One Thought Consumed Her: Escape! Lucy Kendal would do anything to leave the convent she'd called home since girlhood. But never had she dreamed the world contained such danger—and such desire—as she'd experienced firsthand. Though Sir Alexander Breton had rescued her countless times, he also stirred in her a sense of wildness—something he was honor bound never to fulfill! One Emotion Compelled Him: Grief! Widowed knight Alexander Breton had gone crusading to retreat from sorrow. Indeed, he was to take monastic vows after fulfilling a sacred quest for a dying friend. But fate decreed he would instead find Lucy Kendal, the brave, beauteous innocent, who needed protection…and needed him!

A radical re-interpretation of the chivalric biography of Boucicaut.

Winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Poetry A luminous, seductive new collection from the "fearless" (The New York Times) Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Louise Glück is one of the finest American poets at work today. Her Poems 1962–2012 was hailed as "a major event in this country's literature" in the pages of The New York Times. Every new collection is at once a deepening and a revelation. Faithful and Virtuous Night is no exception. You enter the world of this spellbinding book through one of its many dreamlike portals, and each time you enter it's the same place but it has been arranged differently. You were a woman. You were a man. This is a story of adventure, an encounter with the unknown, a knight's undaunted journey into the kingdom of death; this is a story of the world you've always known, that first primer where "on page three a dog appeared, on page five a ball" and every familiar facet has been made to shimmer like the contours of a dream, "the dog float[ing] into the sky to join the ball." Faithful and Virtuous Night tells a single story but the parts are mutable, the great sweep of its narrative mysterious and fateful, heartbreaking and charged with wonder.

The true knights of the Middle Ages were passionate about their faith, their relationship with Christ, and their dedication to living by the virtues of Scripture. The order of knighthood was esteemed by all, pursued by many, yet held by only few. The lifestyles, virtues, and commitments held by these knights who were half warriors and half priests were second to none in the medieval era, as well as today. The order of knighthood provided a code to live by a set of guidelines and practices that instilled honor, strength, and valor. This same order also served to set their lives on a track that helped safeguard them against self-inflicted trouble and heartache, insuring they could enjoy God's best for their lives.

On the great influence of a valiant lord: "The companions, who see that good warriors are honored by the great lords for their prowess, become more determined to attain this level of prowess." On the lady who sees her knight honored: "All of this makes the noble lady rejoice greatly within herself at the fact that she has set her mind and heart on loving and helping to make such a good knight or good man-at-arms." On the worthiest amusements: "The best pastime of all is to be often in good company, far from unworthy men and from unworthy activities from which no good can come." Enter the real world of knights and their code of ethics and behavior. Read how an aspiring knight of the fourteenth century would conduct himself and learn what he would have needed to know when traveling, fighting, appearing in court, and engaging fellow knights. Composed at the height of the Hundred Years War by Geoffroi de Charny, one of the most respected knights of his age, A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry was designed as a guide for members of the Company of the Star, an order created by Jean II of France in 1352 to rival the English Order of the Garter. This is the most authentic and complete manual on the day-to-day life of the knight that has survived the centuries, and this edition contains a specially commissioned introduction from historian Richard W. Kaeuper that gives the history of both the book and its author, who, among his other achievements, was the original owner of the Shroud of Turin.