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican for thirteen centuries, surprisingly little has been written about cardinals or (apart from some notable individual biographies), about the men who became papal princes . The cardinals of the Roman Church are the nearly men of Catholicism - those whose office since the 11th century has been chiefly to choose the Pope, following efforts to wrest this power from Rome s nobility and militia. This compelling history traces the origins and growth of the office of cardinal and tells the stories of some of the remarkable (for all kinds of reasons) men who have worn the red cap, coveted by some, refused on occasion and sometimes laid down in exchange for marriage, though one maverick got wed in his red hat. The Cardinals is an informative and entertaining look at the lives of some of the more colourful characters who have worn the cardinatial red or purple. It reveals an unlikely company of saints and villains, patrons of the arts and scholars, cardinals who might have been pope but who were blackballed, and cardinals who were deprived of the title because of their dissolute lives, doubtful opinions, or interference in papal policies. There are diplomats in these pages, statesmen, kingmakers and soldiers. There are members of royal and noble families, and the son of a Doge of Venice. And there are the cardinals whose fame simply lies in their goodness and their care of the dioceses entrusted to them.
An Unrestored Woman
Author: Shobha Rao
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Published: 2016-03-15
Total Pages: 227
ISBN-13: 1250073839
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“What an astonishing collection! Provoking, ferocious, moving, splendid, generous and essential. I seemed to finish the book in a different world than the one in which I began it.” —Kelly Link, author of Get In Trouble and Stranger Things Happen In her mesmerizing debut, Shobha Rao recounts the untold human costs of one of the largest migrations in history. 1947: the Indian subcontinent is partitioned into two separate countries, India and Pakistan. And with one decree, countless lives are changed forever. An Unrestored Woman explores the fault lines in this mass displacement of humanity: a new mother is trapped on the wrong side of the border; a soldier finds the love of his life but is powerless to act on it; an ambitious servant seduces both master and mistress; a young prostitute quietly, inexorably plots revenge on the madam who holds her hostage. Caught in a world of shifting borders, Rao’s characters have reached their tipping points. In paired stories that hail from India and Pakistan to the United States, Italy, and England, we witness the ramifications of the violent uprooting of families, the price they pay over generations, and the uncanny relevance these stories have in our world today.
The Duchess of Malfi
Author: John Webster
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 1997-06-15
Total Pages: 196
ISBN-13: 9780719043574
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMore widely studied and more frequently performed than ever before, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi is here presented in an accessible and thoroughly up-to-date edition. Based on the Revels Plays text, the notes have been augmented to cast further light both on Webster's amazing dialogue and on the stage action. An entirely new introduction sets the tragedy in the context of pre-Civil War England and gives a revealing view of its imagery and dramatic action. From its well-documented early performances to the two productions seen in the West End of London in the 1995-96 season, a stage history gives an account of the play in performance. Students, actors, directors and theatre-goers will all find here a reappraisal of Webster's artistry in the greatest age of English theatre, which highlights why it has lived on stage with renewed force in the last decades of the twentieth century.
The Three Musketeers
Author: Alexandre Dumas
Publisher:
Published: 1878
Total Pages: 536
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOne of the preeminent novels by French writer Alexandre Dumas, this swashbuckling tale follows a group of honorable 17th-century swordsmen who must contend with powerful adversaries scheming against the queen. Determined to join the royal guard, young d'Artagnan leaves his country home and travels to Paris, where he unintentionally angers Aramis, Athos, and Porthos, the esteemed Three Musketeers. Eventually winning the trust and admiration of the formidable trio of fighters, d'Artagnan joins them in their quest to thwart the plans of the sinister Cardinal Richelieu.
The Imaginary Mistress by Honoré de Balzac - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
Author: Honoré de Balzac
Publisher: Delphi Classics
Published: 2017-07-17
Total Pages: 597
ISBN-13: 1788775104
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Imaginary Mistress by Honoré de Balzac - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Collected Works of Honoré de Balzac’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Balzac includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘The Imaginary Mistress by Honoré de Balzac - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Balzac’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles
