Download or read book The Sun Kings written by Stuart Clark and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-12 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recounts the story behind English astronomer Richard Carrington's observations of a mysterious explosion on the surface of the sun and how his understanding that the sun's magnetism directly influences the Earth helped usher in the modern era of astronomy.

Download or read book The Sun Kings written by Stuart Clark and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-31 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September of 1859, the entire Earth was engulfed in a gigantic cloud of seething gas, and a blood-red aurora erupted across the planet from the poles to the tropics. Around the world, telegraph systems crashed, machines burst into flames, and electric shocks rendered operators unconscious. Compasses and other sensitive instruments reeled as if struck by a massive magnetic fist. For the first time, people began to suspect that the Earth was not isolated from the rest of the universe. However, nobody knew what could have released such strange forces upon the Earth--nobody, that is, except the amateur English astronomer Richard Carrington. In this riveting account, Stuart Clark tells for the first time the full story behind Carrington's observations of a mysterious explosion on the surface of the Sun and how his brilliant insight--that the Sun's magnetism directly influences the Earth--helped to usher in the modern era of astronomy. Clark vividly brings to life the scientists who roundly rejected the significance of Carrington's discovery of solar flares, as well as those who took up his struggle to prove the notion that the Earth could be touched by influences from space. Clark also reveals new details about the sordid scandal that destroyed Carrington's reputation and led him from the highest echelons of science to the very lowest reaches of love, villainy, and revenge. The Sun Kings transports us back to Victorian England, into the very heart of the great nineteenth-century scientific controversy about the Sun's hidden influence over our planet.

Download or read book North American Sun Kings written by Joseph B. Mahan and published by Isac Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Memoirs of a Dwarf at the Sun King s Court written by Paul Weidner and published by Terrace Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in the over-scaled, decadent Versailles of Louis XIV, Memoirs of a Dwarf is the story of Hugues, an impoverished dwarf who maneuvers his way up into the very highest of court circles by clandestinely serving the needs of a mob of unscrupulous gamblers, of a priest notorious for saying black Masses at midnight, and--from under the gaming tables--of a number of sex-starved society women, including Louis's mistress. Along the way, Hugues finally discovers the truth of his own identity, a revelation which is a political bombshell and which subjects him to a grisly turn. The story combines historical events and characters--Louis, his mistresses, his outrageous brother Philippe, and many other baroque personalities--with fictitious ones. Hugues's tale reaches its climax during the famous affaire des poisons, the sexual and political scandal that thundered through the royal court and threatened wholesale destruction.

Download or read book Versailles written by Catherine Pegard and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2017-06-28 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Ch�teau de Versailles is a real photographic challenge because it is so huge: there is an infinite number of possible points of view and they are never the same, depending on the time of day, the weather or the season... There are always new photos to take, to contemplate, to dream of. It is a demanding place that stimulates creativity and encourages you to look at it again and again' Thomas Garnier Versailles is one of the most photographed places in the world, but only four people have the privilege of being the Palace's official photographers. They have uniquely unfettered access to the secrets that lie within, outside and beneath this enormous domain where they spend their days - and sometimes their nights. Now, for the first time, they open their personal albums to offer a wealth of impressions and responses. Two hundred and fifty previously unpublished photographs reveal a plethora of outstanding artworks, the private apartments of Louis XIV, MarieAntoinette and Madame de Pompadour, magnificent galleries, the delightful Orangerie and more, all accompanied by texts that provide a lively introduction to daily life at the Ch�teau and its momentous history. This is a monumental volume on a scale that matches the grandeur of the worldrenowned Palace it celebrates.

Download or read book The Sun King at Sea written by Meredith Martin and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This richly illustrated volume, the first devoted to maritime art and galley slavery in early modern France, shows how royal propagandists used the image and labor of enslaved Muslims to glorify Louis XIV. Mediterranean maritime art and the forced labor on which it depended were fundamental to the politics and propaganda of France’s King Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715). Yet most studies of French art in this period focus on Paris and Versailles, overlooking the presence or portrayal of galley slaves on the kingdom’s coasts. By examining a wide range of artistic productions—ship design, artillery sculpture, medals, paintings, and prints—Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss uncover a vital aspect of royal representation and unsettle a standard picture of art and power in early modern France. With an abundant selection of startling images, many never before published, The Sun King at Sea emphasizes the role of esclaves turcs (enslaved Turks)—rowers who were captured or purchased from Islamic lands—in building and decorating ships and other art objects that circulated on land and by sea to glorify the Crown. Challenging the notion that human bondage vanished from continental France, this cross-disciplinary volume invites a reassessment of servitude as a visible condition, mode of representation, and symbol of sovereignty during Louis XIV’s reign.

