The Arm and the Darkness: A Novel

Taylor Caldwell

Sep 2018 · Open Road Media

Kuhusu kitabu pepe hiki

“A lively cloak and sword tale” set in the France of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu—from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of A Pillar of Iron (Kirkus Reviews).

In seventeenth-century France, Catholics and Huguenots are locked in a battle for the soul of the nation. Against this tumultuous backdrop, bestselling author Taylor Caldwell spins a stirring tale of romance, suspense, and adventure in the grand tradition of Alexandre Dumas.
 
At the heart of the novel are the two de Richepin brothers: Arsène, a swashbuckling nobleman who must abandon his devil-may-care attitude when he falls in love with a Catholic peasant girl, and Louis, a priest whose devotion to the word of God puts him at odds with the needs of man. As Arsène and Louis are drawn into a world of double-crosses and palace intrigues, they encounter a remarkable cast of real-life historical figures, including the sly Cardinal Richelieu and the suspected traitor Queen Anne.
 
Full of secret plots, passionate embraces, and angry mobs, The Arm and the Darkness is an “admirable and convincing” portrait of one of the most fascinating epochs in the history of Europe (The New York Times).

Kuhusu mwandishi

Taylor Caldwell was one of the most prolific and widely read authors of the twentieth century. Born Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell in 1900 in Manchester, England, she moved with her family to Buffalo, New York, in 1907. She started writing stories when she was eight years old and completed her first novel when she was twelve. Married at age eighteen, Caldwell worked as a stenographer and court reporter to help support her family and took college courses at night, earning a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Buffalo in 1931. She adopted the pen name Taylor Caldwell because legendary editor Maxwell Perkins thought her debut novel, Dynasty of Death (1938), would be better received if readers assumed it were written by a man. In a career that spanned five decades, Caldwell published forty novels, many of which were New York Times bestsellers. Her best-known works include the historical sagas The Sound of Thunder (1957), Testimony of Two Men (1968), Captains and the Kings (1972), and Ceremony of the Innocent (1976), and the spiritually themed novels The Listener (1960) and No One Hears But Him (1966). Dear and Glorious Physician (1958), a portrayal of the life of St. Luke, and Great Lion of God (1970), about the life of St. Paul, are among the bestselling religious novels of all time. Caldwell’s last novel, Answer as a Man (1981), hit the New York Times bestseller list before its official publication date. She died at her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1985.