Rudolf II, king of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, is paranoid, spendthrift, and wayward. In sixteenth-century Prague, seat of Christendom, he rules over an empty treasury and a court of parasites and schemers. Meanwhile in the ghetto, the Great Rabbi, mystic and seer, guides his people in the uneasy cohabitation of Jew and Christian, while the fabulously wealthy financier Mordechai Meisl has a hand in transactions across Europe and is reputed to be sustaining the treasury. His beautiful w...

INTRODUCED BY JAN MORRIS'[This] gloriously ornate account of that epic journey is a classic' ROBERT MACFARLANE'The feeling of being lost in time and geography with months and years hazily sparkling ahead is a prospect of inconjecturable magic.'In 1933, aged eighteen, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on his 'great trudge', a year-long journey by foot from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul. Three decades later he wrote ...

The acclaimed travel writer's youthful journey - as an 18-year-old - across 1930s Europe by foot began in A Time of Gifts, which covered the author's exacting journey from the Lowlands as far as Hungary. Picking up from the very spot on a bridge across the Danube where his readers last saw him, we travel on with him across the great Hungarian Plain on horseback, and over the Romanian border to Transylvania.The trip was an exploration of a continent which was already showin...

A self-confessed liar spins a fascinating tale of his life in this "comic and brilliantly baffling" historical novel by the author of The Name of the Rose ( The Guardian, UK).Constantinople, 1204. The Byzantine capital is under siege by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors—and proceeds to regale h...

Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrativ...

**An early-twentieth-century classic — the turbulent, dreamlike story of a businessman torn between middle-class respectability and sensational bohemia“No one who has read it has failed to love it.” — Nicholas Lezard**Mihály and Erzsi are on honeymoon in Italy. Mihály has recently joined the respectable family firm in Budapest, but as his gaze passes over the mysterious back-alleys of Venice, memories of his bohemian past reawaken his old desire to wander.When bride...

Published in 1860 Max Havelaar by Multatuli brought about a phenomenal change to the literature of Netherlands. It is an indictment of the Dutch colonial policies of 1850s that were designed to exploit the native Indonesian masses. With some autobiographical elements the novel satirizes the social setup of the Dutch people. Although the novel addresses issues of a bygone era it is still hailed widely for its literary styles and expression of thought.

Step back in time to the bustling heart of the Roman Empire with Jerome Carcopino's "Daily Life in Ancient Rome." This classic work offers an unparalleled glimpse into the intricacies of Roman society at its zenith, vividly detailing the lives of emperors, senators, merchants, and the enslaved alike. Carcopino meticulously reconstructs the rhythms of daily existence, from the morning rituals in Roman homes to the clamor of the Forum, the spectacles of the Colosseum, and the complexities of...

A spy uncovers a political plot in 18tn century Vienna in this sequel to the acclaimed historical thriller Secretum—"another tour-de-force of derring do" ( Historical Novel Society).Vienna, 1711. Atto Melani, a spy in the service of Louis XIV, arranges for his faithful helper to relocate from a Roman slum to the imperial court in Vienna. There, Atto enlists his help in a secret mission to bring about the end of the war between France and A...

Discover the richly imagined world of Orsinia in this early historical fiction novel by the author of the Earthsea series—now featuring a chronology of Le Guin’s life and careerIn a career spanning half a century, Ursula K. Le Guin has produced a body of work that testifies to her abiding faith in the power and art of words. She is perhaps best known for imagining future intergalactic worlds in brilliant books that challenge our ideas of what is natural and inevita...

From 1573 to 1617, Master Franz Schmidt was the executioner for the towns of Bamberg and Nuremberg. During that span, he personally executed more than 350 people while keeping a journal throughout his career.A Hangman’s Diary is not only a collection of detailed writings by Schmidt about his work, but also an account of criminal procedure in Germany during the Middle Ages. With analysis and explanation, editor Albrecht Keller and translators C. Calvert and A. W. Gruner hav...