As soon as Napoleon and his Grand Army entered Moscow, on 14 September 1812, the capital erupted in flames that eventually engulfed and destroyed two thirds of the city. The fiery devastation had a profound effect on the Grand Army, but for thirty-five days Napoleon stayed, making increasingly desperate efforts to achieve peace with Russia. Then, in October, almost surrounded by the Russians and with winter fast approaching, he abandoned the capital and embarked on the long, bitter retreat that destroyed his army. The month-long stay in Moscow was a pivotal moment in the war of 1812 – the moment when the initiative swung towards the Tsar’s armies and spelled doom for the invading Grand Army – yet it has rarely been studied in the same depth as the other key events of the campaign. Alexander Mikaberidze, in this third volume of his in-depth reassessment of the war between the French and Russian empires, emphasizes the importance of the Moscow fire and shows how Russian intransigence sealed the fate of the French army. He uses a vast array of French, German, Polish and Russian memoirs, letters and diaries as well as archival material in order to tell the dramatic story of the Moscow fire. Not only does he provide a comprehensive account of events, looking at them from both the French and Russian points of view, but he explores the Russians’ motives for leaving, then burning their capital. Using extensive eyewitness accounts, he paints a vivid picture of the harsh reality of life in the remains of the occupied city and describes military operations around Moscow at this turning point in the campaign. Views: 449
Mrs. Lathrop sat on her front piazza, and Susan Clegg sat with her. Mrs. Lathrop was rocking, and Susan was just back from the Sewing Society. Neither Mrs. Lathrop nor Susan was materially altered since we saw them last. Time had moved on a bit, but not a great deal, and although both were older, still they were not much older. Views: 197
This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them. Views: 180
Susan Clegg and Mrs. Lathrop were next-door neighbors and bosom friends. Their personalities were extremely congenial, and the theoretical relation which the younger woman bore to the elder was a further bond between them. Owing to the death of her mother some twenty years before, Susan had fallen into the position of a helpless and timid young girl whose only key to the problems of life in general had been the advice of her older and wiser neighbor. As a matter of fact Mrs. Lathrop was barely twelve years the senior, but she had married and as a consequence felt and was felt to be immeasurably the more ancient of the two. Views: 163
This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them. Views: 154
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. Views: 131
A young woman gets sold to a biker in exchange for her father's life...
Weakness. Hot, dominant Rocko can't stand it. But how can he resist the piece of sweet cherry pie who offers herself as an alternative to pummeling her gambling father’s ass?
When Lena meets Rocko, a fire ignites between her legs. The rugged, tattooed, muscled biker is too damn delicious...and the sex? Explosive.
All it took was one stolen kiss…and Lena was addicted. But when she discovers that Rocko’s life is on the line, will he trust her or push her away?
Lena and Rocko face the most important question of their lives—will they embrace danger for love?
Note: Sold to the Biker is 31k of sexy, passionate romance between a hot biker and an innocent young woman. It features 1 exclusive 50k bonus biker romance novella, Biker Outlaw's Virgin Princess! Views: 72
The biker needs a wife. She needs to save her brother's life.
Griffin Prentiss, the bad boy biker, needs a wife to secure his leadership in the motorcycle club mafia. When he comes across innocent Leah Rawlins, he knows she's the perfect woman for the job.
"Good Girl" Leah Rawlins will do anything to save her brother's life...even if it means marrying a bad mafia biker. When Leah marries Griffin, she realizes just how dangerous her decision really is...
Griffin's dark, sexy nature flips her world upside down...and she might just like it.
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When twenty-two-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess in early 1914, she has no idea of the vast political upheavals ahead, nor how completely her fate will be shaped by them. Yet as her intimacy with the charismatic inventor, Nikita Slavkin, deepens, she's inspired by his belief in a future free of bourgeois clutter, alight with creativity and sleek as a machine.In 1917, revolution sweeps away the Moscow Gerty knew. The middle classes - and their governesses - are fleeing the country, but she stays, throwing herself into an experiment in communal living led by Slavkin. In the white-washed modernist rooms of the commune the members may be cold and hungry, but their overwhelming feeling is of exhilaration. They abolish private property and hand over everything, even their clothes, to the collective; they swear celibacy for the cause.Yet the chaos and violence of the outside world cannot be withstood for ever. Nikita Slavkin's sudden... Views: 60
Each chapter is bonne bouche, possessing its own particular flavour, from sweet to acrid-bitter. Hobson's characters are often wonderfully quixotic and so is the spirit she finds everywhere at this crux in Russia's history. She drinks with derelicts, hangs out with gypsies, and watches investigators go about the grim business of exhuming purge victims, and giving them the Christian burial they have been denied for seventy years. Her style is deft: she manages to render the scenes through which she passes with needle-sharp precision.' Financial TimesThis witty and yet deeply moving, acutely observed tale of Charlotte Hobson's year in Russia takes us to the heart of a country many of us continue to be fascinated by and struggle to understand. Or as the TLS put it: 'Hobson writes with such beguiling directness that it is hard not to feel intimate with her and her characters. Few books evoke so much of Russian life, with so little effort. Views: 50
