Great Rivals in History

Download Great Rivals in History PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Thunder Bay Press
ISBN 13 : 9781607108658
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (86 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Great Rivals in History by : Joseph Cummins

Download or read book Great Rivals in History written by Joseph Cummins and published by Thunder Bay Press. This book was released on 2013-08-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics gets personal. Rivalries have sparked some of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the world, and twenty-four of these are re-created here, among them the dynastic and religious clash of Elizabeth I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots; the jockeying for power and prestige played out by Benedict Arnold and Horatio Gates; the differing visions of nationhood that polarized Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong; and the struggle between Adolf Hitler and Ernst Roehm for control of the Nazi Party, the outcome of which set in motion the ascendancy of the Third Reich. *When history’s titans clash in a bid to become the first among equals, their actions can affect the lives of millions. *Inside you’ll find twenty-four in-depth accounts of the greatest rivals in history. Incredibly researched and utterly compelling, Great Rivals in History provides rare insight into how politics gets personal, revealing the complex forces motivating powerful leaders who have been responsible for some of the most important decisions in history.

Gods of War

Download Gods of War PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bantam
ISBN 13 : 0345547578
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (455 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Gods of War by : James Lacey

Download or read book Gods of War written by James Lacey and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hannibal vs. Scipio. Grant vs. Lee. Rommel vs. Patton. The greatest battles, commanders, and rivalries of all time come to life in this engrossing guide to the geniuses of military history. “A compelling study of military leadership.”—James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom Any meeting of genius may create sparks, but when military geniuses meet, their confrontations play out upon a vast panorama of states or civilizations at war, wielding the full destructive power of a mighty nation’s armies. Gods of War is the first single-volume, in-depth examination of the most celebrated military rivalries of all time, and of the rare, world-changing battles in which these great commanders in history matched themselves against true equals. From Caesar and Pompey deciding the fate of the Roman Republic, to Grant and Lee battling for a year during the American Civil War, to Rommel and Montgomery and Patton meeting in battle after battle as Hitler strove for European domination, these match-ups and their corresponding strategies are among the most memorable in history. A thrilling look into both the generals’ lives and their hardest-fought battles, Gods of War is also a thought-provoking analysis of the qualities that make a strong commander and a deep exploration of the historical context in which the contestants were required to wage war, all told with rousing narrative flair. And in a time when technology has made the potential costs of war even greater, it is a masterful look at how military strategy has evolved and what it will take for leaders to guide their nations to peace in the future.

Ruins and Rivals

Download Ruins and Rivals PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 9780816523979
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (239 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ruins and Rivals by : James E. Snead

Download or read book Ruins and Rivals written by James E. Snead and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2004-02-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University Ruins are as central to the image of the American Southwest as are its mountains and deserts, and antiquity is a key element of modern southwestern heritage. Yet prior to the mid-nineteenth century this rich legacy was largely unknown to the outside world. While military expeditions first brought word of enigmatic relics to the eastern United States, the new intellectual frontier was seized by archaeologists, who used the results of their southwestern explorations to build a foundation for the scientific study of the American past. In Ruins and Rivals, James Snead helps us understand the historical development of archaeology in the Southwest from the 1890s to the 1920s and its relationship with the popular conception of the region. He examines two major research traditions: expeditions dispatched from the major eastern museums and those supported by archaeological societies based in the Southwest itself. By comparing the projects of New York's American Museum of Natural History with those of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles and the Santa Fe-based School of American Archaeology, he illustrates the way that competition for status and prestige shaped the way that archaeological remains were explored and interpreted. The decades-long competition between institutions and their advocates ultimately created an agenda for Southwest archaeology that has survived into modern times. Snead takes us back to the days when the field was populated by relic hunters and eastern "museum men" who formed uneasy alliances among themselves and with western boosters who used archaeology to advance their own causes. Richard Wetherill, Frederic Ward Putnam, Charles Lummis, and other colorful characters all promoted their own archaeological endeavors before an audience that included wealthy patrons, museum administrators, and other cultural figures. The resulting competition between scholarly and public interests shifted among museum halls, legislative chambers, and the drawing rooms of Victorian America but always returned to the enigmatic ruins of Chaco Canyon, Bandelier, and Mesa Verde. Ruins and Rivals contains a wealth of anecdotal material that conveys the flavor of digs and discoveries, scholars and scoundrels, tracing the origins of everything from national monuments to "Santa Fe Style." It rekindles the excitement of discovery, illustrating the role that archaeology played in creating the southwestern "past" and how that image of antiquity continues to exert its influence today.

