Download or read book Fatal Purity written by Ruth Scurr and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-04-17 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Against the dramatic backdrop of the French Revolution, historian Scurr tracks Robespierre's evolution from lawyer to revolutionary leader. This is a fascinating portrait of a man who identified with the Revolution to the point of madness, and in so doing changed the course of history.

Download or read book The Voice of a Great Selections from the Proclamations Speeches and Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte written by Napoleon Bonaparte and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2021-05-06 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1896, “The Voice of a Great” contains a selection of the speeches, correspondence, and proclamations of the French military and political leader Napoléon Bonaparte, edited by Ida Tarbell. The book is split into five parts: “The Campaign in Italy”, “The Egyptian Expedition”, “Napoleon, First Consul”, “Napoleon, Emperor of France”, and “The Fall of Napoleon”. “The Voice of a Great” offers a fantastic insight into the mind of one of the greatest commanders in history, whose wars and campaigns are still studied at military schools the world over. Highly recommended for those with an interest in the life of Napoleon and military history in general. Ida Minerva Tarbell (1857–1944) was an American journalist, writer, lecturer, and biographer. A pioneer in investigative journalism, her 1904 book “The History of the Standard Oil Company” famously contributed to the dissolution of the Standard Oil monopoly and the introduction of the Hepburn Act of 1906. As well as articles and exposés, she also wrote a number of biographies on historical figures, believing that their ideals and motivations could be studied in order to positively change society. Other notable works by this author include: “Madame Roland: A Biographical Study.” (1896), “The Life of Abraham Lincoln” (1900), and “Father Abraham New York” (1909). Read & Co. History is proudly republishing this classic work now in a new edition complete with an introductory chapter by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Download or read book John Aubrey written by Ruth Scurr and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-03-12 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A truly remarkable writer, one of the most gifted non-fiction authors alive' Simon Schama, Financial Times SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD This is the autobiography that John Aubrey never wrote. You may not know his name. Aubrey was a modest man, a gentleman-scholar who cared far more for the preservation of history than for his own legacy. But he was a passionate collector, an early archaeologist and the inventor of modern biography. With all the wit, charm and originality that characterises her subject, Ruth Scurr has seamlessly stitched together John Aubrey's own words to tell his life story and a captivating history of seventeenth-century England unlike any other. 'A game-changer in the world of biography' Mary Beard 'Ingenious' Hilary Mantel 'Irresistible' Philip Pullman

Download or read book Becoming Josephine written by Heather Webb and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-12-31 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping historical debut about the Creole socialite who transformed herself into an empress Readers are fascinated with the wives of famous men. In Becoming Josephine, debut novelist Heather Webb follows Rose Tascher as she sails from her Martinique plantation to Paris, eager to enjoy an elegant life at the royal court. Once there, however, Rose’s aristocratic soldier-husband dashes her dreams by abandoning her amid the tumult of the French Revolution. After narrowly escaping death, Rose reinvents herself as Josephine, a beautiful socialite wooed by an awkward suitor—Napoleon Bonaparte. “A debut as bewitching as its protagonist.” —Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway’s Girl and Call Me Zelda “Vivid and passionate.” —Susan Spann, author of The Shinobi Mysteries From the Trade Paperback edition.

Download or read book The Napoleon of Notting Hill written by G. K. Chesterton and published by The Floating Press. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a futuristic novel set in London in 1984. Chesterton envisions neither great technological leaps nor totalitarian suppression. Instead, England is ruled by a series of randomly selected Kings, because people have become entirely indifferent. The joker Auberon Quin is crowned and he instates elaborate costumes for every sector of London. All the city's provosts are bored with the idea except for the earnest young Adam Wayne - the Napoleon of Notting Hill.

