Spring of the Ram

Zusatztext "Always immaculate in her research! brilliant in character descriptions! [Dunnett's] is a style second to none."  --The Washington Post Book World "Like a literary Pieter Breughel! [Dunnett] reproduces history in all its grime and glory. . . . Nothing can prepare one for this novel's roller coaster ride of thrills."   --The Christian Science Monitor "The finest living writer of historical fiction"--The Washington Post Book World Informationen zum Autor Dorothy Dunnett Klappentext With the bravura storytelling and pungent authenticity of detail she brought to her acclaimed Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett, grande dame of the historical novel, presents The House of Niccolò series. The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyer's apprentice who schemes and swashbuckles his way to the helm of a mercantile empire. In 1461, Nicholas is in Florence. Backed by none other than Cosimo de' Medici, he will sail the Black Sea to Trebizond, last outpost of Byzantium, and the last jewel missing from the crown of the Ottoman Empire. But trouble lies ahead. Nicholas's stepdaughter--at the tender age of thirteen--has eloped with his rival in trade: a Machiavellian Genoese who races ahead of Nicholas, sowing disaster at every port. And time is of the essence: Trebizond may fall to the Turks at any moment. Crackling with wit, breathtakingly paced, The Spring of the Ram is a pyrotechnic blend of scholarship and narrative shimmering with the scents, sounds, colors, and combustible emotions of the 15th century. Leseprobe Overture THE SPRING sign of the Ram is, of course, the earliest in the Zodiac; and Aries relates to the first House in the Wheel. You will have read the Divine Ptolemy on the subject. The Greeks considered the starfield of the Ram to represent the Golden Fleece sought by the heroic Jason; others called it the Ram of Ammon instead. You may now forget the whole issue. It is my business, not yours. Your business (and mine) is the star of Niccol?, whose foot I am required to set on the same quest as that of Jason. Whether I can do it, I am not at all sure. He is nineteen years old, and clever. It is clever to begin life as a dyer's apprentice in Bruges and gain control of your employer's business by marrying her. A business in Flanders is worth something. Flanders is ruled by the Duke of Burgundy, one of the richest princes in the world, and feared even by the King of France, although Charles is supposed to be Duke Philip's overlord for the lands he possesses in France. Bruges in Flanders is a world centre of trade and finance, dealing across the narrow Channel with England and Scotland (although England is embroiled in its war between Yorkist and Lancastrian). Bruges houses merchants from the republics of Venice and Genoa and from the bits of Spain that are not under Saracen rule. It lodges a branch of the House of Medici, whose head, Cosimo de' Medici, is the power in my ancestral city of Florence. It deals with representatives of Pope Pius in Rome, and the war-worried Kingdom of Naples and the prosperous Duchy of Milan, whose Duke Francesco Sforza is so anxious to win Genoa from the French. It sends goods as far away as Constantinople and Asia Minor, because it likes the luxuries it imports in return, and has moreover a need for Asian alum, the powder which fixes dye into cloth. Aries is, of course, the sign of the wool merchant. It is a pity that, intelligent as he is, Niccol? should have made so many mistakes while living in Bruges. The worst has threatened his wife and her business. He has antagonised a powerful Scottish nobleman, and must leave Bruges until the danger has lessened. But for me, he would have joined his wife's mercenary troop somewhere in Italy. It is I who have placed ...

Commentaire

"Always immaculate in her research, brilliant in character descriptions, [Dunnett's] is a style second to none."  --The Washington Post Book World

"Like a literary Pieter Breughel, [Dunnett] reproduces history in all its grime and glory. . . . Nothing can prepare one for this novel's roller coaster ride of thrills."   --The Christian Science Monitor

"The finest living writer of historical fiction"--The Washington Post Book World

Détails du produit

• Auteurs: Dorothy Dunnett
• Edition: Vintage USA
• Langues: Anglais
• Format d'édition: Livre Broché
• Sortie: 30.03.1999
• EAN: 9780375704789
• ISBN: 978-0-375-70478-9
• Pages: 496
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 205 mm x 28 mm
• Thèmes: House of Niccolo; House of Niccolo Series; House of Niccolo; House of Niccolo Series
• Catégorie: Littérature > Littérature (récits)