Podcasts about lothaire

Kimberly Lemming and Alexis, Keeper of the Lore, are the LOTHAIRE lovers we need in these dark times! Read Kim's new book I GOT ABDUCTED BY ALIENS AND NOW I'M TRAPPED IN A ROM COM now! Want to support the show? Rate and review us on your favorite podcast app! It super helps the algorithm connect us to new listeners.  Want more of us? Check out our PATREON! This Friday, we're doing a January 2025 Reading Roundup! Credits: Theme Music: Brittany Pfantz  Art: Author Kate Prior Want to tell us a story, ask about advertising, or anything else? Email: heavingbosomspodcast (at) gmail  Follow our socials:  Instagram @heavingbosoms Tiktok @heaving_bosoms  Facebook group: the Heaving Bosoms Geriatric Friendship Cult The above contains affiliate links, which means that when purchasing through them, the podcast gets a small percentage without costing you a penny more.

Kimberly Lemming and Alexis the Sword are here to recap LOTHAIRE by Kresley Cole with us!! Our morally gray king with questionable mental health is here!!!!!!!! Want to support the show? Rate and review us on your favorite podcast app! It super helps the algorithm connect us to new listeners.  Want more of us? Check out our PATREON! This Friday, we're doing a January 2025 Reading Roundup! Credits: Theme Music: Brittany Pfantz  Art: Author Kate Prior Want to tell us a story, ask about advertising, or anything else? Email: heavingbosomspodcast (at) gmail  Follow our socials:  Instagram @heavingbosoms Tiktok @heaving_bosoms  Facebook group: the Heaving Bosoms Geriatric Friendship Cult The above contains affiliate links, which means that when purchasing through them, the podcast gets a small percentage without costing you a penny more.

Hey pals! Today, we're wrapping up the second half of LOTHAIRE today and this book ramps up the camp to approximately 1000!! Ellie and Lothaire exchange body parts, Alison finally gets to read a blood blowjob, and Lothaire gets another dog. We thank Kresley Cole every day for writing this wildly fun, sexy, romantic, bonkers book. Enjoy the show! Part 1 Brazen banter: The end of the Eras Tour? Dense bean stir fry! Predictions for the Immortals After Dark series based on this one book! Cat Scale: 9 Revolutionary Resources Friendship bracelet tutorials Kingdom of Dreams Fated Mates   Subscribe! Follow! Rate! Review! Tell your friends and family all about us! Support the podcast and buy us coffee WRION merch! Our feminist, sapphic, bookish Etsy shop! Instagram: @wereaditonenight Twitter: @wereaditpodcast Facebook: We Read It One Night TikTok: @wereaditonenight Email: wereaditonenight [at] gmail.com

Hey pals! Spooky Season continues as Rachel and Alison dive into the first half of listener suggestion and iconic vampire romance in the Immortals After Dark series, LOTHAIRE by Kresley Cole. Lothaire, aka The Enemy of Old (dramatic, tbh), is the most morally grey hero to ever wear the color, and his FMC Ellie spends the entire book violently humbling him (as she should). This book hits 1000% of the time and we're obsessed--hope you will be too! DONATE for Appalachia Hurricane Relief Brazen banter: Bean dishes! Sharp knives! Last names as first names! Cat Scale: TBD Revolutionary Resources Dense Bean Salad girl Marry Me Chickpeas Princess and the Frog mincing mushrooms Ep. 37 - Dark Lover by JR Ward The Black Dagger Brotherhood TV series   Subscribe! Follow! Rate! Review! Tell your friends and family all about us! Support the podcast and buy us coffee WRION merch! Our feminist, sapphic, bookish Etsy shop! Instagram: @wereaditonenight Twitter: @wereaditpodcast Facebook: We Read It One Night TikTok: @wereaditonenight Email: wereaditonenight [at] gmail.com

A possessed inmate on death row, a mentally unstable vampire who will stop at nothing to liberate his demon bride, and a wild cast of characters who can't wait to kill each other. It's Lothaire by Kresley Cole! Follow us on Instagram and show us some love with a five star review on Apple Podcasts! Buy Steph's books HERE and check out Helen's yoga and comedy schedule HERE .We love you very much!

En collaboration avec Exploration du Monde, nous allons évoquer un voyage que tu proposes dans le Cycle Découverte d'Explo, entre Danemark et Normandie ... ... sur la route des vikings. Une tournée de 20 dates qui a très bien commencé au CC d'Uccle et qui se terminera le 17 décembre. En fait, c'est une sorte de road-trip depuis la pointe nord du Danemark jusqu'à la Normandie en passant par les Pays-Bas et le nord de la Belgique. Comment t'est venue cette idée, tu es fan des vikings ? Tu as regardé la série VIKINGS sur Netflix ? Comme tu le sais sans doute, ce sont souvent nos femmes qui nous inspirent nos voyages ... elles sont nos muses, nos inspiratrices ... et la mienne, qui est flamande, ... m'a inspiré ce sujet, devenu un film ! On part aujourd'hui sur la route des vikings ... ... Entre Danemark et Normandie. J'ai réalisé un film documentaire qui évoque cette épopée, cette ère viking qui nous renvoie 1000 années en arrière, dans une histoire que l'on connaît mal parce que l'aventure des vikings n'est pas forcément étudiée dans les manuels scolaires, alors qu'elle a couvert 3 siècles en plein Moyen-Âge et qu'elle a fortement influencé le paysage de l'Europe d'aujourd'hui. Et comment explique-t-on que cette période ait été passée sous silence ? Et d'abord on parle de quelle période du Moyen-Âge ? 9e, 10e et 11e siècle ... l'ère de Charlemagne et de ses descendants. Charlemagne meurt à 72 ans en 814. Son fils Louis le Pieux hérite de tout son empire. A sa mort, ce sont ses trois fils encore en vie qui se partagent l'empire, Louis le Germanique hérite de ce qui deviendra l'Allemagne, Lothaire 1er de la Lotharingie (la bande qui va de la Hollande au nord de l'Italie) et Charles le Chauve de ce qui deviendra la France. Mais les vikings les ont tous considérablement malmenés. Alors les historiens (généralement français) ont sans doute un peu écarté les vikings, qu'ils ne connaissaient d'ailleurs pas très bien ... Et on connait mieux leur histoire maintenant ? Les techniques récentes d'identification des vestiges et des indices laissés par les vikings exhumés par les archéologues ont permis d'affiner les connaissances. Ont s'est rendu compte que tous les scandinaves n'étaient pas des vikings ... et même que tous les vikings ne furent pas scandinaves. On partait « en viking » dans des missions d'exploration pour ramener des richesses et des esclaves. La société viking était bien mieux organisée que ce que l'on a colporté pendant des siècles ... ce n'était pas (que) des barbares ! Pas des enfants de chœur tout de même ... Ils étaient de redoutables guerriers et de redoutables marins, en effet. S'ils ont laissé peu de traces parce qu'ils étaient souvent de passage, s'ils ont saccagé des villes, ils ont aussi créé des bourgs, des ports et ont inspiré des lois encore en vigueur au Royaume-Unis ... Ton film n'est pas un film historique ? Non, c'est un film de passion et de voyage à travers le Danemark, les Pays-Bas, les villes du nord de la Belgique, la Normandie jusqu'à Hastings. Les vikings en sont le fil conducteur. On les appelait les « hommes du nord » ... d'où ... Normands. Et pourquoi Hastings ? Parce que la bataille remportée par le « dernier viking » Guillaume-le-Conquérant en 1066, clôture ce que les historiens appellent l'ère viking ... Pour en savoir plus et aller voir ton film, tous les renseignements sont sur le site explorationdumonde.be ...  ... et partagez cette chronique en PODCAST sur spotify, deezer, iTunes et bien sûr via l'appli SIS RADIO sur Google Play, Facebook, Instagram ...  ... et n'oubliez pas non plus notre chaine Youtube avec les séquences vidéo « SIS EXPLO » où on retrouve Philippe Soreil en interview avec les cinéastes-conférenciers qui passent par notre studio et des extraits de leurs films ! C'est parti pour un tour l'émission francophone sur S.I.S Radio qui vous parle des plus beaux voyages. En partenariat avec Exploration du monde L'émission de notre explorateur vedette Philippe Soreil est aussi disponible en podcast sur les apps gratuites : Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/4LwbgZ2cup5VApfkLLZePl?si=12360fbdc42d44f3 Deezer : https://deezer.page.link/Z5UMxXcL9XG6ymMVA iTunes :  https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/cest-parti-pour-un-tour/id1555437980?l=fr Application SiS Radio : Google Play : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icreo.sisradio App Store : https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sisradio/id1547453358 Rejoins-nous sur nos réseaux sociaux : Facebook : @sisradio.officiel Instagram : @sisradio.officiel YouTube : @SISRadioofficiel