Rivals!

Download Rivals! PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1444320815
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (443 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rivals! by : Richard O. Davies

Download or read book Rivals! written by Richard O. Davies and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-01-28 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rivals! The Ten Greatest American Sports Rivalries of the 20th Century presents the most memorable rivalries in over a hundred years of American sports history. Examines ten of the greatest American sports rivalries of the past century, relating them to their broader historical context Includes the rivalries between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, Duke and North Carolina, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, and more Draws upon the most recent works of sport historians, as well as hundreds of books, articles, and newspaper accounts Reveals a deep understanding of American sports history and American popular culture Features 30 images that bring the rivalries vividly to life

American Nations

Download American Nations PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143122029
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis American Nations by : Colin Woodard

Download or read book American Nations written by Colin Woodard and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • A New Republic Best Book of the Year • The Globalist Top Books of the Year • Winner of the Maine Literary Award for Non-fiction Particularly relevant in understanding who voted for who during presidential elections, this is an endlessly fascinating look at American regionalism and the eleven “nations” that continue to shape North America According to award-winning journalist and historian Colin Woodard, North America is made up of eleven distinct nations, each with its own unique historical roots. In American Nations he takes readers on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, offering a revolutionary and revelatory take on American identity, and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and continue to mold our future. From the Deep South to the Far West, to Yankeedom to El Norte, Woodard (author of American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good) reveals how each region continues to uphold its distinguishing ideals and identities today, with results that can be seen in the composition of the U.S. Congress or on the county-by-county election maps of any hotly contested election in our history.

Best of Rivals

Download Best of Rivals PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Da Capo Press
ISBN 13 : 0306821362
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (68 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Best of Rivals by : Adam Lazarus

Download or read book Best of Rivals written by Adam Lazarus and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this revealing, in-depth look at the NFL's greatest quarterback controversy, Adam Lazarus takes readers into the locker room and inside the huddle to deliver the real story behind the rivalry—when Joe Montana and Steve Young battled on and off the field and forged one of the finest football dynasties of all time. From 1987 to 1994, the two future Hall of Famers spurred each other on to remarkable heights, including three Super Bowl wins and four MVP awards, and set new standards for quarterback excellence. The two men couldn't have been more different in background, personality, and playing style, and their competition created as much tension as it did greatness, forcing Montana to prove that he was still the game's best quarterback and Young to prove that he was a worthy successor. Featuring candid interviews with Montana, Young, Jerry Rice, George Seifert, and many more, Best of Rivals brings to life the story of two sports legends, the golden era of football their rivalry presided over, and the amazing legacy it produced.

The Return of Great Power Rivalry

Download The Return of Great Power Rivalry PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190080248
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Return of Great Power Rivalry by : Matthew Kroenig

Download or read book The Return of Great Power Rivalry written by Matthew Kroenig and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to answer to a central international politics: why do great powers rise and fall? It provides an innovative argument about how domestic political institutions are the key to a state's ability to amass power and influence in the international system. This text also offers a sweeping historical analysis of democratic and autocratic competitors from ancient Greece through the Cold War. This book employs a unique framework to understand and analyze the state of today's competition between the democratic United States and its autocratic competitors, Russia and China.

