Download or read book How to Ruin a Queen written by Jonathan Beckman and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2014-06-19 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A hell of a tale and Jonathan Beckman gives it all the verve and swagger it deserves . . . I read it with fascination, delight and frequent snorts of incredulity' The Spectator On 5 September 1785, a trial began in Paris that would divide the country, captivate Europe and send the French monarchy tumbling down the slope towards the Revolution. Cardinal Louis de Rohan, scion of one of the most ancient and distinguished families in France, stood accused of forging Marie Antoinette's signature to fraudulently obtain the most expensive piece of jewellery in Europe - a 2,400-carat necklace worth 1.6 million francs. Where were the diamonds now? Was Rohan entirely innocent? Was, for that matter, the queen? What was the role of the charismatic magus, the comte de Cagliostro, who was rumoured to be two-thousand-years old and capable of transforming metal into gold? This is a tale of political machinations and extravagance on an enormous scale; of kidnappings, prison breaks and assassination attempts; of hapless French police disguised as colliers, reams of lesbian pornography and a duel fought with poisoned pigs. It is a detective story, a courtroom drama, a tragicomic farce, and a study of credulity and self-deception in the Age of Enlightenment.

Download or read book The Diamond Necklace written by Countess De La Motte and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This gripping memoir tells the true story of a scandal that rocked the French court in the 18th century. It is a must-read for fans of historical true crime. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book Marie Antoinette written by John Hardman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “wonderfully gripping biography” digs beneath the famous legend to present a nuanced and revealing portrait of a serious-mined monarch (Allan Massie, Wall Street Journal). As the last Queen of France before the French Revolution, Marie-Antoinette was mistrusted and reviled in her own time, while today she is portrayed as a lightweight incapable of understanding the events that engulfed her. But who was she really? In this new account, John Hardman redresses the balance and sheds fresh light on her story. Hardman shows how Marie-Antoinette played a significant but misunderstood role in the crisis of the monarchy. Drawing on new sources, he describes how she refused to prioritize the aggressive foreign policy of her mother, bravely took over the helm from her faltering husband, and, when revolution broke out, worked closely with repentant radicals to give the constitutional monarchy a fighting chance. For the first time, Hardman demonstrates exactly what influence Marie-Antoinette had and when and how she exerted it. Named a 2020 Book of the Year by The Spectator

Download or read book How to Ruin a Queen written by Jonathan Beckman and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 5 September 1785, a trial began in Paris that would divide the country, captivate Europe and send the French monarchy tumbling down the slope towards the Revolution. Cardinal Louis de Rohan, scion of one of the most ancient and distinguished families in France, stood accused of forging Marie Antoinette's signature to fraudulently obtain the most expensive piece of jewellery in Europe - a 2,400-carat necklace worth 1.6 million francs. Where were the diamonds now? Was Rohan entirely innocent? Was, for that matter, the queen? What was the role of the charismatic magus, the comte de Cagliostro, who was rumoured to be two-thousand-years old and capable of transforming metal into gold? This is a tale of political machinations and extravagance on an enormous scale; of kidnappings, prison breaks and assassination attempts; of hapless French police disguised as colliers, reams of lesbian pornography and a duel fought with poisoned pigs. It is a detective story, a courtroom drama, a tragicomic farce, and a study of credulity and self-deception in the Age of Enlightenment.

Download or read book The Queen s Diamonds written by Roger MacDonald and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The French Queen, Anne of Austria, gives her lover, the irresistible duke of Buckingham, a fabulous diamond necklace. Louis XII commands his Queen to wear the necklace at the royal ball. Three musketeers begin desperate race to England and back to retrieve the necklace from Buckingham and save the Queen's honour. But the Duke's jealous mistress, Lucy Percy, steals two of the diamonds and takes them to the Queen's enemy, Cardinal Richelieu. Oxford historian Roger Macdonald uncovers the true, extraordinary tale of intrigue, sex and revenge that inspired Alexandre Duma’s immortal novel.