Two married ladies expose you to the best, the worst, and the kinkiest erotica...but don't tell their husbands! Music: "Girls Like Me" by AAPOfficialThanks to Kresley Cole, Lothaire, Gallery Books, Published January 10, 2012

If there isn't a grovel, is it even a romance? This week, we're getting to the bottom of one of our favorite moments in a romance novel — the grovel. Love it or hate it, some of the best loved books of the genre go all in on hero (because let's face it, it's almost always the hero) on his knees…and we are here. for. it. We talk about the hows and whys of the grovel, about the reasons we love it, about the difference between a grovel and a grand gesture, and about the books that installed this particular button for us. This episode is sponsored by Janna MacGregor, author of Rules for Engaging the Earl, and Adriana Herrera, author of A Caribbean Heiress in Paris. Our next read along is Virginia Henley's The Dragon and the Jewel, a deep cut from Sarah's childhood. Check your content warnings and remember this one is from 1991, so we don't even know, honestly. We're flying without a net here. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo or your local indie.Show NotesWe love a good grovel here at Fated Mates, and back in 2018, Jen wrote an essay on groveling for #RomBkLoveMerriam Webster is the world's greatest dictionary.We don't come from chimpanzees, but we do have a common ancestor. If you think a character hasn't suffered enough, you can leave them in cold storage. You have the power!Jen did the entire breakdown on Kiss an Angel with Erin & Clayton from Learning the TropesWe did a deep dive on Milla Vane's A Heart of Blood and Ashes because we love it so much. We also did episodes on Lothaire, Sweet Ruin and The Master. The first five seconds of the Sweet Ruin epsiode are a straight shot of Sarah's joy, if you are looking for that sort of thing. More about the problem of captive (and presumably lacking telepathic prowess) Tigers in America. Molly Bloom totally would love a good romance novel, btw.The American President is a pretty great movie, but it also came out back in 1995 when we some of us were still capable of positive feelings about politicians. Our next read along is The Dragon and the Jewel by Virginia Henley.Books Mentioned This EpisodeThe Day of the Duchess by Sarah MacLeanTen Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord

It's a series finale (of sorts) as we encounter the last king to be a direct descendant of Charlemagne. His reign is full of intrigue and scandal, from a marriage alliance that backfires horribly to Louis pissing off the WRONG archbishop. Will these kings ever learn?We will be on a brief hiatus for the next month (May 2022), but after our Ranking Roundup this episode we are keen to hear what you think of our scores so far! Who was robbed? Who benefited from blatant favouritism? We can't wait to hear your hot takes!!!Visit our Wordpress for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more! Go to our Ko-Fi to buy us a coffee and contribute to the show!

 Lothair has a pretty smooth time getting on the throne, but once his powerful mentors start to die off, will he be able to hold his own? In this episode, we see a particularly violent king and a particularly conniving queen... whom the bishops try to ignore as they bring the abacus back to France and tell the monks to stop wearing leggings. Visit our Wordpress for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more! Go to our Ko-Fi to buy us a coffee and contribute to the show!

What's Cat's fave romance novel of all time? (Hint: it's the title of this ep.) That's right! It's Kresley Cole's LOTHAIRE! Come listen to the TDF team discuss this creepy red eyed vampire with a droll sense of humor with only the kind of in depth, detailed literary analysis a romance writer could bring. AKA we get real serious about this y'all. You do not want to miss. Follow Gabby Marie @gmariewrites on instagram Follow SJ Tilly on most platforms @sjtillyauthor Follow Cat Wynn on most platforms @catwynnauthor Don't forget to pre-order Cat's debut novel HERE - PARTNER TRACK is a fresh, funny rivals to lovers workplace romcom about sleeping with your boss. Lol. You can also find her on her website! www.catwynnauthor.com & www.beatrixsawad.com Music by: Vincent Augustus --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/talldarkfictional/message

What's Cat's fave romance novel of all time? (Hint: it's the title of this ep.) That's right! It's Kresley Cole's LOTHAIRE! Come listen to the TDF team discuss this creepy red eyed vampire with a droll sense of humor with only the kind of in depth, detailed literary analysis a romance writer could bring. AKA we get real serious about this y'all. You do not want to miss. Follow Gabby Marie @gmariewrites on instagram Follow SJ Tilly on most platforms @sjtillyauthor Follow Cat Wynn on most platforms @catwynnauthor Don't forget to pre-order Cat's debut novel HERE - PARTNER TRACK is a fresh, funny rivals to lovers workplace romcom about sleeping with your boss. Lol. You can also find her on her website! www.catwynnauthor.com Music by: Vincent Augustus --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/talldarkfictional/message

Last week, we learned of the horrific backstory of our protagonist Nathaniel.  Scarred by the death of his father in what would appear to be an accident involving the lawyer Coppelius, he has become convinced that this Coppelius is The Sandman, and worse still, that he has followed him to his university town in the guise of the trader Coppola.  The idea is driving him insane, much to the concern of his love Clara and her brother Lothaire.  Will he continue his dissent into madness?  Is there any truth to the idea of the Sandman twisting his mind?  Or will Clara be able to bring him back from the brink? If you'd like to support The Well Told Tale, please visit us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thewelltoldtaleBooks - (buying anything on Amazon through this link helps support the podcast):Tales of Hoffman - https://amzn.to/3nmWPECSix German Romantic Tales, by Kleist, Tieck & Hoffman - https://amzn.to/3kGsQppNeil Gaiman's The Sandman Omnibus Vol 1 - https://amzn.to/3kK1gHII would like to thank my patrons: Toni A, Joshua Clark, Maura Lee, Jane, John Bowles, Glen Thrasher, Ruairi, Cade Norman, Chris, Britt and Silja Tanner.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/thewelltoldtale)

