The Syrian desert. Third century AD. Zenobia, warrior Queen of Palmyra, moves her forces into battle with Aurelian, Emperor of Rome. Meanwhile, her son is engaged in bizarre chemical experiments with Porphyry, a philosophy student with his own secret.A story of love and adventure at the time of the decline of Imperial Rome as Zenobia makes a stand for independence against the Empire.Zenobia was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and premiered at the Young Vi...

The Hogarth Plays catch one of England's most celebrated artists at two crucial points in his career: once at the beginning, and once at the end.In The Art of Success the events of ten tumultuous years are compressed into a single night, as newlywed William Hogarth makes his way through eighteenth-century London's high society and its debauched underworld. The play was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 198...

This first collection of Nick Dear's work for the stage displays the breadth and achievement of one of the most talented and inventive dramatists writing in Britain today. The volume contains two of his re-workings of eighteenth-century history, The Art of Success and In the Ruins, his intelligent and original political parable Zenobia and his chilling adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw.

Some say power's an illusion. But Louis is the master of illusion. He has turned government into a spectacle, politics into a circus.Nick Dear's new play on the origins of the Sun King is a dark and dazzling tale of ambition, corruption and illusion. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London, in June 2003.

The epic tale of wrongful imprisonment, adventure and revenge, in its definitive translationThrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to use the treasure to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas' epic tale of suffering and retribu...

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadA popular bestseller since its publication in 1844, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the great page-turning thrillers of all time. Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, Alexandre Dumas’s grand historical romance recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantès, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason. The story of his long impr...

These are difficult times for Nicolas Le Floch: Louis XV is dead and Nicolas's boss Sartine has been promoted to Minister of State for the Navy.Le Noir, Sartine's successor as Lieutenant General of Police, distrusts Le Floch. Monsieur de Saint-Florentin, the King's new minister, entrusts Commissioner Le Floch with the investigation into the murder of a chambermaid whose throat was cut in unusual circumstances at Saint-Florentin's home.His inquiry takes place both in Paris an...

May 1770Paris is in mourning.At the firework display marking the Dauphin's marriage to Marie Antoinette, hundreds of people have been injured or crushed to death. Yet not all the victims died accidentally . . .The tragic incident on Place Louis XV yields a new case for Commissioner Le Floch when a strangled woman is found amongst the other corpses. The investigation takes him to the home of a furrier on Rue Royale and a terrifying encounter with super...

This gossipy account of Louis XIV is a clear and fascinating historical biography from Nancy Mitford.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY STELLA TILLYARDDuring his reign Louis XIV was the most powerful king in Europe. He presided over a golden age of military and artistic achievement in France, and deployed his charm and talents for spin and intrigue to hold his court and country within his absolute control. The Sun King's universe centred on Versailles, a glittering pa...

The Grandet family is violently out of the ordinary, since the sudden arrival of his late Cousin Charles Eugenie, recently orphaned and without money. Eugenie's emotional awakening, stimulated by her love for her cousin, leads to a direct conflict with her father, whose smart and financial success matched her determination to rebel. The moving story of Eugenie is placed in the background of provincial oppression and the functioning of the financial system following the French Revolution. I...

January 1774Commissioner Le Floch's lover, socialite Julie de Lastérieux, is found murdered in her bed, a victim of poisoning.Nicolas retains the confidence of those closest to him, and is even sent by Louis XV to London on a secret mission. But a plot is afoot to implicate Le Floch in Julie 's death, and he faces the toughest challenge of his career as he fights to clear his name and bring the real murderer to justice.

Commissioner Nicolas Le Floch is on a diplomatic mission to Vienna, ostensibly to deliver a bust of Marie Antoinette to her mother, the Empress Maria Theresa. His real task, however, is to investigate the breakdown of French secret intelligence in Austria. The city is a hotbed of plotting - and Nicolas only just survives an attempt on his life.On his return to France, Paris is in turmoil. The soaring price of grain and bread is causing widespread social unrest, an...