Rivals

Download Rivals PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Arkansas Press
ISBN 13 : 9781610753494
Total Pages : 492 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (534 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rivals by : David K. Wiggins

Download or read book Rivals written by David K. Wiggins and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sixteen original essays in this collection cover influential and famous rivalries from a variety of sports, including track and field, golf, boxing, basketball, tennis, ice skating, baseball, football, soccer, and more. The essays are diverse, but together they illustrate what is common to any rivalry: equally matched opponents that often have decidedly different backgrounds, styles, and personalities. These differences may center on race and culture, political and societal ideologies, personality, geography, or religion—a mix intensified by fans and the media. From highly publicized and emotionally charged individual competitions to bitterly fought team contests, Rivals illuminates what one-of-a-kind opponents and the passion they inspire tell us about ourselves and our society.

Rivals Unto Death

Download Rivals Unto Death PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hachette Books
ISBN 13 : 0316504963
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (165 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rivals Unto Death by : Rick Beyer

Download or read book Rivals Unto Death written by Rick Beyer and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of The Greatest Stories Never Told series, the epic history of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr's illustrious and eccentric political careers and their fateful rivalry. The famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr was the culmination of a story three decades in the making. Rivals unto Death vividly traces their rivalry back to the earliest days of the American Revolution, when Hamilton and Burr -- both brilliant, restless, and barely twenty years old -- elbowed their way onto the staff of General George Washington. The fast-moving account traces their intricate tug-of war, uncovering surprising details that led to their deadly encounter through battlefields, courtrooms, bedrooms, and the wildest presidential election in history, counting down the years to their fateful rendezvous on the dueling ground. This is politics made personal: shrill accusations, bruising collisions, and a parade of flesh and blood founders struggling--and often failing--to keep their tempers and jealousies in check. Smoldering in the background was a fundamental political divide that threatened to tear the new nation in two, and still persists to this day. The Burr and Hamilton that leap out of these pages are passionate, engaging, and utterly human characters inextricably linked together as Rivals unto Death.

The Art of Rivalry

Download The Art of Rivalry PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0812994817
Total Pages : 425 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (129 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Art of Rivalry by : Sebastian Smee

Download or read book The Art of Rivalry written by Sebastian Smee and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic Sebastian Smee tells the fascinating story of four pairs of artists—Manet and Degas, Picasso and Matisse, Pollock and de Kooning, Freud and Bacon—whose fraught, competitive friendships spurred them to new creative heights. Rivalry is at the heart of some of the most famous and fruitful relationships in history. The Art of Rivalry follows eight celebrated artists, each linked to a counterpart by friendship, admiration, envy, and ambition. All eight are household names today. But to achieve what they did, each needed the influence of a contemporary—one who was equally ambitious but possessed sharply contrasting strengths and weaknesses. Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas were close associates whose personal bond frayed after Degas painted a portrait of Manet and his wife. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso swapped paintings, ideas, and influences as they jostled for the support of collectors like Leo and Gertrude Stein and vied for the leadership of a new avant-garde. Jackson Pollock’s uninhibited style of “action painting” triggered a breakthrough in the work of his older rival, Willem de Kooning. After Pollock’s sudden death in a car crash, de Kooning assumed Pollock's mantle and became romantically involved with his late friend’s mistress. Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon met in the early 1950s, when Bacon was being hailed as Britain’s most exciting new painter and Freud was working in relative obscurity. Their intense but asymmetrical friendship came to a head when Freud painted a portrait of Bacon, which was later stolen. Each of these relationships culminated in an early flashpoint, a rupture in a budding intimacy that was both a betrayal and a trigger for great innovation. Writing with the same exuberant wit and psychological insight that earned him a Pulitzer Prize for art criticism, Sebastian Smee explores here the way that coming into one’s own as an artist—finding one’s voice—almost always involves willfully breaking away from some intimate’s expectations of who you are or ought to be. Praise for The Art of Rivalry “Gripping . . . Mr. Smee’s skills as a critic are evident throughout. He is persuasive and vivid. . . . You leave this book both nourished and hungry for more about the art, its creators and patrons, and the relationships that seed the ground for moments spent at the canvas.”—The New York Times “With novella-like detail and incisiveness [Sebastian Smee] opens up the worlds of four pairs of renowned artists. . . . Each of his portraits is a biographical gem. . . . The Art of Rivalry is a pure, informative delight, written with canny authority.”—The Boston Globe

Rivals in Power

Download Rivals in Power PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Macmillan Children's Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rivals in Power by : David Starkey

Download or read book Rivals in Power written by David Starkey and published by Macmillan Children's Books. This book was released on 1990 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Produced and illustrated in the same style as The Paston Letters, this tells the story of the 16th century through the private letters of five leading noble families.