Download or read book The Sun King s Garden written by Ian Thompson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-10-31 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents an illustrated account of the creation of one of the world's most dazzling and extensive gardens, the gardens at the palace of Versailles, noting the unique four-decade friendship between Louis XIV, the creator of the garden, and Andre Le Ntre, the gardener.

Download or read book Enchantress of Paris written by Marci Jefferson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The alignment of the stars at Marie Mancini's birth warned that although she would be gifted at divination, she was destined to disgrace her family. Nonetheless, Cardinal Mazarin brings his niece to the opulent French court, where the forbidden occult arts thrive in secret. In France, Marie discovers that her powerful uncle rules, using Marie's sister Olympia to hold the Sun King, Louis XIV, in thrall. Desperate to avoid her mother's dying wish that she spend her life in a convent, Marie burns her grimoire, trading Italian superstitions for polite sophistication. As her star rises, King Louis becomes enchanted by Marie's charm. Sensing a chance to grab even greater power, Cardinal Mazarin pits the sisters against each other, showering Marie with diamonds and silks in exchange for bending King Louis to his will. Disgusted by Mazarin's ruthlessness, Marie rebels. She sacrifices everything, but exposing Mazarin's darkest secret threatens to tear France apart. When even King Louis' love fails to protect Marie, she must summon her powers of divination. Fraught with conspiracy and passion, Enchantress of Paris is a captivating historical novel about a woman whose love was more powerful than magic.

Download or read book The Armies and Wars of the Sun King 1643 1715 written by René Chartrand and published by Century of the Soldier. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume 1 of the Sun King's wars and armies goes from his early and turbulent years, from the resounding victory over Spain at Rocroi in 1643, the unstable years of the Fronde civil wars, his seizure of absolute power in 1661, his immediate control of national finances and armed forces, his measures to create the most effective army in Europe, the i

Download or read book The Sun King written by Nancy Mitford and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “devastatingly witty” biography of Louis XIV and the Court of Versailles—at once a historical record of late 17th- and early 18th-century France and a gossip-filled narrative of lovers and rivals, artists and warriors (The New York Times) The Sun King is a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV and Versailles, the opulent court from which he ruled. With characteristic élan, Nancy Mitford reconstructs the daily life of king and courtiers during France’s golden age, offering vivid sketches of the architects, artists, and gardeners responsible for the creation of the most magnificent palace Europe had yet seen. Mitford lays bare the complex and deadly intrigues in the stateroom and the no less high-stakes power struggles in the bedroom. At the center of it all is Louis XIV himself, the demanding, mercurial, but remarkably resilient sovereign who guided France through nearly three quarters of the Grand Siècle. Brimming with sumptuous detail and delicious bons mots, and written in a witty, conversational style, The Sun King restores a distant glittering century to vibrant life.

Download or read book Sun Kings written by Noel R. Byrne and published by Noel R. Byrne. This book was released on 2015-01-14 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sunrise is near… The great city of Bantha, seat of the Empire, is once more on the brink of war with its savage neighbours. Scarcely recovered from the last conflict, its leaders are struggling to avoid more bloodshed. Yet according to the Order of Keepers, who watch the world and hear all, this conflict cannot be avoided. The enemy is coming, and seeks to destroy the Empire once and for all. In a small village far from the city, a young girl runs away from home. With soldiers at her heels and a terrifying creature in her path, she finds an unexpected ally in her nightmares and begins a journey that will change her life forever. But before long, all of them will face a threat greater than they have ever known. After all, who can keep the sun from rising?

Download or read book The Sun Dog written by Stephen King and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King’s novella The Sun Dog, published in his award-winning 1990 story collection Four Past Midnight, now available for the first time as a standalone publication. The dog is loose again. It is not sleeping. It is not lazy. It’s coming for you. Kevin Delavan wants only one thing for his fifteenth birthday: a Polaroid Sun 660. There’s something wrong with his gift, though. No matter where Kevin Delevan aims the camera, it produces a photograph of an enormous, vicious dog. In each successive picture, the menacing creature draws nearer to the flat surface of the Polaroid film as if it intends to break through. When old Pop Merrill, the town’s sharpest trader, gets wind of this phenomenon, he envisions a way to profit from it. But the Sun Dog, a beast that shouldn’t exist at all, turns out to be a very dangerous investment.

