Just how weak were the women of the Civil War era? What could they expect beyond marriage and childbirth in an age where infant and maternal mortality was frequent and contraception unknown? Did anyone marry for love? Could a woman divorce? What rights had the unmarried? What expectations the widows? An expert on the period, Antonia Fraser brings to life the many and various women she has encountered in her considerable research: governesses, milkmaids, fishwives, nuns, defenders of castles, courtesans, countesses, witches and widows.

    The marriage was not to be a happy one. Liselotte (known in France as Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchesse d'Orlans, or "Madame") was full of intellectual energy and moral rigor. Homesick for her native Germany, she felt temperamentally ill-suited to life at the French court. The homosexual Monsieur, deeply immersed in the pleasures and intrigues of the court, shared few of his wife's interests. Yet, for the next fifty years, Liselotte remained in France, never far from the center of one of the most glorious courts of Europe. And throughout this period, she wrote letters - sometimes as many as forty week - to her friends and relatives in Germany. It is from this extraordinary body of correspondence that A Woman's Life in the Court of the Sun King has been fashioned.As introduced and translated by Elborg Forster, the letters have become the remarkable personal narrative of Liselotte's transformation from an innocent, yet outspoken, girl into a formidable observer of great events and human folly.

    With 120 illustrations, the book is a visual delight that draws on the V&A’s unrivaled apparel collection. From a dress worn at the court of George II in the 1700s to Vivienne Westwood’s contemporary Pirates Collection, to pieces by leading designers such as Fortuny, Poiret, Charles James, and John Galliano, this book is an outstanding resource that also features a wide range of accessories, including shoes, fans, and hats.

    paintings, diagrams and sketches illustrate the arrangement of furniture, prominent architectural details, favorite loose furnishings and prevailing moods of each design era. Page after page delight the eye and spark the imagination.”—Century Home.

    And when she saved a handsome young man with a Puritan price on his head, she knew if they were caught, both would die. But neither war nor tyranny would take away the man she loved--or the house she so proudly possessed!

    In that long process, different strategies were adopted by varied Indian tribes and European colonies in order to cope with the presence of all the others. The strategy of Puritan New England was armed conquest.