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Author: Rebecca Johns Publisher: Crown ISBN: 0307588467 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 306
Book Description
Was the “Blood Countess” history’s first and perhaps worst female serial killer? Or did her accusers create a violent fiction in order to remove this beautiful, intelligent, ambitious foe from the male-dominated world of Hungarian politics? In 1611, Countess Erzsébet Báthory, a powerful Hungarian noblewoman, stood helpless as masons walled her inside her castle tower, dooming her to spend her final years in solitary confinement. Her crime: the gruesome murders of dozens of female servants, mostly young girls tortured to death for displeasing their ruthless mistress. Her opponents painted her as a bloodthirsty škrata—a witch—a portrayal that would expand to grotesque proportions through the centuries. In this riveting dramatization of Erzsébet Báthory’s life, the countess tells her story in her own words, writing to her only son—a final reckoning from his mother in an attempt to reveal the truth behind her downfall. Countess Báthory describes her upbringing in one of the most powerful noble houses in Hungary, recounting in loving detail her devotion to her parents and siblings as well as the heartbreak of losing her father at a young age. She soon discovers the price of being a woman in sixteenth-century Hungary as her mother arranges her marriage to Ferenc Nádasdy, a union made with the cold calculation of a financial transaction. Young Erzsébet knows she has no choice but to accept this marriage even as she laments its loveless nature and ultimately turns to the illicit affections of another man. Seemingly resigned to a marriage of convenience and a life of surreptitious pleasure, the countess surprises even herself as she ignites a marital spark with Ferenc through the most unromantic of acts: the violent punishment of an insolent female servant. The event shows Ferenc that his wife is no trophy but a strong, determined woman more than capable of managing their vast estates during Ferenc’s extensive military campaigns against the Turks. Her naked assertion of power accomplishes what her famed beauty could not: capturing the love of her husband. The countess embraces this new role of loving wife and mother, doing everything she can to expand her husband’s power and secure her family’s future. But a darker side surfaces as Countess Báthory’s demand for virtue, obedience, and, above all, respect from her servants takes a sinister turn. What emerges is not only a disturbing, unflinching portrait of the deeds that gave Báthory the moniker “Blood Countess,” but an intimate look at the woman who became a monster.
Author: Rebecca Johns Publisher: Crown ISBN: 0307588467 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 306
Book Description
Was the “Blood Countess” history’s first and perhaps worst female serial killer? Or did her accusers create a violent fiction in order to remove this beautiful, intelligent, ambitious foe from the male-dominated world of Hungarian politics? In 1611, Countess Erzsébet Báthory, a powerful Hungarian noblewoman, stood helpless as masons walled her inside her castle tower, dooming her to spend her final years in solitary confinement. Her crime: the gruesome murders of dozens of female servants, mostly young girls tortured to death for displeasing their ruthless mistress. Her opponents painted her as a bloodthirsty škrata—a witch—a portrayal that would expand to grotesque proportions through the centuries. In this riveting dramatization of Erzsébet Báthory’s life, the countess tells her story in her own words, writing to her only son—a final reckoning from his mother in an attempt to reveal the truth behind her downfall. Countess Báthory describes her upbringing in one of the most powerful noble houses in Hungary, recounting in loving detail her devotion to her parents and siblings as well as the heartbreak of losing her father at a young age. She soon discovers the price of being a woman in sixteenth-century Hungary as her mother arranges her marriage to Ferenc Nádasdy, a union made with the cold calculation of a financial transaction. Young Erzsébet knows she has no choice but to accept this marriage even as she laments its loveless nature and ultimately turns to the illicit affections of another man. Seemingly resigned to a marriage of convenience and a life of surreptitious pleasure, the countess surprises even herself as she ignites a marital spark with Ferenc through the most unromantic of acts: the violent punishment of an insolent female servant. The event shows Ferenc that his wife is no trophy but a strong, determined woman more than capable of managing their vast estates during Ferenc’s extensive military campaigns against the Turks. Her naked assertion of power accomplishes what her famed beauty could not: capturing the love of her husband. The countess embraces this new role of loving wife and mother, doing everything she can to expand her husband’s power and secure her family’s future. But a darker side surfaces as Countess Báthory’s demand for virtue, obedience, and, above all, respect from her servants takes a sinister turn. What emerges is not only a disturbing, unflinching portrait of the deeds that gave Báthory the moniker “Blood Countess,” but an intimate look at the woman who became a monster.
