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A brilliant, ambitious follow–up to The Secret Lives of Buildings, in which Hollis turns his focus from the great architectural constructions of the past to the now–vanished chambers they once contained. The rooms we live in are always more than just four walls. As we decorate these spaces and fill them with objects and friends, they shape our lives and become the backdrop to our sense of self. one day, the structures will be gone, but even then, traces of the stories and the memories they contained will persist. In this dazzling work of imaginative reconstruction, edward Hollis takes us to the sites of great abodes now lost to history and piecing together the fragments that remain, re–creates their vanished chambers. From Rome's palatine to the old palace of Westminster and the petit Trianon at Versailles, from the sets of MGM studios in Hollywood to the pavilions of the Crystal palace and the author's own grandmother's sitting room, The Memory Palace is a glittering treasure trove of luminous forgotten places and the alluring people who lived in them.
For decades, eighteenth-century Paris had been declining into a baroque backwater. Spectacles at the opera, once considered fit for a king, had become "hell for the ears," wrote playwright Carlos Goldoni. Then, in 1774, with the crowning of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, Paris became one of the world's most vibrant musical centers. Austrian composer Christophe-Willibald Gluck, protege of the queen, introduced a new kind of tragic opera--dramatic, human and closer to nature. The expressive pantomime known as ballet d'action, forerunner of the modern ballet, replaced stately court dancing. Along the boulevards, people whistled lighter tunes from the Italian opera, where the queen's favorite composer, Andre Modeste Gretry, ruled supreme. This book recounts Gluck's remaking of the grand operatic tragedy--long symbolic of absolute monarchy--and the vehement quarrels between those who embraced reform and those who preferred familiar baroque tunes or the sweeter melodies of Italy. The turmoil was an important element in the ferment that led to the French Revolution and the beheading of the queen.
Winner of the Franco-British Society Book Prize 2019 'The ultimate biography of the Sun King' Simon Sebag Montefiore Louis XIV dominated his age. He extended France's frontiers into Netherlands and Germany, and established colonies overseas. The stupendous palace he built at Versailles became the envy of monarchs all over Europe. In his palaces, Louis encouraged dancing, hunting, music and gambling. He loved conversation, especially with women: the power of women in Louis's life and reign is a particular theme of this book. Louis was obsessed by the details of government but the cost of building palaces and waging continuous wars devastated the country's finances and helped set it on the path to revolution. Nevertheless, by his death, he had helped make his grandson king of Spain, where his descendants still reign, and France had taken essentially the shape it has today. King of the World is the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography of this hypnotic, flawed figure in English. It draws on all the latest research to paint a convincing and compelling portrait of a man who, three hundred years after his death, still epitomises the idea of le grand monarque.
A beautifully illustrated investigation of the life, work, and legacy of the great 17th-century landscape and garden designer Andr� Le N�tre (1613-1700), principal gardener to Louis XIV, was France's greatest landscape and garden designer. The parks created by him at Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles are the supreme examples of the French 17th-century style of garden design. He was responsible also for the central pathway through the Tuileries, which became the grand axis of Paris running to the Arc de Triomphe and on to La D�fense. This magnificent book sheds new light on the royal gardener's life and his practice as a landscape architect, engineer and art collector, and examines the leg...
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Connaissez-vous des lesbiennes célèbres ? Si la réponse est non, il n’y a rien d’étonnant. En revanche, cela en dit long sur notre société. Partant de ce constat, Sarah Jean-Jacques et Sophie Pointurier ont décidé de creuser les raisons pour lesquelles les lesbiennes sont si peu visibles. Quelle image a-t-on d’elles ? Quels obstacles rencontrent-elles au quotidien ? Quels espaces de liberté créent-elles en dehors de la norme ? Pour répondre à ces interrogations, les deux autrices sont parties à la rencontre de vingt personnalités out pour comprendre le parcours de celles qui vivent à la marge de l’hétérosexualité : Charlotte Bienaimé, Carole Cassier, Chelcie et Dal...
« Rosa s’empourpre, s’étrangle, voudrait le gifler. Landseer, passionné mais prudent, s’empare de ses mains et les porte contre son cœur. - Une lionne, une lionne dans un corps d’oiseau, murmure-t-il. » Vestale de l’art, égérie du féminisme, éprise de liberté et d’idéal, Rosa Bonheur s’imposa comme la plus célèbre artiste animalière au XIXe. Elle connut une carrière fulgurante et vécut un amour fou avec Sir Edwin Landser, le plus grand peintre et sculpteur britannique de son temps, qui nous est pour la première fois révélé. De Paris à Londres, de l’Écosse à la French Riviera, des abattoirs et bas-fonds de la capitale aux ateliers d’artistes et salons mondains jusqu’à son « sanctuaire » à Thomery, Patricia Bouchenot-Déchin nous emporte sur les traces de Rosa Bonheur au fil d’un roman virevoltant qui fait revivre l’artiste et la femme. Une fresque haute en couleur qui nous plonge dans la grande Histoire et l’intimité de Rosa Bonheur, un être de passion et de conviction.
In Herrenhausens botanischem Garten, dem Berggarten, wirkten in drei Generationen die Hofgärtner Johann Christoph Wendland (1755–1828), Heinrich Ludolph Wendland (1792–1869) und Hermann Wendland (1825–1903). Infolge ihrer reichen Forschungserträge auf dem Gebiet der Botanik sowie gartenkünstlerischer Leistungen und Erfolgen in der Pflanzenkultur, fanden sie als Hofgärtner internationale Anerkennung und begründeten den exzellenten Ruf des Berggartens. Die Hofgärtner Wendland beschritten einen außergewöhnlichen Berufsweg im Spannungsfeld zwischen Gartenkultur und Botanik, Hofdienst und Forschungsinteressen sowie politischen und berufsständischen Belangen. Ihr Werk und Wirken zeu...
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André Le Nôtre et Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie sont passés à la postérité, ils sont les figures dominantes du Grand Siècle en matière de jardins. Mais qui se souvient encore de Macé Foucher, de Laurent Périer, de Marin Trumel, d'Henry Dupuis, des Masson, des Collinot, des Le Bouteux et de tous ceux qui, anonymes ou non, ont créé, embelli et entretenu l'univers végétal de Versailles ? Comme dans les autres jardins royaux, les jardiniers en chef, aidés de quelques " garçons " choisis avec soin et de nombreux manouvriers payés " à la journée du roi ", s'activaient à de multiples activités, partagées entre le tracé des alignements, la fourniture d'arbres et de fleurs, les...