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Title: The Dream of Scipio Author: Iain Pears File Type: Mobi Subject:Fiction:Historical Description:Amazon.com ReviewLike his elegant debut, An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears's The Dream of Scipio is an inventive, gloriously detailed historical novel told from multiple viewpoints. But Pears has set himself an additional challenge by spreading his narrators over several centuries: there's the fifth century French nobleman and bishop, Manlius, a civilized man who has embraced the uncouth Christian faith in order to protect what he holds dear; an 11th-century scholar and troubadour named Olivier de Noyen, the famously ill-fated admirer of a married girl; and Julien Barneuve, an early 20th-century scholar of de Noyen who discovers, through him, a magnificent manuscript of Manlius's called The Dream of Scipio. Though all three men come from the same small Provençal town, it is this manuscript, derived from the teachings of a wise woman, that links the three narrative threads of Pears's story. At the heart of The Dream of Scipio and, one suspects, at the heart of its author, is the conflict between a classical ideal of learning and the contemplation of beauty, and the noisy, uncivilized, democratizing impulses of the Christian era. A novel of ideas like its predecessor, The Dream of Scipio is neither chilly nor didactic and doesn't shy away from depicting the costs of its narrators' unpopular devotions. --Regina MarlerFrom Publishers WeeklyCritic Harold Bloom once opined that literature is a series of misprisions, or misreadings, by writers of their predecessors. Although Pears might not have had Bloom in mind in his latest novel, the premise is an unlikely embodiment of Bloom's thesis. The story unfolds in three time frames, in each of which a man and a woman are in love, civilization itself is crumbling and Jews become the scapegoats for larger cultural anxieties. In the first scenario, Manlius is a wealthy Roman living in Provence in the empire's crepuscular 5th century. Although he has received the last echo of Hellenic wisdom, he is surrounded by believers in a nasty sect he despises Christianity but must find some means to protect Provence from the barbarians. In fighting for civilization, he becomes a bishop and the promoter, almost accidentally, of one of the West's first pogroms. In the next narrative time period, a manuscript of Manlius's poem, The Dream of Scipio, a neo-Platonic allegory, is discovered by Olivier de Noyen, a Provencal poet of the 14th century. As his 20th-century interpreter, Julien Barneuve, discovers in investigating his violent death, de Noyen was attacked because he got caught up in a political intrigue in Avignon while trying to save his love, Rebecca, from a pogrom unleashed by the Black Death. Barneuve, Pears's third protagonist, has a Jewish lover, too, but is enmeshed in the racist policies of Vichy France. Pears has a nice sense of what it means to live in a time when things fall apart, and not only the center but even the peripheries will not hold. But the readers who flocked to An Instance of the Fingerpost might not find the pages turning so fast in this less mystery-driven outing. 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Title: The Darkest Heart Author: Brenda Joyce File Type: Mobi Subject:Romance:Historical

Title: The Magic Kingdom of Landover_ Volume 2 Author: Terry Brooks File Type: Mobi Subject:Fantasy Description:Now in one thrilling volume experience the magic, the intrigue, and the exciting escapades of the final two novels in Terry Brookss spellbinding Magic Kingdom of Landover series All appears well with Ben Holiday. Hes finally secured for himself the throne of Landover, and he and his wife, the exquisite sylph Willow, are expecting their first child. But their peaceful days are numbered. The conjurer Horris Kews returns to Landover and inadvertently releases an evil sorcerer from the Tangle Box, a magic chest used by the fairy folk to imprison wayward spirits. Now free, the sorcerer traps Ben inside the boxs labyrinthine passages and plots to wreak havoc in Landover using Horris as his pawn. But Bens greatest challenge comes when Rydall, a foreign king, issues Ben an ultimatum defeat seven deadly champions, or Rydalls armies invade Landover. Complicating matters is the devastating fact that Ben and Willows young daughter has been kidnappedand her fate lies in Rydalls dangerous hands. Relying on his loyal friends, his steadfast wife, and no small amount of endurance and enchantment, Ben risks his life to save everything he loves. But this time, black magic may prove too powerful for even the most devoted heart.bThe Tangle BoxbbWitches Brewb