Eschewing the "great man" theory of history, Tolstoy shows how events are determined by large numbers of people whose actions coalesce at any moment in history to determine the course of events. Arguing that the closer people are to a situation the more they believe they have exercised free will, and the farther away people are from that situation the more they realize that their actions were already determined by past events, Tolstoy demonstrates...

The Twisted Sword, the eleventh novel in Winston Graham's classic Poldark saga, now a major TV series from Masterpiece PBS.

Cornwall 1815
Demelza sees a horseman riding down the valley and senses disruption to the domestic contentment she has fought so hard to achieve. For Ross has little option but to accept the summons – and travel to Paris with his family, as an 'observer' of the French armed forces.
Parisian

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Hoping to find new meaning in his life, British intelligence officer Simon Duval resigns his commission and returns to England, where he finds his cousin's widow, Suzanne Duval, the Comtesse de Chambron. Working as a seamstress, living in reduced circumstances among London's French émigré community, Suzanne has had a life as complicated as Simon's own. While both believe they are beyond love and passion, their sympathetic bond leads him to propose...

Shipwrecked and cast ashore in Japan with no memory of Temeraire or his own experiences as an English aviator, Capt. William Laurence finds himself tangled in deadly political intrigues that threaten not only his own life but England's already precarious position in the Far East.

British ship's captain Will Laurence has created an international incident by snatching a dragon's egg meant as a gift from the Chinese emperor to Napoleon. Facing hanging for his unwitting role, Laurence is now trying to return the hatched dragon to the Far East, unaware that he may be facing even worse troubles if he manages to reach the Chinese court.

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education comes the fifth volume of the Temeraire series, as Will Laurence and Temeraire struggle to reunite and face the Napoleonic army on London's doorstep.
“A story about friendship that transcends not only time and class, but species.”—NPR
For Britain, conditions are grim: Napoleon’s resurgent forces have breached the Channel and successfully...

Six years after being severely wounded in the Peninsular Wars as a cavalry officer, and three years after leaving Penderris Hall in Cornwall, where he had stayed with his fellow Survivors during his long road to recovery, Ben finally admits to himself that he will never be able to walk properly again or resume his old way of life. But he feels adrift. Although he is a wealthy man and owns a profitable estate, his brother has been running it for him...

The year is 1805 and Europe has fallen to Napoleon. The Royal Navy is the only thing standing in his way to total victory. Off the coast of South America, a new conflict is brewing. Captain Jack 'Lucky Jack' Aubrey and his Man-of-War HMS Surprise is under orders to sink or capture the French privateer Acheron, which has been deployed to the region. After seven weeks of uneventful sailing, the Acheron strikes first, all but crippling the Surprise in...

Portugal, December 1807. Jack Reid, the British agent known as the Moonflower (formerly the French agent known as the Moonflower), has been stationed in Portugal and is awaiting his new contact. He does not expect to be paired with a woman--especially not the legendary Pink Carnation. All of Portugal believes that the royal family departed for Brazil just before the French troops marched into Lisbon. Only the English government knows that mad seventy-three-year-old...

From the New York Times bestselling author comes the definitive, illustrated history of one of the greatest battles ever fought -- a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's last stand. On June 18, 1815, the armies of France, Britain, and Prussia descended upon a quiet valley south of Brussels. In the previous three days, the French army had beaten the Prussians at Ligny and fought the British to a...