Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy and once one of the most prosperous cities in the United States, is home to a range of cemeteries that tell the story of American trends in honoring the dead. African slaves were interred in Shockoe Bottom�s so-called �burial ground for negroes,� US presidents James Monroe and John Tyler were buried in Hollywood Cemetery, and Civil War soldiers were commemorated throughout the metropolis; indeed, the River City has laid blacks and whites t...

Le Morte D'Arthur Audiobook is Sir Thomas Malory's richly evocative and enthralling version of the Arthurian legend. Recounting Arthur's birth, his ascendancy to the throne after claiming Excalibur, his ill-fated marriage to Guinevere, the treachery of Morgan Le Fay and the exploits of the Knights of the Round Table, it magically weaves together adventure, battle, love and enchantment. Le Morte D'Arthur looks back to an idealized Medieval world and is full of wistful, elegiac regret for a ...

Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnm and the brutish Yahoos - give Gulliver new, bitter insights into human behavior. Swift's savage satire view mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presen...

When the mysterious Green Knight arrives unbidden at the Round Table one Christmas, only Gawain is brave enough to take up his challenge . . .This story, first told in the 1400s, is one of the most enthralling, dramatic and beloved poems in the English tradition. Now, in Simon Armitage, the poem has found its perfect modern translator. Armitage's retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight captures all of the magic and wonderful storytelling of the original while also rev...

The story of the world-famous monument and the extraordinary world’s fair that introduced it, by the author of Conquering Gotham and Urban ForestsIn this first general history of the Eiffel Tower in English, Jill Jonnes-acclaimed author of Conquering Gotham-offers an eye- opening look not only at the construction of one of the modern world's most iconic structures, but also the epochal event that surrounded its arrival as a wonder of the ...

On tourist trails and travel agency brochures, what is India synonymous with? Apart from spicy curries and colourful festivals, it is the Taj Mahal. Any visit to this land of paradoxes is incomplete without a stop-over at this beautiful monument. The Taj Mahal is one of the new Seven Wonders of the World and like its counterparts on this list, it's a work of great beauty and scale. It was built laboriously, over many years, during the Mughal period in India.Inside the Taj Mahal boo...

A rich, illustrated - and entertaining -- history of the iconic Grand Central Terminal, from one of New York City's favorite writers, just in time to celebrate the train station's 100th fabulous anniversary.In the winter of 1913, Grand Central Station was officially opened and immediately became one of the most beautiful and recognizable Manhattan landmarks. In this celebration of the one hundred year old terminal, Sam Roberts of The New York Times looks ba...

A constant factor in human history is the need to protect oneself. Another factor is the urge to attack someone else. Until the Normans imposed their sophisticatedly-designed castles on Britain, the country had seen many structures that met either of these needs. Before the Romans brought their efficient war machine across the Channel and based its troops in a variety of walled buildings, their prehistoric antecedents had met these needs in a different way. For example, pre-Roman hillforts...

Hi, I’m Luigi Rapagina. You may remember me from such automated information kiosks as “The Colosseo Quadrato” or “Piazza di Spagna”. This time I’m going to guide you through the secrets and magic of the Trevi Fountain, the most famous and beautiful fountain in the whole world.Before we start, let me give you a piece of advice. Once in front of the fountain, sit down and rest for about half an hour, fill a bottle of water at the Nasone (a typical Roman drinking fountain) that you wil...

Stand on any street in Dublin and one is confronted with history. Behind the façades of the ten buildings featured here is the story of Dublin, bringing to life key events and characters from the past. The buildings include: Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin's oldest church; Dublin Castle, the colonisers' castle; Trinity College Dublin, the first seat of learning; the Old Parliament House (Bank of Ireland); City Hall, the centre of civic life; Kilmainham Gaol, where leaders of the rebellions...

From the Straits of Mackinac to the Detroit River, Images of America: Lighthouses of Eastern Michigan reveals intriguing stories of lighthouses and the people who depended on them. Readers will enjoy discovering what happened when a large ship fell 20 feet over one of the Soo Locks and the captain commented, �Good-bye Old World,� as well as of a persistent ghost that caused havoc with the Coast Guard. Which lighthouse was a construction miracle in 1874? And whatever happened to the lost li...

Art Deco design is a jazzy celebration of the Machine Age, mass production, geometry, and the straight line. In Palm Beach County, sleek themes are seen representing tropical, nautical, masculine, and stylized motifs that reflect speed and technology. Elements include eyebrows, flat roofs, porthole windows, rounded corners, columns, glass blocks, bandings, multiples of three, and Zig-Zag steps. Palm Beach County has dozens of Art Deco treasures built throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s,...