 Parce que chaque semaine qui commence est un nouveau départ, j'avais envie de vous lire une histoire, alors je vous propose le bijou comme un bisou du dimanche soir.     Il était une fois la couronne de Louis Le Pieux que le Maître artisan Béranger Poiron a ressuscité dans le secret de son atelier de joaillerie à la demande de Gilles Laville, le président du Musée d'Autrefois, le musée d'Art et de Tradition populaire de Chasseneuil du Poitou.     Et pourquoi Chasseneuil du Poitou ? Et bien parce que Louis Le Pieux y est né, pardi !  Tout d'abord qui est donc ce Louis dans notre architecture du pouvoir royal ou impérial, en tout cas aristocratique, qui en comporte 18 ? Et bien c'est le 1er !     Louis le Pieux est un Carolingien. Tout commence en 732 quand Charles Martel arrive à stopper les invasions des musulmans Omeyyades. Le nom Caroligien vient de Carolus qui désigne donc « Charles » Martel et plus tard son petit-fils, « Charlemagne ». En attendant c'est Pépin le Bref, fils de Charles Martel qui devient le 1er monarque des Caroligiens. Et en 768 Le jeune prince Charles, fils de Pépin est couronné roi des Francs. Il est alors appelé Charlemagne, ce qui veut dire Carolus Magnus ou Charles le Grand.   Charlemagne a plusieurs enfants avec Hildegarde et Louis Le Pieux est son 3e fils. Il nait en 778, à Chasseneuil du Poitou, est créé par Charlemagne roi d'Aquitaine à 3 ans puis empereur à Aix La Chapelle en septembre 813 avant d'en hériter en 814 à sa mort de Charlemagne car il est le seul héritier mâle encore en vie. L'empire est gigantesque. Excepté la Bretagne irréductible, cet empire couvre la France actuelle auquel s'ajoute au Sud les Marches de l'Espagne, au Nord la Saxe, à l'Ouest la Bavière et la Carinthie, et pour finir le royaume Lombard.     Dans les 7 enfants que Louis le Pieux a avec son épouse Ermengerde de Hesbaye, il y a 3 fils. Comme l'époque est guerrière, Louis est blessé en 817 et décide d'organiser sa succession. Il nomme Lothaire son aîné empereur, son cadet Louis roi de Bavière et son puîné Pépin roi d'Aquitaine. Ce partage est établi dans l'Ordinatio Imperii. Puis quand Ermengerde décède il se remarie avec Judith de Bavière et a un 4e fils qu'il appellera Charles. Alors Louis 1er veut repartager son empire et c'est le début de guerres incessantes et particulièrement vindicatives.      Finalement lors du partage de Verdun en 843, 3 ans après la mort de Louis le Pieux, le cadet Pépin est mort, l'ainé Lothaire est empereur d'Occident et obtient l'Italie et Aix la Chapelle, Louis prend la Saxe, l'Austrasie, l'Alémanie et la Bavière, et Charles II conserve l'Ouest du royaume qui prendra le nom de Francia. L'origine du nom de notre pays.        Les régalia     Le couronnement d'un roi est un symbole fort de prise de pouvoir et les bijoux jouent un rôle important dans cette cérémonie. Les symboles de la royauté sont appelé regalia. Les regalia évoluent selon les pays et les époques ce qui fait que ceux de France sont différents de ceux de l'Allemagne par exemple. Cependant comme l'histoire vient de nous le rappeler les racines sont communes depuis Charlemagne.      En France les régalia sont la couronne, la fleur de lys, le sceptre, la main de justice, l'épée, les éperons et l'anneau.   Ces insignes royaux, rescapés de l'histoire, sont conservés au Louvre et à Saint Denis. En effet, la basilique est la nécropole des rois en France depuis l'époque mérovingienne et Pépin Le Bref, le grand père de Louis Le Pieux, sera le premier roi à y être couronné, scellant ainsi l'alliance entre les rois francs et la Papauté et créant la tradition du sacre. Par la suite les rois de France seront sacrés à Reims et c'est justement Louis Le Pieux qui sera le premier à le faire le 5 octobre 816. Et dans cette cérémonie le joyau indispensable et qui est commun à tous les rois sera la couronne.  Car la couronne symbolise par excellence le pouvoir royal et la domination.   Mais pour être claire, il n'existe aujourd'hui aucune trace de la couronne de Charlemagne et encore moins de Louis le Pieux.        La couronne     Quand on parle des couronnes des Charlemagne on fait référence aux couronnes de Philippe Auguste et de son épouse Ingelburge de Danemark que le roi lègue par testament au trésor de Saint Denis. Cependant son fils Louis VIII décide de les racheter pour se faire couronner à Reims avec son épouse Blanche de Castille. Par la suite tous les rois et reines jusqu'à Henri III seront couronnés de ces couronnes, à l'exception de Jean II et Charles VII.   L'inventaire du trésor de 1534 décrit la couronne du roi qui pesait en totalité 4 kg. Elle était en or massif avec ses 48 pierres précieuses (rubis, émeraudes, saphirs et spinelles) sur le cercle et le fleuron, disposait de chaines en argent et d'une coiffe intérieure surmontée d'un rubis de 200 carats.  La couronne du roi sera fondue en 1590 par les ducs de Mayenne et de Nemours pour financer la Ligue catholique, alors c'est la couronne de la reine, quasi identique, qui servira pour les autres sacres royaux.     Dans le trésor de Saint Denis, il y avait aussi la Sainte Couronne, appelée aussi couronne de Saint Louis, avec laquelle Jean II se fera couronner. Elle était fleurdelisée, en or, avec un spinelle de 278 carat qui abritait une épine de la couronne de Jésus Christ et serti de grenats, saphirs, émeraudes et perles.     Mais il y avait aussi des couronnes qui ne servaient pas au sacre. Charles V a eu 21 couronnes ! Parfois elles n'avaient même pas de gemmes, elles pouvaient même être en vermeil pour être moins lourdes. La forme des couronnes évoluent également : à partir de Louis XII, elles sont fermées par 8 arches.     La convention nationale, à la Révolution, décidera de détruire les couronnes symbole d'un pouvoir honni.      Quand Napoléon Ier décide de se faire sacrer empereur, il crée de nouveaux régalia et la pièce maitresse est évidemment la couronne. Alors il va en faire créer 2 ! La première est une couronne de laurier en or comme les empereurs romains et laseconde est une couronne à 8 arches qu'il va appeler « couronne de Charlemagne ».      Aujourd'hui, les seules couronnes encore présentes dans les collections nationales sont celle de Louis XV, de Napoléon Ier et de l'impératrice Eugénie qui sont exposées au Louvre.        La Couronne de Louis Le Pieux     On comprend combien il est difficile de recréer d'une façon historique, la couronne de louis Le Pieux sans véritable description ni représentation. Gilles Laville, le président du Musée d'Autrefois, choisit alors le tableau de Jean Joseph Dassy. Né le 27 décembre 1791 à Marseille, ce peintre est spécialiste des scènes de l'histoire de France et les thèmes religieux. Son tableau « Louis Ier dit le Pieux (778-840), empereur d'Occident » est exposé au Château de Versailles. Les régalia dont il pare le roi sont une interprétation de l'histoire. Le sceptre comporte une croix d'inspiration byzantine orthodoxe et dans sa main droite le roi porte l'orbe crucigère qui fait effectivement référence à Charlemagne mais l'existence de ce globe impérial date du XIIe siècle dans les regalia du saint empire germanique et n'existe en France qu'au sacre de Napoléon Ier.  La couronne comporte une seule arche transversale plantée de perles, surmontée d'une pomme de pin et jointe au bandeau par des feuilles d'acanthe. Le pourtour supérieur du bandeau est également planté de perles. Et sur le bandeau, des cabochons de formes ovales représentent des gemmes vertes et rouges alternées entourées de petites perles et chaque cabochon est séparé par 2 grosses perles positionnées l'une au dessus de l'autre comme une ponctuation.  A la décharge du peintre il faut se souvenir qu'au XIXe siècle prédomine ce qu'en art on appelle la « couleur locale ». C'est-à-dire que les artistes représentent l'historique avec les marqueurs de leur propre époque. La feuille d'acanthe est une référence à la culture grecque qui est très à la mode au XIXe. Quand à la pomme de pin c'est un symbole papal que Jean Joseph Dassy place en haut de la couronne « au sommet des choses » comme un 3e œil dont elle est le symbole païen en référence à la glande spinale.      La commande de la réalisation de cette couronne de Louis Le Pieux arrive en novembre 2020 dans la boite mail du Maitre artisan Joaillier Béranger Poiron. Installé à Nantes, le joaillier est connu par ses bijoux d'histoire notamment ses reproductions de bagues de templiers. Recréer la couronne de Louis Le Pieux, d'après le tableau de Jean Joseph Dassy lui apparait comme un délicieux challenge. Pas de plans techniques ! Il fait des épures. Pas de mesures ! Il prend celle de sa propre tête. Et commence par réaliser une maquette en carton.   Puis méthodiquement, patiemment, il résout un à un les problèmes techniques inusités qui se posent malicieusement à chaque étape. La plaque de cuivre à découper excède la longueur de sa scie bocfils : il trouve le moyen de la découper par jet d'eau. Pour la mettre en forme arrondie, aucun de ses triboulets servant habituellement pour les bagues ou les bracelets n'est à dimension : alors il crée une forme spéciale en contreplaqué.      Il cherche des modèles de feuilles d'acanthe et dessine jusqu'au gabarit idéal. Puis les découpent dans le métal et manie l'embouti et le contre embouti pour leur donner le joli mouvement renflé de la base, creusé au centre et saillant de la pointe.      Quand à la pomme de pin, Béranger Poiron avait hâte de la réaliser ! Il avait tellement imaginé les étapes et visualisé cette création ! Il sculpte la cire à la main. Et la fonte, comme un baptême du feu, lui donne l'occasion d'utiliser le four datant de 1900 et provenant d'un atelier d'horloger qu'il venait de chiner. Ensuite c'est au burin qu'il réalise les détails sur le métal.     Pour positionner les perles sur le pourtour de la couronne et de l'arche, il découpe des tiges de métal et les soude, à la volée, une à une, en positionnant la couronne sur un plateau tournant actionné par un embrayage de 2 CV.     Chaque étape aura soulevé des interrogations, et Béranger aura déjoué ces impossibles. Au final la couronne en laiton doré, cerclé de perles et orné de 15 cabochons d'époxy verts et rouges, pèse 700 grammes. Si elle avait été en or le poids aurait atteint 1,4 kg. Elle est démontable grâce à ses rivets. Réalisée en 6 mois elle a nécessité 300 heures de travail. 5 des étudiants de l'atelier ont pu mettre la main à la cette couronne Aude Péguet de l'école Boulle, Ombeline Thomas de l'école Léonard de Vinci, Elona Mathé du Lycée Clément de Pémille, ont vécu les premières étapes. Puis Marion Frouin et Valentine Bourgeois du Lycée Jean Guéhenno ont réalisés les soudures, dérushés et les finitions au « cabron ».     La couronne, trône aujourd'hui sous vitrine au Musée d'Autrefois, le musée d'Art et de Tradition populaire de Chasseneuil du Poitou à côté de la gravure du roi.         Ainsi se termine cette histoire de la couronne de Louis Le Pieux ressuscité par le maitre artisan joaillier Béranger Poiron.         Je suis Anne Desmarest de Jotemps et je donne une voix aux bijoux chaque dimanche. Et si vous aussi vous avez envie de faire parler vos bijoux et votre Maison je serai ravie de vous accompagner pour réaliser votre podcast joaillier.     La semaine prochaine je vous donne rendez-vous sur le podcast sur « Il était une fois le bijou » le podcast thématique de la joaillerie, pour le 6e épisode de la saison consacrée aux joailliers du rap où nous entendrons Téhé Ouna fondateur de la Maison Goldaia nous parler, des nouveaux codes du luxe façon hip hop.     Le dimanche suivant notre rdv sera sur Brillante, le podcast des femmes de la joaillerie où je recevrais Bernadette Pinet-Cuoq la présidente exécutive de l'union française BJOP.      Et puis nous nous retrouverons le 26 septembre sur ce podcast pour un « le bijou comme un bisou » un peu particulier puisqu'avec Isabelle Sadoux la podcasteuse de la voix du parfum nous vous parlerons à 2 voix, en parfum et en bijoux, des 100 ans du N°5 de Chanel.     Pour ne manquez aucun de nos rendez-vous du dimanche autour du bijou, abonnez à chacun de ces 3 podcasts « Il était une fois le bijou », « le bijou comme un bisou » et « Brillante » sur votre plate-forme d'écoute préférée et encouragez-moi en partageant l'épisode sur vos réseaux sociaux. Si vous êtes sur Apple podcast ou sur You Tube mettez de jolis commentaires, c'est ce qui permet de référencer les podcasts !      A dimanche pour votre prochaine histoire de bijou !        Site  Twitter  Facebook  Instagram  LinkedIn  musique 0 le sign