Brothers, Rivals, Victors

Download Brothers, Rivals, Victors PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0451235835
Total Pages : 674 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (512 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Brothers, Rivals, Victors by : Jonathan W. Jordan

Download or read book Brothers, Rivals, Victors written by Jonathan W. Jordan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The intimate true story of three of the greatest American generals of World War II, and how their intense blend of comradery and competition spurred Allied forces to victory. “One of the great stories of the American military.”—Thomas E. Ricks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Generals Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton and Omar Bradley shared bonds going back decades. All three were West Pointers who pursued their army careers with a remarkable zeal, even as their paths diverged. Bradley was a standout infantry instructor, while Eisenhower displayed an unusual ability for organization and diplomacy. Patton, who had chased Pancho Villa in Mexico and led troops in the First World War, seemed destined for high command and outranked his two friends for years. But with the arrival of World War II, it was Eisenhower who attained the role of Supreme Commander, with Patton and Bradley as his subordinates. Jonathan W. Jordan’s New York Times bestselling Brothers Rivals Victors explores this friendship that waxed and waned over three decades and two world wars, a union complicated by rank, ambition, jealousy, backbiting and the enormous stresses of command. In a story that unfolds across the deserts of North Africa to the beaches of Sicily, from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge and beyond, readers are offered revealing new portraits of these iconic generals.

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes

Download The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1643131850
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (431 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes by : Graeme Davis

Download or read book The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes written by Graeme Davis and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This masterful collection of seventeen classic mystery stories, dating from 1837 to 1914, traces the earliest history of popular detective fiction. Today, the figure of Sherlock Holmes towers over detective fiction like a colossus—but it was not always so. Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin, the hero of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” anticipated Holmes’ deductive reasoning by more than forty years. In A Study in Scarlet, the first of Holmes’ adventures, Doyle acknowledged his debt to Poe—and to Émile Gaboriau, whose thief-turned-detective Monsieur Lecoq debuted in France twenty years earlier. If Rue Morgue was the first true detective story in English, the title of the first full-length detective novel is more hotly contested. Among the possibilities are two books by Wilkie Collins—The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868)—Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Trail of the Serpent (1861) or Aurora Floyd (1862), and The Notting Hill Mystery (1862-3) by the pseudonymous “Charles Felix.” As the early years of detective fiction gave way to two separate golden ages—hard-boiled tales in America and intricately-plotted “cozy” murders in Britain—and these new sub-genres went their own ways, their detectives still required the intelligence and clear-sightedness that characterized the earliest works of detective fiction: the trademarks of Sherlock Holmes, and of all the detectives featured in these pages.

Adolf Hitler Vs. Winston Churchill

Download Adolf Hitler Vs. Winston Churchill PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Gareth Stevens Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9781482422078
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (22 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Adolf Hitler Vs. Winston Churchill by : Ellis Roxburgh

Download or read book Adolf Hitler Vs. Winston Churchill written by Ellis Roxburgh and published by Gareth Stevens Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legacies of Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill stand in stark contrast. While Churchill is touted as the tenacious hero who refused to let Great Britain fall to the enemy, Hitler will forever be reviled for his oppressive dictatorship of Germany. Readers will learn what happened when these two leaders came head-to-head during World War II. Astonishing historic photographs underscore the biographical information included in the text as well as the effects of the war on Europe and the rest of the world. This valuable volume, which includes a timeline of the war's key moments, is an engaging examination of this era.

