He's been her obsession throughout her young life. Yet to seventeen-year-old Marie Vetsera, he i smore than that - he is her destiny. But Crown Prince Rudolf of Austro-Hungary, heir to the throne, a man of the world, much older than Marie and disease-ravaged from his indiscriminate liasons, moves in the upper circles of society to which she, of minor aristocracy, can barely aspire. Through sheer stubbornness, however and maybe a touch of the spoiled child who has always got everything she wanted, the girl succeeds in making a fateful meeting with him happen; an encounter that leads to a passionate not-so-secret affair, one marked, one marked, on her side at least, by total adoration. But all is not right in the world. There is a darker side to Rudolf's life, in which he ultimately sees only one way out.

“Reads like a novel. A fast-paced page-turner, it has everything: sex, wit, humor, and adventures. But it is an impressively researched and important story.” —David Fromkin, author of Europe’s Last Summer Vienna, 1814 is an evocative and brilliantly researched account of the most audacious and extravagant peace conference in modern European history. With the feared Napoleon Bonaparte presumably defeated and exiled to the small island of Elba, heads of some 216 states gathered in Vienna to begin piecing together the ruins of his toppled empire. Major questions loomed: What would be done with France? How were the newly liberated territories to be divided? What type of restitution would be offered to families of the deceased? But this unprecedented gathering of kings, dignitaries, and diplomatic leaders unfurled a seemingly endless stream of personal vendettas, long-simmering feuds, and romantic entanglements that threatened to undermine the crucial work at hand, even as their hard-fought policy decisions shaped the destiny of Europe and led to the longest sustained peace the continent would ever see. Beyond the diplomatic wrangling, however, the Congress of Vienna served as a backdrop for the most spectacular Vanity Fair of its time. Highlighted by such celebrated figures as the elegant but incredibly vain Prince Metternich of Austria, the unflappable and devious Prince Talleyrand of France, and the volatile Tsar Alexander of Russia, as well as appearances by Ludwig van Beethoven and Emilia Bigottini, the sheer star power of the Vienna congress outshone nearly everything else in the public eye. An early incarnation of the cult of celebrity, the congress devolved into a series of debauched parties that continually delayed the progress of peace, until word arrived that Napoleon had escaped, abruptly halting the revelry and shrouding the continent in panic once again. Vienna, 1814 beautifully illuminates the intricate social and political intrigue of this history-defining congress–a glorified party that seemingly valued frivolity over substance but nonetheless managed to drastically reconfigure Europe’s balance of power and usher in the modern age.

The Vienna in which Franz Schubert lived for the thirty-one years of his life was not just a city of music, dance, and coffeehouses - a centre of important achievements in the arts. It was also the capital of an empire that was constantly at war in the composer's youth and that became a police state during his maturity.

"Shotwell lyrically navigates her protagonist through love affairs, heartache and dazzling high-stakes performances. This is an exquisite read for history fans, classical-music lovers and romance aficionados alike." --Chatelaine Vienna Nocturne recounts the turbulent life and brilliantly successful career of young British opera singer Anna Storace, a child prodigy who is taken by her parents to Italy at age thirteen to advance her career. In love with life and wildly ambitious, Anna wants everything--to be famous, to be loved--and this leads her to make some fatal choices. We watch her turn from a carefree young girl to a passionate young woman, and it is during this transformation that her affair with Mozart blossoms. The story of their love, no less powerful for being forbidden, is reminiscent of the passionate thwarted romances described in Loving Frank and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Written in melodious prose by a young author studying opera at Yale, Vienna Nocturne is dramatic story of a woman's battle to find love and fame in an 18th-century world that controls and limits her at every turn.

The notion of “happily ever after” has been ingrained in many of us since childhood—meet someone, date, have the big white wedding, and enjoy your well-deserved future. But why do we buy into this idea? Is love really all we need? Author Laurie Essig invites us to flip this concept of romance on its head and see it for what it really is—an ideology that we desperately cling to as a way to cope with the fact that we believe we cannot control or affect the societal, economic, and political structures around us. From climate change to nuclear war, white nationalism to the worship of wealth and conspicuous consumption—as the future becomes seemingly less secure, Americans turn away from the public sphere and find shelter in the private. Essig argues that when we do this, we allow romance to blind us to the real work that needs to be done—building global movements that inspire a change in government policies to address economic and social inequality.

Extremely poor and on the verge of starvation, Lady Milbanke makes a hasty decision to meet an old friend, the famous impresario Gustav Dessoff. To save herself and her daughter Carla from the poverty they had found themselves in, following the death of her husband, she agrees to go to Vienna with Gustav and sing in public at the fabulous Opera House. To keep the secret of their identity they assume different names and Carla is told on no account is she to reveal who she is, and that she must say she is a friend and a companion. Whilst Lady Milbanke is rehearsing at the Opera house, Carla first meets the unpleasant Baron Otto von Erhardt and later the handsome, but mysterious Rako. As Carla’s mother becomes the toast of Vienna, she makes friends with Rako and he shows her the wonderous sights of Vienna. But unbeknown to her, the Baron has his sights on Carla, and Rako is not who he says he is. As events turn against Carla and she is placed in imminent danger, how she is saved and who steals her heart are all told in this wonderful tale of the magic of music and love.