It's finally time for Lothaire, the Enemy of Old, to shine. In this week's episode of Romancing the Monsters we uncover the mysteries of Lothaire and discover the woman who will bring him to his knees. Ellie and Lothaire are fighting each other as well as an evil goddess' possession as they form unbreakable bonds, though Lothaire still believes his mate isn't Ellie and a lot of pain ensues. Buckle up, folks, we're about to unpack Lothaire's brand of crazy! Also discussed: Why it's never a good idea to take in someone else's vendetta as your own, the meaning and importance of happiness and the disconnect of immortals to such things, why integrity and inner strength matter, and how past traumas can shape and alter your perception of the world in great depth. Trigger warning: mentions of kidnapping, possession, rape, dubious consent, blood play, virginity, decapitation, emotional manipulation, amputation, self mutalition, prison, murder, death and torture. Book of the week: Lothaire by Kresley Cole Find us: E-mail—romancingthemonsterspodcast@gmail.com Twitter—@theRTMpod Instagram—@romancingthemonsterspodcast TikTok—@Romancingthemonsterspod Find M: Instagram & Twitter—@foesandlovers Find S: Instagram & Twitter—@butthisbook Find Seff: Instagram & Twitter—@prosewithwoes Romancing the Monsters is a podcast that looks at the monster within: the shadow keeping the characters away from true and absolute happiness. This monster can be a prejudice, fear, insecurity, trauma and so on. We believe that romance novels are as much about one's personal journey as they are about finding love. After all, love makes us vulnerable and forces us to bare our monsters to another.

Nous avons tous appris à l'école l'histoire de Charlemagne, l'empereur à la barbe fleurie, et fredonné la chanson de France Gall ! Mais saviez-vous que Thionville était une de ses résidences favorites ? Lothaire, l'aîné de ses petits-fils y a même épousé en grande pompe la belle Ermengarde de Tours. Et d'ailleurs, d'où vient le nom de Théodonis Villa ? Pierre vous plonge au cœur de l'époque carolingienne.

We're so thrilled to be talking morality chain romance! We've owed this episode to Katee Robert for nearly a year, and we have no excuses for how long this has taken, except that time in 2020 was a flat circle. Here, we get down to business—we tackle the definition of Morality Chain, and how it differs from Dark Romance, how it connects with mafia, criminals, pirates, highwaymen, and the original Alpha. Check all your Content Warnings before you begin with these books!S03.31: Morality Chain Romance InterstitialWhether you're new to Fated Mates this month or have been with us for all three seasons, we adore you, and we're so grateful to have you. We hope you're reading the best books this week.Next week, we're reading Alexis Daria's You Had Me At Hola, one of our Best Books of 2020! Find it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or Apple Books.Show NotesOne very important note: we highly recommend doing a thorough search for content warnings for all the books and movies we mention this week. We love Katee Robert, who we had on as a guest for the menage interstitial. Katee bid on this item at Kennedy Ryan's Lift 4 Autism auction. It happens every spring, so keep an eye on this page for the 2021 auction if you'd like to pick the topic for a future interstitial. This week, Katee released Seducing My Guardian, the 4th book in her SUPER HOT Touch of Taboo series. If you'd like to read a morality chain romance written by Katee, we recommend The Bastard's Bargain.“In springtime, the only pretty ring time” is from Shakespeare's As You Like It. It's also possible Sarah knows it from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She would like you to believe that it's from the former, but we'll leave you to draw your own conclusions. Either way, “If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it,” is from Beyonce. As it turns out, Chicago is a great town for beach volleyball.It's hard not to talk about morality chain & dark romance together, but we think they are inverse tropes. The internet definition of Morality Chain is “is a character who is the reason another character is Good.” Jen and Sarah's current definition is that in morality chain romance, the Love Interest pulls a hero towards humanity and goodness, while in dark romance, the love interest is pulled down into the hero's lawless world.Some examples in pop culture are Spike from Buffy and maybe Barney in How I Met Your Motherr. Also, check out a movie called The Professional, where a child (played by Natalie Portman!) befriends the assassin next door. The Jason Statham one with a kid is called Safe. The Hero's Journey is very common character archetype in literature and pop culture, but Sarah and Jen are both very taken with Gail Carriger's description of the alternative archetype, The Heroine's Journey. If you want more about morality chain, so many of Kresley's books from The Immortals After Dark series will work, so please listen to season one! Our favorites are Dark Needs at Night's Edge, Lothaire, and Sweet Ruin. We were divided on whether the character has to be a danger to others in order to qualitfy as morality chain. In the Gamemaker series: The Professional is about an assassin who is a danger to others, while in The Player he's only a danger to himself. Jen Porter wrote a long thread about what she thinks of as PEA, or problematic ever after, romance.Mickey is "kind of a Fagin-y" as a character, but without the antisemitism. In interesting historical facts, Dickens rewrote Oliver Twist later in life to remove all anti-Semitic characteristics from Fagin, after he'd been criticized for the portrayal of the character. Of course, it's not that simple. Read more about it from Deborah Epstein Nord. Scottie is the main character of Managed, and is classified more as grumpy one/sunshine one, which we argue is just morality chain dialed down. More about how most writers have a “core story."Next week, we'll be reading You Had me at Hola by Alexis Daria

De tous les clichés sur l'époque médiévale, celui d'un affrontement franco-allemand a la vie dure. Produit par l'historiographie du XIXe siècle et du début du XXe siècle, cette image a été largement nuancée par les travaux historiographiques les plus récents. Dans un ouvrage couvrant une large période (843-1214), plusieurs historiens se penchent sur la réalité du conflit. Invité de Christophe Dickès, le grand médiéviste Dominique Barthélemy répond aux questions suivantes: - Peut on parler de France et d'Allemagne au IXe siècle, puis de nations dans les siècles suivants? - Quelles sont les dates charnières de la construction des ensembles franco-allemand? - Quelles ont été les prétentions du royaume de France? - Existe-t-il des échanges culturels et économiques entre les deux ensembles? - Un des symboles de l’opposition franco-allemande est le geste de Lothaire de Francie occidentale qui s’empare du palais de Charlemagne en 978 et retourne l’aigle d’airain du palais. Ce fait a-t-il été surévalué par la postérité ? - Peut-on dire que la victoire de Philippe Auguste à Bouvines fut une victoire "nationale"? Notre invité: Dominique Barthélemy est médiéviste, membre de l'Académie des Inscriptions et de Belle Lettres. Il a été reçu sur Storiavoce pour son livre consacré à la bataille de Bouvines (Perrin, 2018). Il vient de diriger avec Rolf Grosse Allemagne et France au coeur du Moyen-âge (Passés/Composés, 144 pages, 29€).