Download or read book The Last Libertines written by Benedetta Craveri and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “rich . . . highly enjoyable portrait of an extraordinary moment in French history” introduces us to 7 dazzling aristocrats who rose and fell during the French Revolution (Guardian). Benedetta Craveri reveals the history of the Libertine generation “whose youth coincided with the French monarchy’s final moment of grace—a moment when . . . a style of life based on privilege and the spirit of caste might acknowledge the widespread demand for change, and . . . reconcile itself with Enlightenment ideals of justice, tolerance, and citizenship.” Here we meet 7 characters who Craveri singles out not only for their “romantic character” but also for “the keenness with which they experienced this crisis . . . of the ancien régime, of which they themselves were the emblem.” • Duc de Lauzun • Vicomte de Ségur • Duc de Brissac • Comte de Narbonne • Chevalier de Boufflers • Comte de Ségur • Comte de Vaudreuil These men were at once “irreducible individualists” and true “sons of the Enlightenment”—all of them ambitious to play their part in bringing around the great changes that were in the air. But when the French Revolution came, they found themselves condemned to poverty, exile, and in some cases execution. Telling the parallel lives of these dazzling but little-remembered historical figures, Craveri brings the past to life, powerfully dramatizing a turbulent time that was at once the last act of a now-vanished world and the first act of our own.

Download or read book Napoleon by Emil Ludwig written by Emil Ludwig and published by Ishi Press. This book was released on 2009-11 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the great classic biography of Napoleon, just as it was first published in 1926, with the cover here being the original cover on the 1926 work. This book has been reprinted many times, by many different publishers. Here we are using the original 1926 First edition. There have been many other biographies of Napoleon. What makes Emil Ludwig's work the most famous of all is his literary style and presentation. The book starts with "The Island," and then follows with "The Torrent," "The River," "The Sea" and finally concludes with "The Rock." This biography by Emil Ludwig (1881-1948) is at its best when dealing with the personality and the character of Napoleon. He brings Napoleon to life. No other writer has done that so well and it is for this reason that this biography is the most famous.

Download or read book Dawn of the Belle Epoque written by Mary McAuliffe and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2011-05-16 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A humiliating military defeat by Bismarck's Germany, a brutal siege, and a bloody uprising—Paris in 1871 was a shambles, and the question loomed, "Could this extraordinary city even survive?" With the addition of an evocative new preface, Mary McAuliffe takes the reader back to these perilous years following the abrupt collapse of the Second Empire and France's uncertain venture into the Third Republic. By 1900, Paris had recovered and the Belle Epoque was in full flower, but the decades between were difficult, marked by struggles between republicans and monarchists, the Republic and the Church, and an ongoing economic malaise, darkened by a rising tide of virulent anti-Semitism. Yet these same years also witnessed an extraordinary blossoming in art, literature, poetry, and music, with the Parisian cultural scene dramatically upended by revolutionaries such as Monet, Zola, Rodin, and Debussy, even while Gustave Eiffel was challenging architectural tradition with his iconic tower. Through the eyes of these pioneers and others, including Sarah Bernhardt, Georges Clemenceau, Marie Curie, and César Ritz, we witness their struggles with the forces of tradition during the final years of a century hurtling towards its close. Through rich illustrations and vivid narrative, McAuliffe brings this vibrant and seminal era to life.

Download or read book Magnificent Rebels written by Andrea Wulf and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2023-10-10 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORKER ESSENTIAL READ • From the best-selling author of The Invention of Nature comes an exhilarating story about a remarkable group of young rebels—poets, novelists, philosophers—who, through their epic quarrels, passionate love stories, heartbreaking grief, and radical ideas launched Romanticism onto the world stage, inspiring some of the greatest thinkers of the time. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times • The Washington Post "Make[s] the reader feel as if they were in the room with the great personalities of the age, bearing witness to their insights and their vanities and rages.” —Lauren Groff, New York Times best-selling author of Matrix When did we begin to be as self-centered as we are today? At what point did we expect to have the right to determine our own lives? When did we first ask the question, How can I be free? It all began in a quiet university town in Germany in the 1790s, when a group of playwrights, poets, and writers put the self at center stage in their thinking, their writing, and their lives. This brilliant circle included the famous poets Goethe, Schiller, and Novalis; the visionary philosophers Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel; the contentious Schlegel brothers; and, in a wonderful cameo, Alexander von Humboldt. And at the heart of this group was the formidable Caroline Schlegel, who sparked their dazzling conversations about the self, nature, identity, and freedom. The French revolutionaries may have changed the political landscape of Europe, but the young Romantics incited a revolution of the mind that transformed our world forever. We are still empowered by their daring leap into the self, and by their radical notions of the creative potential of the individual, the highest aspirations of art and science, the unity of nature, and the true meaning of freedom. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfillment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our responsibilities toward our community and future generations. At the heart of this inspiring book is the extremely modern tension between the dangers of selfishness and the thrilling possibilities of free will.

