Rebecca Hazell

The Bianchis and Morellis have never been able to let go of their complex past. Years ago, Carlo Morelli's obsessive lust for Marie Helene Bianchi caused chaos between the two families, leaving scars that would last a lifetime. Now, their children-once friends-are caught up in a web of old rivalries, forbidden passions, and secrets waiting to surface. A surprising encounter ten years after Mathias Morelli's mysterious disappearance brings back old memories-and unresolved emotions-for Sonata Bianchi. Caught between anger and rekindled passion, she's drawn back into the turmoil of their families' painful history. As Sonata and Mathias navigate their own relationship, they must confront the unresolved conflicts between their families and break free from the chains of the past.

The Bianchis and Morellis have never been able to let go of their complex past. Years ago, Carlo Morelli's obsessive lust for Marie Helene Bianchi caused chaos between the two families, leaving scars that would last a lifetime. Now, their children-once friends-are caught up in a web of old rivalries, forbidden passions, and secrets waiting to surface. A surprising encounter ten years after Mathias Morelli's mysterious disappearance brings back old memories-and unresolved emotions-for Sonata Bianchi. Caught between anger and rekindled passion, she's drawn back into the turmoil of their families' painful history. As Sonata and Mathias navigate their own relationship, they must confront the unresolved conflicts between their families and break free from the chains of the past.

By the sixth century, the Roman Empire is already lost to tribal invasions, brutal Merovingian Franks have seized Gaul from the civilized Romanized Visigoths, and a dark age has descended across Europe. Now a deadly rivalry arises between two Merovingian queens. Brunhilda and Fredegunda are equals in beauty and intelligence, but opposite in vision and temperament. When the Franks demand a royal bride, Visigoth Brunhilda marries into a world that despises women. Suddenly thrust into power and repeatedly facing loss and grief, she seeks to revive a new Rome based on justice and prosperity. Her implacable foe, Fredegunda, is a former slave concubine who lives only for personal power. Insanely jealous of high-born Brunhilda, she uses seduction, assassination, war, and even witchcraft in her campaign to destroy her. Can Brunhilda survive this onslaught of evil? Can her vision survive?

By the sixth century, the Roman Empire is already lost to tribal invasions, brutal Merovingian Franks have seized Gaul from the civilized Romanized Visigoths, and a dark age has descended across Europe. Now a deadly rivalry arises between two Merovingian queens. Brunhilda and Fredegunda are equals in beauty and intelligence, but opposite in vision and temperament. When the Franks demand a royal bride, Visigoth Brunhilda marries into a world that despises women. Suddenly thrust into power and repeatedly facing loss and grief, she seeks to revive a new Rome based on justice and prosperity. Her implacable foe, Fredegunda, is a former slave concubine who lives only for personal power. Insanely jealous of high-born Brunhilda, she uses seduction, assassination, war, and even witchcraft in her campaign to destroy her. Can Brunhilda survive this onslaught of evil? Can her vision survive?

Of all the French epigrammatic writers, La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) is at once the most widely known and the most distinguished. Voltaire said: "One of the works that most largely contributed to form the taste of the French] nation, and to diffuse a spirit of justice and precision, is the collection of maxims by Fran ois, duc de La Rochefoucauld; though there is scarcely more than one truth running through the book-that 'self-love is the motive of everything'-yet, this thought is presented under so many varied aspects that it is nearly always striking." And Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to his son: "Till you come to know mankind by your own experience, I know no thing nor no man that can in the meantime bring you so well acquainted with them as La Rochefoucauld: his little book of Maxims, which I would advise you to look into, for some moments at least, every day of your life, is, I fear, too like and too exact a picture of human nature. I own it seems to degrade it, but yet my experience does not convince me that it degrades it unjustly." The Maxims were first published in 1665, under the title "Reflections or sentences and moral maxims"; and the edition of 1678, the fifth, from which the text has been used for the present translation, was the last revised by the author and published in his lifetime (with maxims numbered 1 to 504). Maxims which appeared in previous editions and were suppressed by La Rochefoucauld can be found in the second part, entitled "Maxims withdrawn by the author", here numbered 505 to 583. The French original of this bilingual edition was reviewed by Philippe Renaud. The English translation, originally by John William Willis-Bund and James Hain Friswell, has been thoroughly revised by Rebecca Hazell and Philippe Renaud.

In the finale of Sofia's memoir, Consolamentum, both dramatic and poignant, her dreams of home are shattered when her own family betrays her. Raising her child on her own, mourning the loss of her beloved knight, and building a trading empire, she seeks safe haven for her child and herself. Her quest takes her from Antioch to Constantinople to Venice. A surprise reunion in Venice leads her to France where she runs afoul of the newly established Holy Inquisition, possibly the greatest challenge she has yet faced. Can a woman so marked by oppression, betrayal, and danger ever find her safe haven, much less genuine happiness?