Full Text of ReadingsWednesday of the Third Week of Advent Lectionary: 189All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is St. AdelaideBorn in 931 in Burgundy, France as the daughter of King Rudolph II of Burgundy,Adelaide was promised in marriage when she was only two years old, to a man namedLothaire, the son and heir of his enemy, Hugh of Provence.Lothaire was killed when still young, and Adelaide was to have a tumultuous life that paralleled the struggle for political power of the times, something she had come to symbolize. She appealed to Otho the Great of Germany for help.Having been sought after by various kings and nobles after Lothaires death, she was finally married by Otho the Great of Germany, who had invaded Italy.After Ottos death on May 7, 973, Adelaide exercised influence over her son Otto II until their estrangement in 978, when she left the court and lived in Burgundy with her brother King Conrad. At Conrads urging, she became reconciled with her son, and, before his death in 983, Otto appointed her his regent in Italy. With her daughter-in-law, Empress Theophano, she upheld the right of her three-year-old grandson, Otto III, to the German throne. She lived in Lombardy from 985 to 991, when she returned to Germany to serve as sole regent after Theophanos death (991). In 991, Adelaide was invested as the Regent of the Empire, and she used her power as the effective empress to increase evangelization efforts, especially in northern Europe, and built many monasteries and churches, and also gave much aid the poor. She governed until Otto III came of age in 994, and, when he became Holy Roman emperor in 996, she retired from court life, devoting herself to founding churches, monasteries, and convents. She died in 999 at the monastery of Seltz, Alsace, and wascanonized in 1097 by Pope Urban II. Saint of the Day Copyright CNA, Catholic News Agency

Interview exclusive d'un membre du Collectif Mémoire coloniale et lutte contre la discrimination sur le thème sociétal d'importance : le décolonialisme (Photo Marie-Paule Peuteman) Sous le fallacieux argument d’apporter la civilisation occidentale dite évoluée, parfois doublé d’un dessein d’évangélisation, le système colonial, loin d’être philanthropique comme il est encore présenté par les défenseurs et nostalgiques du « temps béni des colonies » que chanta Sardou, ce système colonial, donc, a littéralement pillé les matières premières des pays envahis et a souvent avili, voire martyrisé, les populations locales. Une remarquable démonstration, espace public à l'appui, du mécanisme de la terreur perpétré par le colonialisme (Photo Marie-Paule Peuteman)   Au nom de cette vérité-là, un vaste mouvement de « décolonialisme » est lancé depuis quelques mois et Fréquence Terre en partenariat avec POUR, était présent à une « Balade décoloniale » au cœur de la capitale de l’Europe. En quoi consiste ce genre de rassemblement ? Y a-t-il eu des réticences à l’organiser ? Réponses à écouter dans notre interview de l’animateur de la balade dans le podcast ci-dessous. Durant cette balade, notre interlocuteur évoqua l’espace public en tant qu’espace politique, que la violence faisait partie intégrante du système colonial et qu’il fut un véritable mécanisme de la terreur. Ce fut l’occasion pour évoquer également l’horreur des mains coupées de milliers d’autochtones… Les réponses encore ci-dessous dans le podcast. Exemple concret avec cette action très démocratique dans la commune d'Etterbeek : si les habitants approuvent le principe, la rue consacrée au colonisateur Lothaire pourrait être contextualisée et remplacée par un hommage à une militante écologiste assassinée (Photo Pierre Guelff) Pour conclure ce reportage, rappelons que, suprêmes injure et injustice aux anciennes colonies, beaucoup d’entre elles doivent encore rembourser de prétendues dettes au système capitaliste qui les a exploitées et qu’il y a encore une vingtaine de pays ou régions colonisés en 2020. Des « territoires non autonomes », comme dit l’ONU, dont la Nouvelle-Calédonie, Gibraltar, la Polynésie française…, les pays colonisateurs étant, entre autres, la Grande Bretagne, les États-Unis et la France…, cette dernière qui se targue de clamer qu’il est « le pays des droits humains ».  

Fête foraine organisée dans le 12ème arrondissement de la capitale, la Foire du Trône date d'il y a bien longtemps. Ses origines remontent, en effet, au Xe siècle de notre ère ; un temps durant lequel le roi Lothaire décida d'autoriser les moines-boulangers de l'abbaye Saint-Antoine à vendre leur pain. Progressivement, une foire allait y voir le jour... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Véronique Cloutier parle du Gala des prix Gémeaux, qu'elle animera dimanche pour une énième fois; le journaliste Raed Hammoud parle de sa première passion, le rap; Danielle Trottier analyse l'importance du rôle de la mère dans la série Toute la vie; Jean-Philippe Dion explique son rôle de producteur pour le retour de Star académie; Lothaire Bluteau donne une entrevue depuis Sudbury, où il est en tournage pour le film La switch.

It’s one of our favorite tropes this week — get your pens out, because we’re talking about about a thousand books that tackle Partner in Danger! You know what we’re talking about: “Oh no! This person I sometimes bone is in danger! WAIT! I am feeling feelings!!!” It’s great. We’re going to talk about why. Sarah would like to apologize in advance, because it was really hot in her house when we recorded, and it scrambled her brain.We love having you with us! — subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and like/review the podcast, please!Next week, it’s erotica week! We’re reading a book that Sarah loves, Nikki Sloane’s Three Little Mistakes, which we’ve talked about before on the podcast, but we want to deep dive on. Get Three Little Mistakes from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, or Kobo … and don’t forget your favorite indie, which is probably shipping books right now and definitely needs your patronage!Also, if you love the music in this or any of our episodes, check out our Spotify playlist, which includes it all!Show NotesAs of last week, going outside looks like a pretty safe thing to do.In fact, there is less central A/C in New York City. So watch out for the window units.Zoom fatigue is real.You know, there is quite a large assortment of "Dorothy in the Sheets, Blanche in the Sheets" merch on Etsy. In case you need to talk a call from your editor.We all struggle with the illusion of control.The trope of the damsel in distress has been around for a long, long time. So let's not fridge more women, mm'kay.Friend of the pod Adriana Herrera has some words of wisdom about writing trauma in romance. And also Jen and Adriana did a Facebook Live chat on the topic. (link & audio forthcoming).Pour one out for planes. And cars. And alcohol from mysterious European lands.In case you missed Blood Blow Jobs: please refer to Fated Mates Season One, Lothaire and Rune.Jen looked it up a map. In Reborn Yesterday, the heroine is dropped onto the Belt Parkway, not the Long Island Expressway. Still seems bad.Edward saved Bella from a careening van in the school parking lot. And from a bunch of drunk guys.The Most Dangerous Game is a pretty great short story, classically used to teach person v. person conflict.Morality Chain is a great trope. Look for an upcoming interstitial on this topic soon!In Pretty Woman, she rescues him right back.Preorder signed copies of Daring and the Duke from WORD bookstore in Brooklyn and you'll get swag from Sarah and this special yellow Fated Mates sticker.Books referenced this week:Judith McNaught's PerfectLisa Kleypas's It Happened One Autumn, Devil in Winter & Dreaming of YouJoanna Shupe's The Prince of Broadway & The Devil of DowntownKresley Cole's LothaireMilla Vane's A Heart of Blood And AshesTessa Bailey's Reborn YesterdayEmmy Chandler's HunterClaire Kent's HoldStephenie Meyer's TwilightMolly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid, The Truth About Him, Burn Down the Night & Wait for ItSarah's Wicked & the Wallflower, Brazen & the Beast, Daring & the Duke, The Rogue Not Taken, and No Good Duke Goes UnpunishedSierra Simone's American QueenKati Wilde's Hellfire RidersHelenKay Dimon's The Secret She KeepsRobert Munsch's The Paper Bag PrincessNana Malone's Protecting the HeiressKresley Cole's The Master

L’Europe découvre l’islam lors de la conquête de l’Espagne au VIIIe siècle, mais c’est avec les croisades du XIIe siècle que s’améliore la connaissance de la culture arabe. Des moines et des clercs recherchent la science grecque dans le monde musulman, apprennent la langue arabe et procèdent aux premières traductions du Coran, que l’on appelle à l’époque l’Alcoran. Le commerce et la diplomatie en Méditerranée exigent de comprendre l’adversaire dans sa langue pour mieux échanger. Des Européens polyglottes se rendent en Orient. Malgré les préjugés, la connaissance du Coran se répand, enrichissant les réflexions des savants de la Renaissance et des Lumières. L’arabe entre dans la culture classique européenne, jusqu’à susciter une véritable fascination au XIXe siècle, à travers l’orientalisme. Comment les Européens ont-ils appris l’existence du Coran et ont-ils pu se le procurer ? Comment traduisait-on ce texte dont la religion paraissait si étrangère ? Qui parlait l’arabe en Europe avant le XXe siècle? Autant de questions auxquels Olivier Hanne répond au cours de cette émission présentée par Christophe Dickès. L’invité: spécialiste d’histoire médiévale, Olivier Hanne est agrégé et docteur en Histoire. Médiéviste, sa thèse était consacrée à Lothaire de Segni avant son élection au pontificat sous le nom d'Innocent III (Belin, 2012). Islamologue, il est chercheur-associé à l'université d'Aix-Marseille. Auteur de nombreux autres ouvrages, il a publié aux éditions L’homme Nouveau Le génie historique du catholicisme. Il vient de publier AlCoran, Comment l'Europe a découvert le Coran (Belin, 2019). Il écrit régulièrement pour les revues Conflits, Moyen-Orient, Diplomatie, DSI, Défense nationale, Géostratégiques, Res militaris...