Download or read book The Death of Napoleon written by Simon Leys and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-06-18 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History tells us that Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the desolate island of St. Helena in 1821. Or did he? This film supposes a more fanciful tale. A secret network of loyalists hatch an ingenious plot: the Emporer (Ian Holm in a double role) will return to Paris, while a double takes his place in exile. Trading identities with a dissolute sailor (Holm), Napoleon is spirited back to France to reclaim his throne. Yet, early on in the scheme, the plan goes awry. The double refuses to give up playing Napoleon thereby stranding the former Emperor in Paris.

Download or read book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly written by Jean-Dominique Bauby and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-03-06 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A triumphant memoir by the former editor-in-chief of French Elle that reveals an indomitable spirit and celebrates the liberating power of consciousness. In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young children, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem. After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired. Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail: dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able eventually to compose this extraordinary book. By turns wistful, mischievous, angry, and witty, Bauby bears witness to his determination to live as fully in his mind as he had been able to do in his body. He explains the joy, and deep sadness, of seeing his children and of hearing his aged father's voice on the phone. In magical sequences, he imagines traveling to other places and times and of lying next to the woman he loves. Fed only intravenously, he imagines preparing and tasting the full flavor of delectable dishes. Again and again he returns to an "inexhaustible reservoir of sensations," keeping in touch with himself and the life around him. Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This book is a lasting testament to his life.

Download or read book Napoleon A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows written by Ruth Scurr and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marking the 200th anniversary of his death, Napoleon is an unprecedented portrait of the emperor told through his engagement with the natural world. “How should one envisage this subject? With a great pomp of words, or with simplicity?” —Charlotte Brontë, “The Death of Napoleon” The most celebrated general in history, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) has for centuries attracted eminent male writers. Since Thomas Carlyle first christened him “our last Great Man,” regiments of biographers have marched across the same territory, weighing campaigns and conflicts, military tactics and power politics. Yet in all this time, no definitive portrait of Napoleon has endured, and a mere handful of women have written his biography—a fact that surely would have pleased him. With Napoleon, Ruth Scurr, one of our most eloquent and original historians, emphatically rejects the shibboleth of the “Great Man” theory of history, instead following the dramatic trajectory of Napoleon’s life through gardens, parks, and forests. As Scurr reveals, gardening was the first and last love of Napoleon, offering him a retreat from the manifold frustrations of war and politics. Gardens were, at the same time, a mirror image to the battlefields on which he fought, discrete settings in which terrain and weather were as important as they were in combat, but for creative rather than destructive purposes. Drawing on a wealth of contemporary and historical scholarship, and taking us from his early days at the military school in Brienne-le-Château through his canny seizure of power and eventual exile, Napoleon frames the general’s story through the green spaces he cultivated. Amid Corsican olive groves, ornate menageries in Paris, and lone garden plots on the island of Saint Helena, Scurr introduces a diverse cast of scientists, architects, family members, and gardeners, all of whom stood in the shadows of Napoleon’s meteoric rise and fall. Building a cumulative panorama, she offers indelible portraits of Augustin Bon Joseph de Robespierre, the younger brother of Maximilien Robespierre, who used his position to advance Napoleon’s career; Marianne Peusol, the fourteen-year-old girl manipulated into a Christmas-Eve assassination attempt on Napoleon that resulted in her death; and Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases, the atlas maker to whom Napoleon dictated his memoirs. As Scurr contends, Napoleon’s dealings with these people offer unusual and unguarded opportunities to see how he grafted a new empire onto the remnants of the ancien régime and the French Revolution. Epic in scale and novelistic in its detail, Napoleon, with stunning illustrations, is a work of revelatory range and depth, revealing the contours of the general’s personality and power as no conventional biography can.

