Niccolo Rising

Download or read book Niccolo Rising written by Dorothy Dunnett and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-08-11 with total page 764 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this first book of The House of Niccolò series, the author of the Lymond Chronicles introduces a new hero, Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyer's apprentice who schemes and swashbuckles his way to the helm of a mercantile empire. 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. Niccolò Rising, Book One of the series, finds us in Bruges, 1460. Jousting is the genteel pastime, and successful merchants are, of necessity, polyglot. Street smart, brilliant at figures, adept at the subtleties of diplomacy and the well-timed untruth, Dunnett's hero rises from wastrel to prodigy in a breathless adventure that wins him the hand of the strongest woman in Bruges and the hatred of two powerful enemies. From a riotous and potentially murderous carnival in Flanders, to an avalanche in the Alps and a pitched battle on the outskirts of Naples, Niccolò Rising combines history, adventure, and high romance in the tradition stretching from Alexandre Dumas to Mary Renault.

Download or read book The Spring of the Ram written by Dorothy Dunnett and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2000-01-27 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1461, the mysterious enigmatic 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 step-daughter - 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 tot he Turks at any moment. Crackling with wit, breathtakingly paced, THE SPRING OF THE RAM is a pyro technic blend of scholarship and narrative shimmering with the scents, sounds, colors and combustible emotions of the 15th century.

Download or read book The Unicorn Hunt written by Dorothy Dunnett and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 1999-06-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Niccolo 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. Scotland, 1468: a nation at the edge of Europe, a civilization on the threshold of the Modern Age. Merchants, musicians, politicians, and pageantry fill the court of King James III. In its midst, Nicholas seeks to avenge his bride's claim that she carries the bastard of his archenemy, Simon St. Pol. When she flees before Nicholas can determine whether or not the rumored child is his own—or exists at all—Nicholas gives chase. So begins the deadly game of cat and mouse that will lead him from the infested cisterns of Cairo to the misted canals of Venice at carnival. Breathlessly paced, sparkling with wit. The Unicorn Hunt confirms Dorothy Dunnett as the genre's finest practitioner.

Download or read book The Dorothy Dunnett Companion written by Elspeth Morrison and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dorothy Dunnett has earned worldwide acclaim for the masterful blending of historical fact and imagination in her two series of novels set in brilliantly reconstructed fifteenth- and sixteenth-century landscapes. The Dorothy Dunnett Companion II is an encyclopedic resource that completes and expands the reach of the first Companion in documenting the historical and literary riches of Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolo novels. In this second guide, Elspeth Morrison not only covers the final three Niccolo novels for the first time, but also provides a wealth of additional information about all of the earlier novels and highlights the links between the two now-completed series. Once again, she illuminates the real figures and events and the cultural and literary allusions Dunnett weaves into her works, translating foreign phrases and offering up fascinating background details, from the history of golf and the argot of galley slaves to the uses of puffins and polar bears. Together with the first Companion, The Dorothy Dunnett Companion II provides a complete and essential guide to the world of Lymond and Niccolo.

Download or read book Race Of Scorpions written by Dorothy Dunnett and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 1990 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the third book in the "House of Niccolo" series. Set in 15th-century Cyprus, this novel continues the saga of Nicholas van der Poel, international mercenary who started out as a dyer's apprentice, as he plays for the highest stakes with the greatest super-powers in Europe.

Download or read book King Hereafter written by Dorothy Dunnett and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 880 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A storyteller who could teach Scheherazade a thing or two about pace, suspense and imaginative invention'New York Times THE REAL MACBETH . . . It is the eleventh century and in the isles of Orkney a young boy is born. He is named Thorfinn, baptized as Macbeth. To the north are the warring Vikings and south lies Alba - the Scottish mainland. Orkney is the prize in between, and an unlikely place from which a young man might launch a bid as ruler of a united Scotland. Yet Thorfinn is unlike other men. He has a warrior's courage and the wiliness of the underdog. By his side stands his wife Groa, as shrewd and valiant as her husband. Together they will navigate the treacherous waters of the new millennium, uniting a divided nation and birthing a legend that will survive a thousand years. Thorfinn Macbeth will be King Hereafter . . . 'Stunning' Washington Post

Download or read book Caprice And Rondo written by Dorothy Dunnett and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2000-03-30 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The exquisitely-researched standalone prequel series to Dorothy Dunnett's revered Lymond Chronicles, following the ancestors of Francis Crawford of Lymond in Continental Europe. Caprice and Rondo is Book Seven in The House of Niccolo series. ----------------------------- 'A companionable fellow who now spends his time raising hell . . .' Winter, 1473, and Nicholas de Fleury's schemes have at last caught up with him, costing everything - friends, family and firm. Losing himself in the icy port of Danzig, he drinks and fights, but most of all he forgets. Meanwhile, his wife Gelis, bruised from their years of dueling, sets off to find out the truth of her husband's lost parentage - and discovers a traitor within Nicholas's close circle of friends. As Nicholas is drawn eastwards in a search for the lost gold to restore his fortunes, so the titanic forces he has long-attempted to marshal for his own ends reach out to exact a terrible price of their own . . . 'The best historical novelist since Sir Walter Scott' Sunday Times