Showing results for "Anna" in Biographical Fiction

Three extraordinary people begin their life together. Henry Irving, the Chief, is the volcanic leading man and impresario; Ellen Terry is the most lauded and desired actress of her generation; and ever following along behind them in the shadows is the unremarkable theatre manager, Bram Stoker. Bram is wrestling with dark demons in a new city, in a new marriage, and with his own literary aspirations. As he walks the London streets at night, streets haunted by the Ripper and the gossip which swirls around his friend Oscar Wilde, he finds new inspiration.

Nella primavera 1944 Anna Banti ha quasi ultimato il suo racconto biografico dedicato all'artista seicentesca Artemisia Gentileschi, ma in agosto il manoscritto va distrutto nei bombardamenti tedeschi su Firenze. Con "ostinazione accorata" la scrittrice torna allora al suo personaggio, "pittrice valentissima" ma soprattutto "una delle prime donne che sostennero colle parole e colle opere il diritto al lavoro congeniale e a una parità di spirito fra i due sessi".

April, 1912: It's the perfect finale to a Grand Tour of Europe—sailing home on the largest, most luxurious ocean liner ever built. For the Fortune sisters, the voyage offers a chance to reflect on the treasures of the past they've seen and contemplate the futures that await them. For Alice, there's foreboding mixed with her excitement. A fortune teller in Egypt gave her a dire warning about traveling at sea. And the freedom she has enjoyed on her travels contrasts with her fiance's plans for her return—a cossetted existence she's no longer sure she wants.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu longs for adventure, freedom and love, believing that only by truly living can she ever escape the stalking crow of Death. An aristocratic woman in 18th century England is expected to act in certain ways. But Mary has never let society's expectations stifle her: she writes celebrated poetry and articles advocating for equality, as well as endless, often scandalous, letters to her many powerful friends. However, Mary wants more from the world. Using her charm and connections, she engineers a job offer for her husband as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

In a beautiful house in the wilds of Cornwall, Daphne du Maurier is on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Tangled in a self-destructive love affair that threatens to unravel her marriage, she is also distracted by worry for the family friend whose shadow looms over her childhood: J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan. Daphne tries to escape into writing her new book, but the line between fiction and reality blurs dangerously when her own characters start manifesting before her eyes—in particular a woman called Rebecca who looks suspiciously like her husband's alluring ex-girlfriend.

1816. Mary, 18 years old, is staying in a villa on Lake Geneva with her lover Percy Shelley. She is tormented by his infidelities, haunted by the loss of her baby daughter. Then one evening with friends, as storms rage outside and laudanum stirs their imaginations, Lord Byron challenges everyone to write a ghost story, and something fierce and wild awakens in Mary. Memories surface of the long, strange summer she once spent with a family in Scotland, where she found herself falling in love with the enigmatic Isabella Baxter. She learned tales of mythical beasts, witches and spirits.

Born into the House of Romanov to the all-powerful Peter the Great and his wife, Catherine, a former serf, beautiful Tsarevna Elizabeth is the envy of the Russian empire. She is insulated by luxury and spoiled by her father, who dreams for her to marry King Louis XV of France and rule in Versailles. But when a woodland creature gives her a Delphic prophecy, her life is turned upside down. Her volatile father suddenly dies, her only brother has been executed and her mother takes the throne of Russia.

18 biographical dramas based on the lives and loves of celebrated writers.

Una donna ancora giovane, serena e appagata, tutt’altro che inattiva nel cerchio sicuro della famiglia, viene abbandonata all’improvviso dal marito e precipita in un gorgo scuro e antico. Rimasta con i due figli e il cane, profondamente segnata dal dolore e dall’umiliazione, Olga, dalla tranquilla Torino dove si è trasferita da qualche anno, è risucchiata tra i fantasmi della sua infanzia napoletana. Comincia a questo punto una caduta rovinosa, un racconto che cattura e trascina fino al fondo più nero, più dolente dell’esperienza femminile.

This illuminating serial charts the transformation of the young Victoria from spirited teenager to shy young bride to celebrated ruler of Britain and ‘Mother of Europe’. But while her roles changed, her essential nature remained the same: vibrant, passionate, principled and fiercely independent. Through extracts from Victoria’s own diaries and letters, and dramatised episodes featuring the characters closest to her, we are given thrilling insight into the thoughts and feelings of the woman behind the crown - and the secrets of her mind and heart.

Perfect for Janeites everywhere, this enticing collection brings together for the first time six special recordings that offer a glimpse behind the scenes at the life of the celebrated author. Taking us on a journey from her earliest teenage writings, to her love affair aged 20, to the scandalous arrest of her aunt which shook her family, these fascinating programmes offer a closer look at Jane Austen and those around her, as seen through her letters, writings and final home.