Author: Lynsay Sands Publisher: Harper Collins ISBN: 0062041665 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 384
Book Description
“You can’t help but fall in love with Lynsay Sands!” —Christina Dodd New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lynsay Sands trades in highland kilts for lush ballrooms and high-waisted gowns in The Countess, the first in a brand new, sexy, laugh-out-loud funny Regency romance series. Fans of Julie Garwood, Jill Barnett, and Teresa Medeiros will adore The Countess, and sympathize with her hilarious attempts to cover up the untimely demise of her despicable husband, even as the late earl’s twin brother sets her heart aflutter. The much adored creator of the popular Argeneau vampire family paranormal romance novels, the incomparable Lynsay is equally adept at historical romance—as this wonderful Regency romp so emphatically demonstrates!
Author: Luann De Lesseps Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 9781592404681 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 280
Book Description
Provides advice on etiquette and modern social graces, covering the art of being oneself in any situation, ways to make other people comfortable, and the art of seduction.
Author: Catherine Coulter Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 9780451198501 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 422
Book Description
Catherine Coulter's revamped first novel—a gothic regency romance. The #1 New York Times bestselling author's very first novel, rewritten as a Gothic. A woman who makes the wrong choice for a husband may not live to marry the man of her dreams...
Author: Lana Popovic Publisher: Abrams ISBN: 1683356438 Category : Young Adult Fiction Languages : en Pages : 252
Book Description
“A lush and bloody historical thriller” based on the infamous real-life inspiration for Countess Dracula, a Hungarian noblewoman turned serial killer.(Kirkus Reviews) In sixteenth-century Hungary, Anna Darvulia has just begun working as a scullery maid for the young and glamorous Countess Elizabeth Báthory. When Elizabeth takes a liking to Anna, she’s vaulted to the dream role of chambermaid, a far cry from the filthy servants’ quarters below. She receives wages generous enough to provide for her family, and the Countess begins to groom Anna as her friend, confident and lover. It’s not long before Anna falls completely under the Countess’s spell—and the Countess t”akes full advantage. Isolated from her former friends, family, and fiancé, Anna realizes she’s not a friend but a prisoner of the increasingly cruel Elizabeth. Then come the murders, and Anna knows it’s only a matter of time before the Blood Countess turns on her, too. “Popovic balances lush, romantic language with gruesome imagery in this tale of innocence lost. Readers will likely be inspired to do actual research into Lady Bathory’s murderous misdeeds.” —Booklist “Popovic also touches on how a patriarchal society can drive women to extremes without letting the truly terrifying Bathory, or Anna, off the hook for their own actions.” —Kirkus Reviews “Hand to fans of dark historical fiction and powerful female characters.” —School Library Journal
Author: John Stephens Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers ISBN: 037589957X Category : Juvenile Fiction Languages : en Pages : 432
Book Description
The final book in the bestselling Books of Beginning trilogy that began with The Emerald Atlas, which the New York Times called “a new Narnia for the tween set.” The adventures of siblings Kate, Michael, and Emma come to a stunning conclusion when they must find the last Book of Beginning—the Book of Death—before the Dire Magnus does, for when all three books are united, their combined power will be unstoppable. Soon Emma is on a journey to places both worldly and otherworldly, confronting terrifying monsters and ghosts, and what is darkest within herself. As the fabric of time begins to fray, she becomes the final piece of an extraordinary puzzle. Only if she can master the powers of this most dangerous book will she, Kate, and Michael be able to save the world from the dramatic, deadly final confrontation between magical and ordinary people that the Dire Magnus has in store.