Download or read book The Queen s Necklace written by Alexandre Dumas and published by . This book was released on 1893 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book SATIN A SCANDALOUS AFFAIR written by Jan Colley and published by Harlequin / SB Creative. This book was released on 2018-07-09 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Danielle “Dani” Hammond is a world-renowned jewelry designer, respected and awarded for her considerable skill by her peers…except for the ever-critical Quinn Everard. He’s one of Australia’s biggest gem brokers and never lets up on her work. Why, then, has Quinn come to her to create a piece using the Distinction Diamond, a legendary gem? Dani gets down to work without knowing that the recipient of her hard work will be herself! Still unsure why he would commit such a rare and elegant piece of jewelry to the hands of someone whose work he finds subpar, Dani can’t know the regret that lies in Quinn’s heart.

Download or read book The Lemoine Affair written by Marcel Proust and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Their friend Marcel Proust had killed himself after the fall in diamond shares, a collapse that annihilated a part of his fortune. This is the first-ever translation into English of this startling tour-de-force by one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. The Lemoine Affair was inspired by the real-life French scandal involving Henri Lemoine, who claimed he could manufacture diamonds from coal and convinced numerous people—including officers of the De Beers diamond mine company and Proust himself—to invest in the scheme. In a series of pastiches—imitations written in the style of other writers—Proust tells the story of the embarrassment rippling across high society Paris in the wake of the scandal, poking fun at himself (in one story, a character declares that Marcel Proust is so embarrassed he’s suicidal) while lampooning some of France’s greatest writers, including Flaubert, Balzac, and Saint-Simon. Full of sophisticated wit and dazzling wordplay, and rife with allusions to his friend and fictional characters, many Proust scholars see the dead-on mimicry of The Lemoine Affair—written soon after Proust’s rejection of society life—as the work by which he honed his own unique, masterly voice. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.

Download or read book Elizabeth Taylor My Love Affair with Jewelry written by Elizabeth Taylor and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2002-09-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Profiles the film star's collection of jewelry, providing descriptions of her most noteworthy pieces and describing their representation of particular relationships and events in her life.

Download or read book The Diamond Affair written by Kendra Little and published by Kendra Little. This book was released on 2022-12-14 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ruby Jones is the luckiest gemologist in the world. After all, how many can claim to have handled the famous "lost" Florentine Diamond, once worn by empresses? But her luck runs out when the diamond is stolen from ruthless businessman Guy Beauvoir. As the one commissioned to verify it, she's his prime suspect. With Beauvoir's goon chasing her all over the city, there's only person Ruby can turn to. Jake Forrester doesn't want anything to do with Ruby, but he owes her brother big. The ex-special ops soldier turned private security agent is moving interstate, and the last thing he wants is a complication in the form of his mate's sexy little sister. The sooner he can find the Florentine and return it to Beauvoir, the sooner he can walk away. If only it were that simple. Keeping Ruby safe is turning into a full-time job, and having her close is playing havoc with his determination to forget the secrets he's tried so hard to bury.

Download or read book The Queen s Necklace written by Frances Mossiker and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2004 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Four years before the French Revolution some priceless diamonds - they cost 1.8m francs, 'the price of a battleship' - were purchased in elaborate secrecy from the court jeweller of France, presumably for Marie Antoinette and at her own instructions. The necklace - not yet paid for - was delivered into the hands of Cardinal Prince de Rohan, first prelate of the Church of France. He in turn gave it to the Countess de La Motte-Valois, who claimed to be acting for the Queen. Although essentially an innocent bystander amidst this chicanery, Marie Antoinette became embroiled in a scandal which fatally weakened the monarchy.

Download or read book The Story of the Diamond Necklace written by Henry Vizetelly and published by . This book was released on 1881 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Confident Women written by Tori Telfer and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thoroughly entertaining and darkly humorous roundup of history’s notorious but often forgotten female con artists and their bold, outrageous scams—by the acclaimed author of Lady Killers. From Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey to Frank Abagnale and Charles Ponzi, audacious scams and charismatic scammers continue to intrigue us as a culture. As Tori Telfer reveals in Confident Women, the art of the con has a long and venerable tradition, and its female practitioners are some of the best—or worst. In the 1700s in Paris, Jeanne de Saint-Rémy scammed the royal jewelers out of a necklace made from six hundred and forty-seven diamonds by pretending she was best friends with Queen Marie Antoinette. In the mid-1800s, sisters Kate and Maggie Fox began pretending they could speak to spirits and accidentally started a religious movement that was soon crawling with female con artists. A gal calling herself Loreta Janeta Velasquez claimed to be a soldier and convinced people she worked for the Confederacy—or the Union, depending on who she was talking to. Meanwhile, Cassie Chadwick was forging paperwork and getting banks to loan her upwards of $40,000 by telling people she was Andrew Carnegie’s illegitimate daughter. In the 1900s, a 40something woman named Margaret Lydia Burton embezzled money all over the country and stole upwards of forty prized show dogs, while a few decades later, a teenager named Roxie Ann Rice scammed the entire NFL. And since the death of the Romanovs, women claiming to be Anastasia have been selling their stories to magazines. What about today? Spoiler alert: these “artists” are still conning. Confident Women asks the provocative question: Where does chutzpah intersect with a uniquely female pathology—and how were these notorious women able to so spectacularly dupe and swindle their victims?