Download or read book King of the World written by Philip Mansel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 669 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louis XIV was a man in pursuit of glory. Not content to be the ruler of a world power, he wanted the power to rule the world. And, for a time, he came tantalizingly close. Philip Mansel’s King of the World is the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography in English of this hypnotic, flawed figure who continues to captivate our attention. This lively work takes Louis outside Versailles and shows the true extent of his global ambitions, with stops in London, Madrid, Constantinople, Bangkok, and beyond. We witness the importance of his alliance with the Spanish crown and his success in securing Spain for his descendants, his enmity with England, and his relations with the rest of Europe, as well as Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We also see the king’s effect on the two great global diasporas of Huguenots and Jacobites, and their influence on him as he failed in his brutal attempts to stop Protestants from leaving France. Along the way, we are enveloped in the splendor of Louis’s court and the fascinating cast of characters who prostrated and plotted within it. King of the World is exceptionally researched, drawing on international archives and incorporating sources who knew the king intimately, including the newly released correspondence of Louis’s second wife, Madame de Maintenon. Mansel’s narrative flair is a perfect match for this grand figure, and he brings the Sun King’s world to vivid life. This is a global biography of a global king, whose power was extensive but also limited by laws and circumstances, and whose interests and ambitions stretched far beyond his homeland. Through it all, we watch Louis XIV progressively turn from a dazzling, attractive young king to a belligerent reactionary who sets France on the path to 1789. It is a convincing and compelling portrait of a man who, three hundred years after his death, still epitomizes the idea of le grand monarque.

Download or read book The Way of Kings written by Brandon Sanderson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 1013 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new epic fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author chosen to complete Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time® Series

Download or read book The Sun Kings written by Hywel Williams and published by Quercus Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last 3000 years, the great 'sun kings' of history have dazzled the world with their ability to build empires and rule them absolutely, but equally with their shows of excess and opulence. Experts in the public display of power, they have identified their own authority as the basis of their country's grandeur. From Ramses II raising the temples and statues of 13th-century BC Egypt, and Charlemagne reviving Roman imperial glory for 9th-century Europe, to Peter the Great's transformation of Russia into a western power, and Napoleon's parcelling of Europe for his family, The Sun Kings examines the lives and achievements of 50 magnificent rulers, whilst also providing a fascinating study of the changing role of kingship. The sun kings' lifestyles, palaces, art, dress and other totems of their success are brought to life with lavish colour illustrations. The following rulers are included: Ramses II Roger II Louis XIV Solomon Suryavarman II Kangxi Nebuchadnezzar II The Knights Templar Peter the Great Darius I Eleanor of Aquitaine Frederick II Croesus, King of Lydia Kublai Khan Maria-Theresa Alexander the Great Baybars I Catherine the Great Shi Huangdi Pope Alexander VI Napoleon Augustus Lorenzo de Medici Leopold II Constantine I Montezuma II Ludwig II Al-Mansur Henry VIII Mohammad Reza Shah Kammu Charles V Pahlavi Charlemagne Suleyman I Bokassa I Abd-ar-rahman III Akbar Fahd ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz Basil II ('the Bulgar-Slayer') Gustavus Adolphus al-Sa'ud Otto III Charles I William the Conqueror

Download or read book The Sun Is a Compass written by Caroline Van Hemert and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of Cheryl Strayed, the gripping story of a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure. During graduate school, as she conducted experiments on the peculiarly misshapen beaks of chickadees, ornithologist Caroline Van Hemert began to feel stifled in the isolated, sterile environment of the lab. Worried that she was losing her passion for the scientific research she once loved, she was compelled to experience wildness again, to be guided by the sounds of birds and to follow the trails of animals. In March of 2012, she and her husband set off on a 4,000-mile wilderness journey from the Pacific rainforest to the Alaskan Arctic, traveling by rowboat, ski, foot, raft, and canoe. Together, they survived harrowing dangers while also experiencing incredible moments of joy and grace -- migrating birds silhouetted against the moon, the steamy breath of caribou, and the bond that comes from sharing such experiences. A unique blend of science, adventure, and personal narrative, The Sun is a Compass explores the bounds of the physical body and the tenuousness of life in the company of the creatures who make their homes in the wildest places left in North America. Inspiring and beautifully written, this love letter to nature is a lyrical testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Winner of the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition: Adventure Travel

Download or read book The Silver Sun written by Nancy Springer and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-12-23 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As evil threatens a magical land, two brothers must find the strength and courage to stop it, in the second volume of this classic fantasy adventure series. In the Kingdom of Isle, where the Sun Kings reign with the power of the Book of the Suns, Hal and Alan are given a mission. They must use the ancient strength of wisdom to destroy the evil that plagues the kingdom. The two blood brothers venture throughout the land fighting the many forms that this evil takes so they can arrive at their destiny.