Violaine, a devotee of books and learning, finds herself sold by her father to a mysterious nobleman to become his companion. Fearing herself at the mercy of a monster, Violaine instead succumbs to the seductive spell of her magical new home, and the love of a man she has never seen, who comes to her only in the darkness of night.

A collection of writings based on the Rosicrucian Enlightenment, a movement which went underground during the Thirty Years' War and lives on today as part of contemporary spiritual movements.

The far north coast of Scotland. Spring 1745. It begins with a murder. But is it a murder when someone is forced to kill his brother, so that he might save his own life? The guilty man is a nobody, a poor fisherman. The person who arrogantly and unthinkingly makes him commit this terrible act, simply to see how he behaved, is the richest man in Scotland, the Earl of Dunbeath. Dunbeath invents his game of life the Prisoner s Dilemma. He invites his old friend, David Hume, to Caithness to play the new game with him. But into their planned discussions blow two survivors from a shipwreck - the beautiful and brilliant Sophie Kant and the calm, charismatic captain, Alexis Zweig. What follows is a claustrophobic and fast-moving game of cat and mouse, as the characters drive relentlessly towards their destinies in life and death, love and betrayal and the passion they each have to achieve their different ambitions. Under the game-playing, the deceits and feints, the science and the philosophy, is a simple tale of three utterly determined and ruthless men struggling to the death to succeed in the race for an extraordinary woman. Which of them will win? How? And why? ,

Candide is a French satire by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply Optimism) by his mentor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". Candide is characterized by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism. As expected by Voltaire, Candide has enjoyed both great success and great scandal. Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned because it contained religious blasphemy, political sedition and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naïveté. However, with its sharp wit and insightful portrayal of the human condition, the novel has since inspired many later authors and artists to mimic and adapt it. Today, Candide is recognized as Voltaire's magnum opus and is often listed as part of the Western canon; it is arguably taught more than any other work of French literature. It was listed as one of The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written.

A gorgeously written intergenerational story of three kids' search for the elusive Fountain of Youth.

A standard description of Coral Castle goes like this: Coral Castle is a love monument built by an eccentric man called Edward Leedskalnin. The Castle is a giant doll house built for Ed's sweet sixteen and his imaginary children. Ed built stone models of household objects like couches, bathtub, cooker, etc to be used by his fictional family. He also created strange meaningless carvings like the moon fountain and obelisk to impress his lost love. Experts have shown that there is nothing mysterious about the castle or how it was constructed, just one man's persistent work. In this book, you will see that all the above statements are false. The chapters ahead will prove beyond any dispute that: 1)Coral Castle was NOT built as a love monument. 2)The Castle is NOT a giant doll house built for Ed's imaginary family. 3)There are NO meaningless objects in Coral Castle, each one has a specific meaning or purpose. 4)Opinions of experts and engineers are fundamentally flawed about Coral Castle. This book was not written to show how Coral Castle was built, but WHY Coral Castle was built. Why did Edward Leedskalnin, a 100 pound man with a 4th grade education, attempt to build the only modern megalithic mystery in the world? In addition to this, you will find answers to other burning questions like: a)What is the real meaning of objects like the Barbecue Cooker and Repentance Corner? b)Why did Ed move to the US from Latvia? c)What made Ed carve strange objects like the Stonehenge and Obelisk? d)Why did Ed carve planets and multiple moons side by side? e)Was Ed afflicted with Tuberculosis? f)Why did Ed choose to build Coral Castle in Southern Florida? g)What is the meaning of the drawing on the red door? h)Why did Ed place dozens of rocking chairs all over the Castle? By the end of this book, I hope you will have a very different view of Coral Castle and Edward Leedskalnin.