Venus in Copper

Author: Lindsey Davis
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0099515075
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
In the heyday of the Roman Empire a small accounting error has left Marcus Didius Falco sharing a cell with a large rat. But the Empire's most hard-done-by investigator is sprung from jail and accepts a commission to help a family of freed slaves fend off a professional bribe.

The Silver Pigs

Author: Lindsey Davis
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 1429956933
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
The Silver Pigs is Lindsey Davis' classic novel, which introduced readers around the world to Marcus Didius Falco, a private informer with a knack for trouble, a tendency for bad luck, and a frequently inconvenient drive for justice. When Marcus Didius Falco, a Roman "informer" who has a nose for trouble that's sharper than most, encounters Sosia Camillina in the Forum, he senses immediately all is not right with the pretty girl. She confesses to him that she is fleeing for her life, and Falco makes the rash decision to rescue her—a decision he will come to regret. For Sosia bears a heavy burden: as heavy as a pile of stolen Imperial ingots, in fact. Matters just get more complicated when Falco meets Helena Justina, a Senator's daughter who is connected to the very same traitors he has sworn to expose. Soon Falco finds himself swept from the perilous back alleys of Ancient Rome to the silver mines of distant Britain—and up against a cabal of traitors with blood on their hands and no compunction whatsoever to do away with a snooping plebe like Falco....

The Iron Hand of Mars

Author: Lindsey Davis
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 1429982985
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
When Germanic troops in the service of the Empire begin to rebel, and a Roman general disappears, Emperor Vespasian turns to the one man he can trust: Marcus Didius Falco, a private informer whose rates are low enough that even the stingy Vespasian is willing to pay them. To Falco, an undercover tour of Germania is an assignment from Hades. On a journey that only a stoic could survive, Falco meets with disarray, torture, and murder. His one hope: in the northern forest lives a powerful Druid priestess who perhaps can be persuaded to cease her anti-Rome activities and work for peace. Which Falco is eagerly hoping for as, back in Rome, the Titus Caesar is busy trying to make time with Helena Justina, a senator's daughter and Falco's girlfriend. Lindsey Davis' historical mystery Iron Hand of Mars is a "Seamless blending of humor, history and adventure" (Publishers Weekly).

Shadows in Bronze

Author: Lindsey Davis
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 1429950684
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 584

Book Description
It's the first century A.D. and Marcus Didius Falco, Ancient Rome's favorite son and sometime palace spy, has just been dealt a lousy blow from the gods: The beautiful, high-born Helena Justina has left him in the dust. So when the Emperor Vespasian calls upon him to investigate an act of treason, Falco is more than ready for a distraction. Disguised as an idle vacationer in the company of his best friend Petronius, Falco travels from the Isle of Capreae to Neapolis and all the way to the great city of Pompeii...where a whole new series of Herculean events—involving yet another conspiracy, and a fateful meeting with his beloved Helena—are about to erupt.... Lindsey Davis' Shadows in Bronze is historical mystery at its best.

Time to Depart

Author: Lindsey Davis
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 146685748X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Book Description
Petronius Longus, captain of the Aventine watch and Falco's oldest friend, has finally nailed one of Rome's top criminals. Under Roman law, citizens are not imprisoned but are allowed "time to depart" into exile outside the Empire. One dark and gloomy dawn, Petro and Falco put the evil Balbinus aboard a ship. But soon after, an outbreak of robbery and murder suggests a new criminal ring has moved into Balbinus's territory. Petro and Falco must descend into the underworld of Vespasian's Rome to investigate.