Stay tuned for the second half of the episode in December! Next week, just in time for your tryptophan induced coma, we’re talking Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels, which was on both Jen & Sarah’s list, and is on the lions’ share of Best Romance Novels Ever lists. We’ll get into why. Read Lord of Scoundrels at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo or your local indie.Show NotesQuestion 1: Ennis from New York asked, "is like Lothaire by Kresley Cole or Cold Cole Heartby K Webster, where the hero is someone who would be a villain in any other book. A megalomaniac, horribly damaged, murderous, whatever- and a heroine who takes NONE of his shit and brings him to his knees."Our Recommendations: The name of this trope is "morality chain" which might help you on your search for books like this. Sarah's Summer 2020 release Daring and the Duke is perfect for this question, but since it's not out yet, try The Masterpiece Duet by Skye Warren. The first is The King.Question 2: Lesley from Washington DC asked for books "with Jewish heroes and heroines, does not have to be holiday themed."Our recommendations: : Jen suggests Knit One, Girl Two and Cinnamon Blade by Shira Glassman. In fact, Jen was a special guest on the Heaving Bosoms podcast taking about Cinnamon Blade. Sarah recommends Craving Flight by Tamsen Parker and Dalliances and Devotion by Felicia Grossman. Stacey Agdern also writes about Jewish representation in romance and has written some novellas in the Rogue Anthologies. We also mentioned a great point that inspired a great thread by Felicia Grossman about Jewish characters in literature.Question 3: Daniela from Winnipeg had this AMA question: If there was a battle royale between all the IAD heroes, who would win? Does the answer change if they can't use weapons?Our Answer: The Wroth brothers would band togehter, Declan Chase has a real shot, and Lothaire wouldn't care. No matter who wins, Thronos goes down first. Jen mentioned someone who wrote about what would happen if all the US Presidents were in a knife fight. Enjoy.FWIW, Daniela also asked a question we skipped because we couldn't think of anything: A historical that has a silver fox duke and a spitfire heroine who exhausts the hell out of him. IDEAS? Let us know on twitter.Question 4: Kristen from DC! asked, "LGBTQ romance easily available in PRINT for my book club???? We do it through a local indie bookshop, and are having a hard time finding things other than Cat Sebastian/Olivia Waite from Avon."Our Recommendations: Adriana Herrera's American Dreamer series! Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. We think Vanessa North and KJ Charles might be print on demand, which many indie bookstores won't carry. Dreamspinner is a mess right now, but many great authors are there, including LaQuette's latest, Under His Protection, which Jen bought a copy of at Love's Sweet Arrow. Carina titles might be more easily available, so try Syncopation and the rest of the Twisted Wishes series by Anna Zabo. Jen mentioned Being Hospitable by Meka James, but it's just in E. But you should still read it for fun.Question 5: Courtney from the Bodice Tipplers Podcast wants to know what books made us fall in love with the genre.Our answer: Well, just listen to all of season 2 of Fated Mates! But Sarah mentioned Nobody's Baby but Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Jen mentioned a new book that has made her feel that way is The Bride Test by Helen Hoang. Julie Garwood and Jude Deveraux were old-school authors we both loved back in the day.Question 6: Ali in NYC had an AMA and a question: How is Eric Mortensen so good at podcast editing?Our answer: Well, he just is and you should contact him if you need podcast editing help.Ali also wanted recommendations about historicals with witches/magic. Our recommendations: So many of these are old school, because this is not a very popular trope right now, so please proceed with caution. Sarah recommended Bewitching by Jill Barnett and Jen recommended a pair of books by Teresa Medeiros, Breath of Magic and Touch of Enchantment. In fact, Jen reviewed Touch of Enchantment for The Book Queen. Post-recording, we thought of Sex and the Psychic Witch by Annette Blair, which is the first of a series where three sisters use their "magic powers for good and their good looks for seduction."Question 7: Hannah from Texas asked for a romance that "has a Lucy Liu in "Set It Up" type heroine getting her actual HEA. I need ball-busting energy falling in love with a guy/gal/whoever that deserves her."Our Recommendations: Sarah recommended The Takeover Effect by Nisha Sharma which has a corporate espionage plot. Jen was maybe thinking of Set it Off and recommeded Elle Kennedy's Out of Uniform series. Jen mentioned Getting Hotter by Elle Kennedy, but upon further reflection, also thinks The Heat is On (in an anthology called Hot & Heavy) might work. But since Hannah was actually talking about Set it Up, which is about assistants and bosses, maybe try The Assistant by Ramona Gray or check out this extensive goodreads list of boss/employee romance novels.Question 8: Jenica from New York asked for a book that has "Childhood friends to enemies to lovers, preferably contemporary."Our recommendations: : We don't say it here, but one strategy Sarah and Jen use all the time with more popular tropes is searching for a Goodreads list. If you can find a book with a title or two you like on it, you might like others! Jen recommended His Until Midnight by Reese Ryan, and also noted that Sarah's book A Rogue by Any Other Name has this trope. Sarah recommended Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas. And a trailing suggestion was trying Christina Lauren, who has written many great enemies to lovers books and maybe one also has childhood friends. We didn't mention it on the podcast, but if you like YA, Jen loved Not if I Save You First by Allie Carter. That one would definitely work!Question 9: Holly from Chapel Hill asked for a book that "Has all the mutual pining. Friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, doesn't matter. Give me every last drop of pining."Our recommendations: Sarah suggests Waking Up with the Duke by Lorraine Heath. Jen recommends On Broken Wings by Chanel Cleeton. After we realized that there is lots of pining in Lisa Kleypas, but we think Again the Magic might be best.Holly had a follow up AMA, "What would your ideal book-centered vacation be?" Sarah said a beach, Jen has always wanted to stay at The Library Hotel, and that led to a discussion of Nora Robert's Boonsboro Inn, in Boonsboro, Maryland. But Jen also loves to read locally, which means reading books set in the places you are traveling.Question 10: Kara asked for a recommendation that "Has some sort of adventure or quest but is also slow burn."Our recommendations: Slow burns aren't our speciality. Jen joked she likes a "fast, incendiary burn." Please check out the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews, and the second one where they finally do it is called White Hot. The first one is called Burn For Me, it's right in the title! If you like fantasy, try Bound to the Battle God by Ruby Dixon. Sarah mentioned A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet. And Aurora Blazing by Jessie Mihalik could count for this category and for pining!Question 11: Chase from Germany wants "Has m/m with a happy ending and the trope enemies to lovers?"Our recommendations: Sarah recommends Goalie Interference, which has enemy hockey players. Annika Martin has a good series, the first is called Enemies Like You, and Jen also likes a series by Layla Rayne called Agents Irish and Whiskey. Cask Strength also appeared in Jen's list of Who Did It Better on a Pool Table. You're welcome.Question 12: Caitlin from Wisconsin wants a book that "Has a plus size heroine, emphasis on fashion...vampires would also be nice."Our recommendations: We had to handle these two separately. For a curvy heroine with fasion, we recommended Take Me by Bella Andre and The King of Bourbon Street by Thea De Salle. For vampires, try Tall Dark and Hungry by Lynsay Sands. It's about a vampire who writes vampire novels. The Sherrilyn Kenyon book Sarah was thinking about is called Night Play, but it's actually about a werewolf. Oh well.Question 13: Jess asked, "Has an alpha submissive (I’ve tasked Sarah with this before and want more!)"Our recommendations: Jen doesn't think this exists, but Sarah recommends The Duke I Tempted, Giving It Up, The Devil's Submission and Sierra Simone's New Camelot series. If you can roll with Kristen Ashley's prose style, try Deacon. There is no pony play involved.Jess had a follow up AMA: "I would love to hear more about audiobook production. How much say authors have. Do they get to check in during production to make sure jokes are being delivered properly, etc?" Sarah replied that the answer is ... authors don't have much say at all, except maybe a choice of narrators. Sarah loves her narrator, Justine Eyre.Question 14: Lesley from San Francisco asked for a book that "Has a heroine over 50 who is single (not divorced or widowed)."Our recommendations: This was a hard one, and we are hoping that listeners will chime in with answers. We don't think any of these heroines are single--all widowed or divorced. But try Apples Are Red, Driving in Neutral, Bound with Love, or Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure. But, you can check out this facebook group for seasoned romance, and Donnaposts a weekly Frolic column of seasoned romances. Finally, Sarah recommended London Hale's Talk Dirty To Me.Question 15: Carly from Atlanta is looking for “there’s only one bed,” historical edition (bonus points if they don’t have sex that time, but do later).Our recommendations: There are so many of these that we had a hard time answering. Yikes! But A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong is amazing. Later in Season 2 of Fated Mates, we'll read Devil's Bride by Stephanie Laurens, but the ohter one Sarah was thinking of was The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae Afterwards, we thought of The Duke Buys a Bride and Tycoon.Question 16: Shannon in Atlanta said, "Ghosts. I need all the ghosts. I’m regrading Lynn Kurland’s Stardust of Yesterday to see if I am still madly in love with Kendrick like 14 yr old me was. But I need more ghosts. For spooky season and for always."Our recommendations: So obvioulsy the best IAD book is Dark Needs at Night's Edge. But Halloween Boo and Hot Ghost might also be of interest. After recording, Jen thought of The Headmaster by Tiffany Reisz and Sarah thought of For the Earl's Pleasure by Anne Mallory.Question 17: Natali from Tampa asked for romances with "a sexy but serious body guard- saves heroine from her evil husband OR serious sexy body guard that is hired by father to care for wild heroine. And/Or sexy but consensual teacher-student relationship."Our recommendations: Sarah and Jen both liked The Professor by Charlotte Stein. Sarah also recommended The Unrequited by Saffron Kent. Bodyguards for some reason we didn't have specifics, but check out Sexy/Dangerous by Beverly Jenkins, which has a female bodyguard. Fallen by Rebecca Zanetti will work. But also, Jen is convinced that something in Lexi Blake's Masters and Mercenaries series will work.Question 18: Nisha wants books that are "bananas sexy."Our recommendations: Ice Planet Barbarians forever. But Brill Harper anything will work, and Jen especially recommends Altogether. Everyone on twitter thinks White Whiskey Bargain is super hot, and The Red is amazingly sexy. Grace Goodwin's Interstellar Brides series is also pretty hot.

