An enthralling biography about one of the most intriguing women of the Victorian age: the first self-invented international social celebrity. Lola Montez was one of the most celebrated and notorious women of the nineteenth century. A raven-haired Andalusian who performed her scandalous "Spider Dance" in the greatest performance halls across Europe, she dazzled and beguiled all who met her with her astonishing beauty, sexuality, and shocking disregard for propriety. But Lola was an impostor, a self-invention. Born Eliza Gilbert, the beautiful Irish wild child escaped a stifling marriage and reimagined herself as Lola the Sevillian flamenco dancer and noblewoman, choosing a life of adventure, fame, sex, and scandal rather than submitting to the strictures of her era. Lola cast her spell on the European aristocracy and the most famous intellectuals and artists of the time, including Alexandre Dumas, Franz Liszt, and George Sand, and became the obsession of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. She then set out for the New World, arriving in San Francisco at the height of the gold rush, where she lived like a pioneer and performed for rowdy miners before making her way to New York. There, her inevitable downfall was every bit as dramatic as her rise. Yet there was one final reinvention to come for the most defiant woman of the Victorian age--a woman known as a "savage beauty" who was idolized, romanticized, vilified, truly known by no one, and a century ahead of her time.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The king had a weakness for beautiful women, and he had been an incorrigible ladies’ man. He had kept tabs on his lover’s adventures through the years, after she had been forced to flee Bavaria and then had become an international celebrity. #2 Lola Montez was born in 1821 in the town of Grange, Ireland. She was a healthy, cheerful girl with lovely features much like her mother’s. She was taken care of by her father, an ensign in the British army, who married her mother when she was just 14. #3 When his daughter was born, Edward looked for a better-paid position that would offer greater opportunities for advancement. He traded his post in County Sligo for one in India. When the ship arrived at Diamond Harbour, Edward was informed that his unit had already left for the garrison of Dinapore, near the Nepalese border. #4 The journey was a difficult one for Edward’s unit. They were near Patna, some four hundred miles upriver on the Ganges, which they would have to travel on small, triangular-sailed boats. The heat and the stench of the pestilent wetlands would accompany them throughout the entire journey.

Traces the life of the Anglo-Irish woman who recreated herself as Spanish noblewoman Lola Montez and later became the mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria

Vodou is among the most misunderstood and maligned of the world's religions. "Mama Lola" shatters the stereotypes by offering an intimate portrait of Vodou in everyday life. Drawing on a decade-long friendship with Mama Lola, a Vodou priestess, Brown tells tales spanning five generations of Vodou healers in Mama Lola's family. 46 illustrations.

In a sequel to True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, teen movie star Morgan Carter, after her true identity is exposed, must choose between staying in the Midwest with her new boyfriend, or returning to her glamorous life. Reprint.

By inhaling deeply God's love, grace, mercy, and so much more and then exhaling our praise to Him, we realize that a rich, abundant life is not about doing better but about recognizing that God is better. We breathe because God gives us breath! We exist because God permits us! To inhale and exhale life is beyond a gift, it is an invitation to embrace a divine initiative that ushers promises of eternity to the here and now. Many seem to be grasping for so much more in life. They long for a deeper reality of the eternal but continue to face frustration, failure, and fatal realities. Breathe Again is for anyone who is exhausted from their routine lives. For anyone whose rhythm of life is crying out for a fresh wind, a fresh voice, a fresh reality of divine calling and purpose. For those exhausted from their personal efforts to keep the family going in the right direction, to run that company, to lead that congregation, or to impact their campus. Breathe Again is more than a motivational resource that simply challenges people to be more dedicated, disciplined, or devoted. Ed Newton helps readers realize a rich, abundant Christian life is not about doing better; instead, it's all about recognizing that God is better. He is better than all our empty attempts to create new and improved selves. Just as our Creator did when He breathed life into Adam, when He brought Scripture to life, or when Jesus breathed out His last breath so we could breathe in His salvation, God's supernatural intent and desire is to breathe upon your life for the purpose of a divine awakening.

book of poetry