Three Hands In The Fountain

Author: Lindsey Davis
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446455165
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
Another engrossing historical mystery bringing Ancient Rome to life in all its gruesome glory from the pen of multimillion-copy bestselling author Lindsey Davis. Fans of S. J. Parris, Donna Leon, Steven Saylor and C. J. Sansom will not be disappointed... ____________________________________ 'Uniquely entertaining' - Time Out 'Bizarre, funny and satisfying!' - Irish Times 'As always, Davis wears her research lightly, bringing Ancient Rome to vivid life in a series of delicious vignettes' - Val McDermid 'Exciting and gripping' - ***** Reader review 'I love this book. What an amazing author and what an amazing series!!' - ***** Reader review 'Another excellent Falco book that is impossible to put down' - ***** Reader review 'Well written, humourous, interesting and a great read!' - ***** Reader review _________________________________ A SERIAL KILLER STALKS THE GAMES 'The fountain was not working. Nothing unusual in that...' Marcus Didius Falco and his laddish friend Petronius find their local fountain has been blocked - by a gruesomely severed human hand. Soon other body parts are being found in the aqueducts and sewers. Public panic overcomes official indifference, and the Aventine partners are commissioned to investigate. Women are being abducted during festivals, with the next Games only days away. As the heat rises in the Circus Maximus, they face a race against time and a strong test of their friendship. They know the sadistic killer lurks somewhere on the festive streets of Rome - preparing to strike again...

Hottentot Venus

Author: Barbara Chase-Riboud
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307426289
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
It is Paris, 1815. An extraordinarily shaped South African girl known as the Hottentot Venus, dressed only in feathers and beads, swings from a crystal chandelier in the duchess of Berry’s ballroom. Below her, the audience shouts insults and pornographic obscenities. Among these spectators is Napoleon’s physician and the most famous naturalist in Europe, the Baron George Cuvier, whose encounter with her will inspire a theory of race that will change European science forever. Evoking the grand tradition of such “monster” tales as Frankenstein and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Barbara Chase Riboud, prize-winning author of the classic Sally Hemings, again gives voice to an “invisible” of history. In this powerful saga, Sarah Baartman, for more than 200 years known only as the mysterious lady in the glass cage, comes vividly and unforgettably to life.

Venus and the Arts of Love in Renaissance Florence

Author: Rebekah Compton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108916058
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 637

Book Description
In this volume, Rebekah Compton offers the first survey of Venus in the art, culture, and governance of Florence from 1300 to 1600. Organized chronologically, each of the six chapters investigates one of the goddess's alluring attributes – her golden splendor, rosy-hued complexion, enchanting fashions, green gardens, erotic anatomy, and gifts from the sea. By examining these attributes in the context of the visual arts, Compton uncovers an array of materials and techniques employed by artists, patrons, rulers, and lovers to manifest Venusian virtues. Her book explores technical art history in the context of love's protean iconography, showing how different discourses and disciplines can interact in the creation and reception of art. Venus and the Arts of Love in Renaissance Florence offers new insights on sight, seduction, and desire, as well as concepts of gender, sexuality, and viewership from both male and female perspectives in the early modern era.

Venus and Aphrodite

Author: Bettany Hughes
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 1541674243
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
A cultural history of the goddess of love, from a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian. Aphrodite was said to have been born from the sea, rising out of a froth of white foam. But long before the Ancient Greeks conceived of this voluptuous blonde, she existed as an early spirit of fertility on the shores of Cyprus -- and thousands of years before that, as a ferocious warrior-goddess in the Middle East. Proving that this fabled figure is so much more than an avatar of commercialized romance, historian Bettany Hughes reveals the remarkable lifestory of one of antiquity's most potent myths. Venus and Aphrodite brings together ancient art, mythology, and archaeological revelations to tell the story of human desire. From Mesopotamia to modern-day London, from Botticelli to Beyoncé, Hughes explains why this immortal goddess continues to entrance us today -- and how we trivialize her power at our peril.

Joachim Wtewael

Author: Anne W. Lowenthal
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 0892363045
Category : Mars (Roman deity)
Languages : en
Pages : 96

Book Description
The Dutch history painter Joachim Wtewael is widely admired for his astonishing small paintings on copper. The Getty Museum's Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan is one of his finest works in this unusually demanding medium. Though only eight inches high, this Mannerist painting contains eleven figures in three different spaces, captured in a dramatically charged moment from the famous story told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. The author's detailed analysis of Wtewael's painting also serves as a fine introduction to Dutch art of the Golden Age. Illustrated with seventy reproductions of paintings, drawings, etchings, and decorative objects, Anne W. Lowenthal's study ranges over the broad historical and cultural context in which Mars and Venus was created.