This week, Arlene and Danni do a recap on Immortals After Dark! We go back through the first 11 books up to Lothaire, and just have a general discussion on our thoughts! For quick plot summaries, see some of our earlier episodes! Immortals After Dark on Goodreads   Next week, we're going to be talking about Shadow's Claim and MacRieve in the same series!   Find us on Twitter LiteraryAFPod Find us on Facebook Literary AF Shoot us a message LiteraryAFPod@gmail.com We're on Itunes, Spotify and Youtube

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.We’re getting down to the wire with Season One of Fated Mates — in two weeks, join us for Wicked Abyss, featuring the literal King of Hell, and the Queen who takes fully no shit from him. Get Wicked Abyss at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, or at your local indie!Show Notes- You know Kresley is self-publishing when you see it's Valkerie Press.In IAD, a sorceri queen has the most power in that area.- Love triangles are very common in YA.- Eloisa James' first novel was Potent Pleasures, the the line Sarah quoted is: "Charlotte was one week short of 17 when her life was changed, falling into two halves like a shiny child's ball: before and after."- The best thing that ever happened at Coachella.- Uh. While researching for this podcast, Jen realized that Deadmou5 is real.- Sarah's hero/heroine/heroine's best friend on the line book is A Rogue By Any Other Name, which you can get in ebook for $1.99 right now!- There apparently was a crossover between IAD and Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series. Tell us what you know.- Gay romance author and all around good guy Nathan Burgoine explains why "Gay for You" is a problem.- No one like a milksop.- All about the Kinsey Scale, and Jen thinks of this very funny tweet from her friend Zach every time she hears the phrase "Kinsey scale."- Happy Days didn't spin off from something, it was the spinner. Frasier was a Cheers spin-off. The Dacians is not an IAD spin-off. It is IAD. This is canon now.- The Arcana Chronicles is Kresley's YA series.- Jen recommends The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker if you're interested in a novel about women artists at work.- In two weeks, we're finishing Season One (sniff!) with Wicked Abyss!Lost Limb CountArms and Hands (8)1. Conrad cuts off his own hand with a rusty axe so he escape the "witched" chains his brothers locked him in. (Dark Needs at Night's Edge)2. Cadeon has both of his hands burned off in the same scene where he loses an eye. There's description of what Cade's baby fingers look like as they are re-growing. It's...kinda gross. (Dark Desires After Dusk)3. Sebastian pulverizes most of his right arm during the Hie. He regenerates. (No Rest For the Wicked)4. Lucia peels all the skin off from her hand in order to free herself from some handcuffs. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)5. In order to retrieve the ring from La Dorada , Lothaire cuts off her finger. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)6. Lanthe and Carrow cut off Fegley's hand so they can use his thumb to unlock their torques. He's later killed. (Demon from the Dark)7. After receiving Lothaire's heart in a box, Ellie cuts off her middle finger and sends it to him. (Lothaire)8. Chloe's shoulder is dislocated in the escape from her auction (MacRieve).Chest and Torso (7)1. Omort severs Rydstrom's spine and punches through his torso in a fight. Sabine saves him and enlists Hag to help heal him. (Kiss of a Demon King)2. Lucia's neck is broken. She regenerates. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)3. On Torture Island, Regin,4. MacRieve,5. and Brandr are vivisected. It's pretty terrible. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)6. Declan's skin is peeled off by the Neoptera as a child. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)7. Lothaire rips out his own heart and sends it to Ellie in a box. (Lothaire)Head, Face, and Eyes (6)1. Bowen loses an eye and most of his forehead during the Hie. Mariketa has cursed him and he can't heal until he returns to her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)2. Cadeon loses an eye and part of his forehead and hair when fighting. It all regenerates. (Dark Desires After Dusk)3. During a rugby match, Garreth has his teeth knocked out and swallows them. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)4. Lothaire kicks out La Dorada's remaining eye and throws her over a cliff. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)5. In the Bloodroot Forest, the tree grows over Lothaire's lips and tongue. (Lothaire)6. After she gains her immortality, Chloe's hair grows, but she cuts it off every morning. (MacRieve)7. Lanthe agrees to have her tongue cut out to save herself and Thronos, knowing she can still use the power of persuasion telepathically. (Dark Skye)Horns (2)8. Cadeon cuts off his own horns to prove to Holly that he is worthy of being her mate. She tells him to let them grow back (Dark Desires After Dusk)9. Malkolm is captured by his enemies in Oblivion and taken to the city of Ash. The publicly cut off his horns and then intend to kill him, but Carrow saves him. (Demon from the Dark)Legs and Feet (3)1. Lachlain tears off his own leg to reach Emma. He regenerates. (A Hunger Like No Other)2. Mariketa's skull is fractured and her leg is torn from her body. She heals herself after Bowen lays on the ground. Ivy grows over her and heals her. (Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night)3. Thronos is chasing Melananthe and loses a foot when a portal closes on it. (Kiss of a Demon King)4. While in Pandamonia, Thronos is trapped in a Groundhog Day like trap, doomed to repeat his worst nightmare over and over again. When he believes that Lanthe is about to die, he repeatedly tears of his legs in order to reach her. He never actually loses a limb, but he was willing, so we're counting it. (Dark Skye)Beheading as a Romantic Gesture (4)1. The first time Garreth spies Lucia, it's when she shoots an arrow and beheads a kobold. He notices that it's "a fantastical shot" and he's super into it. Later, he helps her pick up the head because he's a real gentleman like that. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)2. Later in the book, they are under attack from vampires and Lucia asks him to help. Garreth promises to "give her their throats" and beheads two vampires. But she's upset about it because of a previous bad experience with cannibalism. (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)3. Malkolm beheads men that attacked Carrow in Oblvion, and he throws them to prove he's a worthy mate. (Demon from the Dark)4. Declan fights and beheads several creatures as they escape Torture Island, including squeezing one dude so hard his eyes pop out and then he twists his head off. (Dreams of a Dark Warrior)5. Thronos beheads several foes during fights, which impresses Lanthe; but he also beheads Felix, a sorcerer who once tricked Lanthe and stole her sorcery. (Dark Skye)6. The bag of heads, yo. This is the pinnicle of this category, obviously. (Shadow's Claim)Beheading as a Non-Romantic Gesture1. Ellie cuts off Lothaire's head, leaving a slender 1/8 of an inch left. It was kind of an accident, but he deserved it. (Lothaire)Maybe?1. Does Garreth's losing his connection with his mortal soul count? (Pleasure of a Dark Prince)2. When Soroya inhabited Ellie's body, she subjected her to a full Brazilian wax. Ellie doesn't realize it's happened until she takes control of her body again. (Lothaire)