Author: Andrei Codrescu Publisher: Open Road Media ISBN: 1504015266 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 342
Book Description
A “brilliant” novel of Elizabeth Bathory, the notorious sixteenth-century Hungarian aristocrat who bathed in the blood of virgins (St. Petersburg Times). Turmoil reigns in post-Soviet Hungary when journalist Drake Bathory-Kereshtur returns from America to grapple with his family history. He’s haunted by the legacy of his ancestor, the notorious sixteenth-century Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who is said to have murdered more than 650 young virgins and bathed in their blood to preserve her youth. Interweaving past and present, The Blood Countess tells the stories of Elizabeth’s debauched and murderous reign and Drake’s fascination with the eternal clashes of faith and power, violence and beauty. Codrescu traces the captivating origins of the countess’s obsessions in tandem with the emerging political fervor of the reporter, building the narratives into an unforgettable, bloody crescendo. Taut and intense, The Blood Countess is a riveting novel that deftly straddles the genres of historical fiction, thriller, horror, and family drama.
Author: Carl Van Vechten Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 298
Book Description
Mr. Van Vechten has hitherto, often and with justice, been compared to Mr. Aldous Huxley, by reason of the insouciant flippancy of his fiction. But now he has gone beyond Huxley through the production of a story which, without ever losing wit, dexterity, an instinct for civilized charm, yet presents full-length and solidly the portraits not only of the gay countess but of the lugubrious persons whom she is fated to meet, to court, to hurt so pitifully, so inevitably. There are, one hears, accounts these days in the public prints of a banker named Dawes, of a biochemist named Brother Charlie or possibly Charley. But now the fifty or sixty thousand amiable citizens among our hundred and ten million Nordics who do not feel fulfilled in Brother Charlie or Charley, nor even in Brother Charlie's brother, may find civilized delight in a real book-"The Tattooed Countess."--The Saturday Review, Volume 1
Author: Jenny Frame Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Inc ISBN: 1626397864 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 274
Book Description
Professor of Archeology Henrietta “Harry” Knight becomes Countess of Axedale upon her father’s death and takes a sabbatical from Cambridge University to begin refurbishing the long-neglected and run-down Axedale Hall. The child of a loveless marriage, witness to her father’s infidelities and her mother’s pain, Harry has no intention of ever falling in love. Annie Brannigan is a survivor, remaining positive through hardships. As an agency housekeeper, she moves from post to post with her daughter Riley, taking care of people who have everything she will never have. Annie’s greatest wish is to find her happy ever after. Can love restore the countess’s heart and the crumbling Axedale Hall, or will the first foundations of love turn to dust?
Author: Chris Laoutaris Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 160598793X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 455
Book Description
In November 1596, a countess signed a document that would nearly destroy the career of William Shakespeare. Who was this woman who played such an instrumental, yet little known, role in Shakespeare's life? Never far from controversy when she was alive—she sparked numerous riots and indulged in acts of bribery, breaking-and-entering, and kidnapping—Lady Elizabeth Russell has been edited out of public memory, yet the chain of events she set in motion would make Shakespeare the legendary figure we all know today. Lady Elizabeth Russell’s extraordinary life made her one of the most formidable women of the Renaissance. The daughter of King Edward VI’s tutor, she blazed a trail across Elizabethan England as an intellectual and radical Protestant. And, in November 1596, she became the leader of a movement aimed at destroying the career of William Shakespeare—a plot that resulted in the closure of the Blackfriars Theatre but the construction, instead, of the Globe. Providing new pieces to this puzzle, Chris Laoutaris's rousing history reveals for the first time this startling battle against Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
Author: Rebecca Johns
Author: Rebecca Johns
Author: Lynsay Sands
Author: Luann De Lesseps
Author: Catherine Coulter
Author: Lana Popovic
Author: John Stephens
Author: Andrei Codrescu
Author: Carl Van Vechten
Author: Jenny Frame
Author: Chris Laoutaris