Download or read book The Affair of the Mysterious Letter written by Alexis Hall and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this charming, witty, and weird fantasy novel, Alexis Hall pays homage to Sherlock Holmes with a new twist on those renowned characters. Upon returning to the city of Khelathra-Ven after five years fighting a war in another universe, Captain John Wyndham finds himself looking for somewhere to live, and expediency forces him to take lodgings at 221b Martyrs Walk. His new housemate is Ms. Shaharazad Haas, a consulting sorceress of mercurial temperament and dark reputation. When Ms. Haas is enlisted to solve a case of blackmail against one of her former lovers, Miss Eirene Viola, Captain Wyndham is drawn into a mystery that leads him from the salons of the literary set to the drowned back-alleys of Ven and even to a prison cell in lost Carcosa. Along the way he is beset by criminals, menaced by pirates, molested by vampires, almost devoured by mad gods, and called upon to punch a shark. But the further the companions go in pursuit of the elusive blackmailer, the more impossible the case appears. Then again, in Khelathra-Ven reality is flexible, and the impossible is Ms. Haas' stock-in-trade.

Download or read book A Secret Affair written by Mary Balogh and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2010-05-18 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Mary Balogh's The Secret Mistress. Born a commoner, Hannah Reid has been Duchess of Dunbarton since she was nineteen years old. Now her husband is dead and, more beautiful than ever at thirty, Hannah has her freedom at last. To the shock of a conventional friend, she announces her intention to take a lover—and not just any lover, but the most dangerous and delicious man in all of upper-class England: Constantine Huxtable. Constantine’s illegitimacy has denied him the title of earl, so now he denies himself nothing. Rumored to be living the easy life of a sensualist on his country estate, he always chooses recent widows for his short-lived affairs. Hannah will fit the bill nicely. But once these two passionate and scandalous figures find each other, they discover that it isn’t so easy to extricate oneself from the fires of desire—without getting singed.

Download or read book The Secret of the Crown written by John Fraser and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2012-03-24 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning journalist, author, and royal authority John Fraser explores the endurance and allure of the Crown in Canada. With his trademark wit and artful agility, Fraser looks at the Crown's evolution from the Age of Deference to the era of celebrity to the present popular revival. He examines the differences between tribal monarchy and constitutional monarchy, the key roles of the governor general and the lieutenant governor, and the media's insatiable appetite for the Royal Family. Finally, he speculates on the future reign of Charles, Prince of Wales, and pays homage to Queen Elizabeth II on her Diamond Jubilee. Erudite and highly entertaining, The Secret of the Crown offers a captivating appraisal of Canada's long-standing affair with royalty. This volume includes a lavish 32-page photo insert to create a spectacular visual history of the once and future crown.

Download or read book How to Ruin a Queen written by Jonathan Beckman and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1785, a sensational trial began in Paris that would divide the country and captivate Europe. A leading Catholic cardinal and scion of one of the most distinguished families in France stood accused of forging the queen's signature to obtain the most expensive piece of jewelry in Europe: a 2,800-carat diamond necklace. Where were the diamonds? Was the cardinal innocent? Was, for that matter, the queen? The revelations from the trial would bedevil the French monarchy as the country descended into a bloody revolution. In How to Ruin a Queen, award-winning author Jonathan Beckman tells of political machinations and enormous extravagance; of kidnappings, prison breaks, and assassination attempts; of hapless French police in disguise, reams of lesbian pornography, and a duel fought with poisoned pigs. It is a detective story, a courtroom drama, a tragicomic farce, and a study of credulity and self-deception in the Age of Enlightenment.