Most Popular Books by John Julius Norwich

When did humans first come together in cities and what were they like to live in? Illustrated with spectacular photographs of the sites of ancient cities today, as well as fabulous objects and works of art, this book provides a fascinating exploration of cities that shaped the ancient world. From the world''s first cities, in Mesopotamia, to the spectacular urban monuments of the Maya in Central America, the cities described here represent almost three millennia of human history and development. Under John Julius Norwich''s expert editorship, eminent historians and archaeologists with first-hand knowledge of each site bring these silent ruins to life as the teeming metropolises they once were.

The city of Venice through the eyes of nineteenth century visitors.For this portrait of Venice in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Lord Norwich has abandoned the historical approach, preferring to look at the city through the eyes of the most distinguished of its foreign visitors or residents. Beginning with Napoleon - with, perhaps, the most mysterious of all his mistresses - we continue with Byron, who cut his usual swathe among the feminine population while embarking on the last great affair of his life. Ruskin, Browning, Wagner and Henry James are among the others who for a longer or shorter time made the city their own, together with the two great Anglo-American painters James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. The survey ends with the insufferable ";Baron Corvo";, who poisoned the life of the British colony in Venice in the years immediately before the First World War.John Julius Norwich has long been the foremost authority on Venice and in Paradise of Cities he confirms his reputation as an unparalleled historical storyteller. His book will delight and fascinate all lovers of this remarkable city.

Norwich''s life reflects an appetite for living, enlivened by a sense of personal theater, as seen in "Trying to Please," his meditation on a glamorous but vanishing world. From the monasteries on Mt. Athos to a camel trek across the Sahara, Norwich''s passions for history, travel, and music combine with simpler pleasures like friendship and a close family.

Venice of the sixth century, when lagoon-dwellers lived like sea-birds in huts built on heaps of osiers, was the city of the Doges, where people were inspired by the glories of Byzantium as they built it. Thirteenth century Venice was a world power holding the gorgeous East in fee and 15th and 16th century Venice was the city where Titian and Tintoretto and Veronese were at work. Venice of the 18th century was a city for revellers and in the 19th century it was a city for art lovers - each of these periods in its history is portrayed as its inhabitants and visitors saw it, through their eyes and in their voices.

Music pervades the soul of Venice as surely as its canals penetrate the heart of the city. From Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Rossini to Verdi, Wagner, and Stravinsky, this great city has inspired and sheltered genius. Venice is a city in which music has accompanied every aspect of life, from religious and state ceremony to late-night revelry. This lavishly illustrated book examines the unique relationships between the life of Venice and the history of music.

In 1969, John Julius Norwich, the legendary popular historian, gathered together the favourite things he''d come across in the last 365 days into one short charming pamphlet. Initially just a treat for his friends, it rapidly turned into a huge word-of-mouth success. And soon the arrival of John Julius Norwich''s latest ''Christmas Cracker'' became as essential a part of the English Christmas experience as holly and mistletoe. Norwich had a brilliant eye for a story and telling detail, and his Crackers are full of jokes, warmth and wit. Here in one bumper book is his final and 50th Christmas Cracker, alongside all the very best bits as picked out by his daughter Artemis Cooper. This is the perfect Christmas gift.

Evropské 16. století bylo převratným věkem, kdy se díky zámořským objevům rozšiřoval horizont Evropanům známého světa, reformace změnila náboženskou i politickou mapu kontinentu a v končící nádheře „podzimu středověku“ se již ohlašoval nový věk. Kniha známého britského autora sleduje tuto barvitou éru z perspektivy čtyř výjimečných panovnických osobností. Anglický král Jindřich VIII., milovník rytířské pompy a válečných tažení, uskutečnil roztržku Anglie s Římem a proslulým se stal také pro svých šest žen, z nichž dvě skončily na popravišti. Francouzský král František I. byl prototypem renesančního vladaře, milovníkem umění i žen, a jeho srdce se upíralo k italskému Milánu. Habsburský císař Karel V. a osmanský sultán Sulejman Nádherný se oprávněně mohli navzájem podezírat z touhy po světovládě. Společně psali dějiny Evropy i světa.

The Four Men Who Decided the Fate of a Continent. Four great princes were born within the space of a decade: Henry VIII of England, Francis I of France, Charles V of Germany and I of Spain, and Suleiman the Magnificent. All of them left a profound mark on the history of their kingdoms. They could not have been more different from one another, but together, they ruled the world. At the beginning of the 16th century, an era marked by the Renaissance, the beginnings of Protestantism, the Wars of Religion, and the expansion of Western dominion toward the Atlantic, these four kings, sometimes allies, often enemies, and always rivals, laid the foundations for modern Europe. From the scandals of Henry VIII''s six wives to the monasticism of Charles V; from the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the splendid gathering of tournaments, feasts, and balls so lavish it nearly emptied the coffers of France and England, to the celebratory pyramid that Suleiman erected with two thousand human heads after the Battle of Mohács; from the From the six-fingered hand of Anne Boleyn, a supposed sign of her condition as a witch, to the true story of the Maltese falcon, historian John Julius Norwich offers us in Four Princes a fascinating story of stories through the lives of these four magnificent monarchs and their reigns, which changed the destiny of the European continent.

La Sicile est au carrefour de l''histoire du monde. Dans un récit vivant et érudit, John Julius Norwich narre le tumultueux destin de cette île fascinante, et des tyrans, des monarques et des reines remarquables qui ont combattu pour la dominer. La Sicile est la plus grande île de la Méditerranée, le relais entre l''Europe et l''Afrique, le lien entre l''Occident latin et l''Orient grec. Sa situation stratégique a tenté les empereurs romains, les princes français et les rois espagnols. Les luttes qui s''en sont suivies pour la conquérir et la garder ont joué un rôle crucial dans l''essor et le déclin des dynasties les plus puissantes du monde. Le récit palpitant de John Julius Norwich est le premier à nouer ensemble les fils de l''histoire sicilienne dans une seule étude globale. De ses débuts comme cité-Etat grecque à son émergence comme carrefour commercial multiculturel pendant les croisades, et de la rébellion contre l''unification italienne à l''essor de la mafia, l''histoire de la Sicile est riche de moments extraordinaires et de personnages spectaculaires.