Die bewegende Romanbiografie über die wahre Madame Tussaud. Paris, 1778: Am glücklichsten ist Marie Tussaud, wenn sie ihrem Onkel bei der höchst anspruchsvollen Fertigung von Wachsfiguren helfen darf. Bald wird man in Versailles auf die außergewöhnliche junge Frau aufmerksam: Marie darf eine Schwester des Königs unterrichten. Doch dann überschlagen sich die Ereignisse: Marie verliebt sich unsterblich in den attraktiven, aber verheirateten Maler Jacques und die Französische Revolution bricht mit Gewalt über Paris herein.

WYDARZENIA W TEJ KSIĄŻCE SĄ OPARTE NA FAKTACH. PRAWDA BYWA BARDZIEJ PRZERAŻAJĄCA OD NAJWYMYŚLNIEJSZEJ FIKCJI. CZŁOWIEK JEST ZDOLNY DO WSZYSTKIEGO. Ilse Koch dokonała okrutnych czynów. Wiedźma z Buchenwaldu w wyjątkowo bestialski sposób znęcała się nad więźniami, była jedną z najbardziej odrażających sadystek w historii. W willi Kochów odnaleziono wyroby z ludzkiej skóry. CO SPRAWIŁO, ŻE UROCZA DZIEWCZYNA STAŁA SIĘ WYRAFINOWANĄ SADYSTKĄ? ZASKAKUJĄCE, JAK ŁATWO CZŁOWIEK ADAPTUJE SIĘ DO ZMIAN.

After twelve years of marriage to English explorer James Cook, Elizabeth has yet to spend an entire year with her husband. In their house by the Thames, she moves to the rhythms of her life as a society wife, but there is so much more to her than meets the eye. She has the fortitude to manage the house and garden, raise their children, and face unbearable sorrow by herself - in fact, she is sometimes in thrall to her own independence.

Verfolgt und um ihr Leben fürchtend muss Anna Seghers 1941 Europa verlassen. Fortan lebt sie bis 1947 im mexikanischen Exil. Hier schreibt sie ihre großen Romane, erlebt die Veröffentlichung und den Erfolg von "Das siebte Kreuz", hier trifft sie auf schillernde Personen wie Pablo Neruda und Frida Kahlo. Mit den anderen Exilanten Egon Erwin Kisch und dem Verleger Walter Janka teilt sie die Sorge um die Daheimgebliebenen und die um die Lage in Europa.

It’s early spring 1959, and the word desire is synonymous with America’s most famous blonde: Marilyn Monroe. Being desired is her drug, her kryptonite, the very definition of who she is. It’s so much a part of her identity that her own wants and needs have become fleeting at best, as if she’s seen herself through others’ eyes so often that she’s forgotten what she looks like through her own. But the deepest needs always surface, and there is one thing Marilyn wishes for beyond all else: to meet her real father.

In 1963 Sylvia Plath took her own life in her London flat. Her death was the culmination of a brief, brilliant life lived in the shadow of clinical depression—a condition exacerbated by her tempestuous relationship with mercurial poet Ted Hughes. The ensuing years saw Plath rise to martyr status while Hughes was cast as the cause of her suicide, his infidelity at the heart of her demise. For decades, Hughes never bore witness to the truth of their marriage—one buried beneath a mudslide of apocryphal stories, gossip, sensationalism, and myth. Until now.

Benjamín Labatuts neuer Roman über John von Neumann, einen der genialsten und wegweisensten Denker des 20. Jahrhunderts. Er ist ein so bewundertes wie gefürchtetes Ausnahmetalent: John von Neumann. Vom frühen 20. Jahrhundert bis in die Nullerjahre reichend, erzählt MANIAC die Geschichte John von Neumann, der zunächst in Berlin und Budapest lebte und in den 30er Jahren vor den Nazis in die USA floh, der maßgeblich am Manhattan Project, dem Bau der US-amerikanischen Atombombe in Los Alamos, beteiligt war und durch seinen Computer MANIAC den Bau der Wasserstoffbombe ermöglichte und Vordenker für Künstliche Intelligenz war.

Moskau, 1923. Larissa Reissner hat als sowjetische Gesandte in Kabul strategische Pläne entdeckt, die das Britische Empire stürzen könnten. In der flirrenden Hauptstadt, wo man die Welt neu denkt und aus den Angeln heben will, sucht sie nach dem Verfasser, einem Deutschen namens Niedermayer. Denn der Sieg der Freiheit ist Reissners Lebenssinn, die junge Schriftstellerin und Revolutionärin wird als Wundertochter ihrer Epoche gefeiert. Aus illustrer Familie, lernte sie schon als Kind Lenin kennen, sie kämpfte als Politkommissarin der Wolgaflottille; Pasternak und Trotzki bewundern sie.

She called herself Silent Anna, because she couldn’t tell anyone about what happened between her and her stepfather. Many years later, Anna breaks the silence to reveal the sexual abuse she suffered, its impact on her life and how she has finally managed to overcome it. This is the story of a young girl’s determination to survive and to overcome her traumatic childhood.