Download or read book American Sketches written by Walter Isaacson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-11-24 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of America's most versatile writers, author of bestselling biographies such as Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin, has assembled a gallery of portraits of (mostly) Americans that celebreate genius, talent, and versatility, and traces his own education as a writer and biographer. In this collection of essays, the brilliant, acclaimed biographer Walter Isaacson reflects on lessons to be learned from Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, and other interesting characters he has chronicled both as biographer and journalist. The people he writes about have an awesome intelligence, but that is not the secret to their success. They had qualities that were even more rare, such as imagination and true curiousity. Isaacson also reflects on how he became a writer, the lessons he learned from various people he met, and the challenges for journalism in the digital age. He also offers loving tributes to his hometown of New Orleans, which offers many of the ingredients for a creative culture, and to the Louisiana novelist Walker Percy, who was an early mentor. In an anecdotal and personal way, Isaacson describes the joys of writing and the way that tales about the lives of fascinating people can enlighten our own lives.

Download or read book Possum Living How to Live Well without a Job and With Almost No Money written by Dolly Freed and published by Tin House Books. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A back-to-the-land classic” (Garden & Gun) that will “inspire you to embrace a simpler life” (O, The Oprah Magazine). In the late seventies, at the age of eighteen and with a seventh-grade education, Dolly Freed wrote Possum Living about the five years she and her father lived off the land on a half-acre lot outside of Philadelphia. At the time of its publication in 1978, Possum Living became an instant classic, known for its plucky narration and no-nonsense practical advice on how to quit the rat race and live frugally. In her delightful, straightforward, and irreverent style, Freed guides readers on how to buy and maintain a home, raise and grow their own food, cope with the law, stay healthy, save money, and more, all in the name of self-reliant, independent living. Forty years later, Possum Living remains an essential guide to going off the grid. This updated edition includes an introduction by Novella Carpenter, and new wisdom from Freed on aging, used cars, emergency funds, and how to get back in touch with yourself. Possum Living, says Freed, is about how to cook; to go fishing; to be with family, friends, and neighbors; to forage for wild berries; to enjoy a hobby; to relax; or, even better, to do nothing at all. Some of the best living, she reminds us, happens in possum time.

Download or read book The Well of Loneliness written by Radclyffe Hall and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells the story of Stephen Gordon, a girl born at the turn of century, and her struggle for acceptance as a lesbian.

Download or read book The Book of the Damned written by Charles Fort and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Time travel, UFOs, mysterious planets, stigmata, rock-throwing poltergeists, huge footprints, bizarre rains of fish and frogs-nearly a century after Charles Fort's Book of the Damned was originally published, the strange phenomenon presented in this book remains largely unexplained by modern science. Through painstaking research and a witty, sarcastic style, Fort captures the imagination while exposing the flaws of popular scientific explanations. Virtually all of his material was compiled and documented from reports published in reputable journals, newspapers and periodicals because he was an avid collector. Charles Fort was somewhat of a recluse who spent most of his spare time researching these strange events and collected these reports from publications sent to him from around the globe. This was the first of a series of books he created on unusual and unexplained events and to this day it remains the most popular. If you agree that truth is often stranger than fiction, then this book is for you"--Taken from Good Reads website.

Download or read book Down and Out in Paris and London written by George Orwell and published by A G Printing & Publishing. This book was released on 2024-07-07 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There were eccentric characters in the hotel. The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people—people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from ordinary standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work. Some of the lodgers in our hotel lived lives that were curious beyond words. There were the Rougiers, for instance, an old, ragged, dwarfish couple who plied an extraordinary trade. They used to sell postcards on the Boulevard St Michel. The curious thing was that the postcards were sold in sealed packets as pornographic ones, but were actually photographs of chateaux on the Loire; the buyers did not discover this till too late, and of course never complained. The Rougiers earned about a hundred francs a week, and by strict economy managed to be always half starved and half drunk. The filth of their room was such that one could smell it on the floor below. According to Madame F., neither of the Rougiers had taken off their clothes for four years.