The Great Controversy

Download The Great Controversy PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1773560131
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (735 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Great Controversy by : Ellen Gould White

Download or read book The Great Controversy written by Ellen Gould White and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A foundational text in the Seventh Day Adventist church, The Great Controversy is a vision White had of the great battle between Christ and Satan throughout the ages of the early and modern church. Although the book is not held with as high esteem in Protestant circles, it still is able to outline a way of impactful theological thinking.

The Greatest Shows on Earth

Download The Greatest Shows on Earth PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Reaktion Books
ISBN 13 : 1780233981
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (82 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Greatest Shows on Earth by : Linda Simon

Download or read book The Greatest Shows on Earth written by Linda Simon and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2014-11-12 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beautifully illustrated and filled with rich historical detail and colorful anecdotes, this is a vibrant history for all those who have ever dreamed of running away to the circus, now in paperback. “Step right up!” and buy a ticket to the Greatest Show on Earth—the Big Top, containing death-defying stunts, dancing bears, roaring tigers, and trumpeting elephants. The circus has always been home to the dazzling and the exotic, the improbable and the impossible—a place of myth and romance, of reinvention, rebirth, second acts, and new identities. Asking why we long to soar on flying trapezes, ride bareback on spangled horses, and parade through the streets in costumes of glitter and gold, this captivating book illuminates the history of the circus and the claim it has on the imaginations of artists, writers, and people around the world. Traveling back to the circus’s early days, Linda Simon takes us to eighteenth-century hippodromes in Great Britain and intimate one-ring circuses in nineteenth-century Paris, where Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso became enchanted with aerialists and clowns. She introduces us to P. T. Barnum, James Bailey, and the enterprising Ringling Brothers and reveals how they created the golden age of American circuses. Moving forward to the whimsical Circus Oz in Australia and to New York City’s Big Apple Circus and the grand spectacle of Cirque du Soleil, she shows how the circus has transformed in recent years. At the center of the story are the people—trick riders and tightrope walkers, sword swallowers and animal trainers, contortionists and clowns—that created the sensational, raucous, and sometimes titillating world of the circus.

The Rivals of Versailles

Download The Rivals of Versailles PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501102990
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (11 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Rivals of Versailles by : Sally Christie

Download or read book The Rivals of Versailles written by Sally Christie and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "And you thought sisters were a thing to fear. In this scandalous follow-up to Sally Christie's clever and absorbing debut, we meet none other than the Marquise de Pompadour, one of the greatest beauties of her generation and the first bourgeois mistress ever to grace the hallowed halls of Versailles. I write this before her blood is even cold. She is dead, suddenly, from a high fever. The King is inconsolable, but the way is now clear. The way is now clear. The year is 1745. Marie-Anne, the youngest of the infamous Nesle sisters and King Louis XV's most beloved mistress, is gone, making room for the next Royal Favorite. Enter Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, a stunningly beautiful girl from the middle classes. Fifteen years prior, a fortune teller had mapped out young Jeanne's destiny: she would become the lover of a king and the most powerful woman in the land. Eventually connections, luck, and a little scheming pave her way to Versailles and into the King's arms. All too soon, conniving politicians and hopeful beauties seek to replace the bourgeois interloper with a more suitable mistress. As Jeanne, now the Marquise de Pompadour, takes on her many rivals--including a lustful lady-in-waiting; a precocious fourteen-year-old prostitute, and even a cousin of the notorious Nesle sisters--she helps the king give himself over to a life of luxury and depravity. Around them, war rages, discontent grows, and France inches ever closer to the Revolution. Enigmatic beauty, social climber, actress, trendsetter, patron of the arts, spendthrift, whoremonger, friend, lover, foe. History books may say many things about the famous Marquise de Pompadour, but one thing is clear: for almost twenty years, she ruled France and the King's heart. Told in Christie's witty and modern style, this second book in the Mistresses of Versailles trilogy will delight and entrance fans as it once again brings to life the world of eighteenth century Versailles in all its pride, pestilence and glory"--