Next week, we’re tackling the Dacians in two weeks with a two-for-one episode featuring both of these Lothaire spinoff stories, Shadow's Claim (featuring demon-sorceress Bettina and Dacian assassin Trehan) & Shadow's Seduction (featuring Caspion the demon and Mirceo the vampire prince)!Show Notes- Jen loves hype video, and there are some for the USWNT are amazing.- All about advanced reading copies (ARCs) and what it looks like when you get typeset pages.- Jen has a new title at Kirkus: romance correspondent. She's been interviewing a lot of authors.- Kate Clayborn perfectly described why we love a grunting hero.- Only 33 Fortune 500 CEOs are women, which is nonsense.- Listen to our Curvy Heroines interstitial.- Covent Garden and the rookeries.- What's a life peerage?- Derek Craven forever.- What it means to be "on the shelf."- Audiobook narrator Justine Eyre is the narrator for Sarah's books. Can you even imagine what would happen if she and Petkoff ever got together and narrated a romance?- Preorder Brazen & the Beast at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple, or Indiebound -- or from Sarah's local indie, WORD, and get it signed and with fun goodies!

Dans cet épisode je vous parle de Lothaire Flammes. Retrouvez nous sur : Le blog : http://chroniquescomics.fr Twitter : @crocomics Facebook : Chroniques Comics

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, please leave us a like or a review.We’re getting down to the wire with IAD, but because we’re completists, we’re tackling the Dacians in two weeks with a two-for-one episode featuring both of these Lothaire spinoff stories, Shadow's Claim (featuring demon-sorceress Bettina and Dacian assassin Trehan) & Shadow's Seduction (featuring Caspion the demon and Mirceo the vampire prince)!Show Notes- Wecome back, Kate!- The Grassy Knoll isn't much of a knoll, anymore. But if you're ever in Dallas, check out the Sixth Floor Museum.- This kind of teabagging does not appear on the Clayborn Scale.- YA Author Carrie Ryan has smart things to say about first person and scary things to say about zombies.- Famous for having a big reveal: The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense, and The DaVinci Code. Not famous for a big reveal: Meet Joe Black.- We should have asked Adriana Herrera about Dimitri's trauma.- Rocky was also a self-made man, and you cannot even convince Jen that the person who invented CrossFit didn't rapturously watch this a million times.- Dryer's English is a book that all the writing nerds had a pre-order, and he has strong opinionsabout exclamation points, but absolutley nothing to say about sexclamation points.- Everyone loves foreshadowing.- But in romance, no one loves an unreliable narrator.- Jen recommends the YA novel One of Us is Lying, or you could kick it old-school and watch Roshomon.- Pre-order Brazen and the Beast! and Love Lettering! And read Jen's interviews with Reese Ryanand Marie Tremayne and Robin Lovett on Kirkus.- In two weeks, we're back to IAD with the Dacian two-fer: Shadow's Claim & Shadow's Seduction!

This week, Danni's talking about Lothaire by Kresley Cole. Book 10 in the Immortals After Dark series. She loved it so much she felt it deserved its own episode, rather than having to share the spotlight.   Find us on Twitter LiteraryAFPod Find us on Facebook Literary AF Shoot us a message LiteraryAFPod@gmail.com We're on Itunes, Spotify and Youtube

Another classic lit episode with Sheldon today, as he talks about Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.   Next week, Danni talks about Lothaire by Kresley Cole. The week after! It's a surprise!   Find us on Twitter LiteraryAFPod Find us on Facebook Literary AF Shoot us a message LiteraryAFPod@gmail.com We're on Itunes, Spotify and Youtube

Lothaire is here! We’re so excited, we don’t know what to do with ourselves, but FYI, this is a longer episode than usual -- so get ready! We're talking morality chain romance, how Lothaire is a pure ass but incredibly funny, and how Ellie is pretty much the only mate he could ever have. Also, we love Nix & Lothaire a lot.

Mr. Vivisection is here, and it’s a whole lot! Regin the Radiant is on Torture Island, and just her luck, the guy running the whole show is a berserker reincarnate who she’s loved in five earlier lifetimes. Declan Chase is a highly controversial Kresley hero, and Dreams of a Dark Warrior is a book Sarah and Jen always skip on the reread…but this week, we’re talking about it and *gasp!* we’re kind of on #TeamDeclan by the end?! UP IS DOWN! This episode, we’re digging into the way Kresley builds characters and lays the brickwork for the rest of the IAD series. We’re talking about torture, about childhood, about packing for the end of days, and about Lothaire’s Guide to Wooing Women. We’re joined by the wonderful Sarah Hawley, co-host of the Wicked Wallflowers podcast, and Declan-stan.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcasting platform — and while you’re there, a like would be awesome!Our next read (in two weeks) will be No Rest for the Wicked — the story of Sebastian Wroth (vampire) and Kaderin the Cold-Hearted (valkyrie), and the beginning of the IAD Amazing Race mini-arc!Show Notes- Why do people hate the word moist?- There really are catacombs below Paris, and they seem very creepy.- Co-ed is a more dated word than you'd expect. According to the Oxford English dictionary, it's been in use since the 1880s. Game, set, and match to The Independent, which printed the following sentence in 1903: "Any college where the girls are commonly called ‘co-eds’ is not a truly co-educational institution."- The TSTL trope in romance heroines.- All about Mary Sues.- The Fated Mates trope.- Maybe you all missed the Kavanaugh hearings. I love myself, so we'll just stick to one informative infographic.- Jen's romance book club at 57th Street Books in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. If you're not in Chicago, bookstores and libraries across the country and online will be participating in The Great Big Romance Read in December 2018. Find your people!- Romance isn't the only genre examining old favorites through the lens of #MeToo. Molly Ringwald looked back at John Hughes and The Breakfast Club in The New Yorker. This podcast from WNYC is about pop culture in the #MeToo era.- The list of RITA award winners, sorted by year.- A million articles have been written about Twilight, but I like this one that looks at the big themes that bubble up time and time again.- Alisha Rai has said lots of smart things about toxic masculinity, as it turns out.- Representation in BDSM matters.- Take a crash course in modernity.- A brief overview of Cassandra from Greek mythology.- The Devil in Winter, because everyone loves to read about a sex deal.- According to The Smart Bitches, a magic hoo-hah is "shorthand for the equally illustrious and many powers of the female sex organ, specifically the vagina. The Magic Hoo-Hoo tames the Mighty Wang, and becomes the magnetized true north for the hero’s trouser compass from the point of their first sexual coupling. The Magic Hoo-Hoo brings the hero to monogamous attachment, because after experiencing it, the hero will not be satisfied with anything or anyone else."- I'm sure everyone wants to learn more about moon phases.- Fury is an actual furie.- When we say Lothaire was a big deal, we mean there was an actual Lothaire bus touring around America.- Are you ready for No Rest for the Wicked?

Lothaire Benichou est pharmacien et spécialiste des traitements contre l’acné. Dans ce podcast nous prenons le temps qu’il faut pour parler des différents types d’acné qui existent, des mauvaises solutions et fausses croyances qui ne sont pas recommandées et bien entendu des voies à suivre pour gérer ces poussées d’acné sur le long terme. L’objectif étant de s’attaquer aux problème de fond et pas seulement aux symptômes. ✪ Notes et retranscription écrite : https://extraforme.fr/26 ✪ Formation offerte "3 Erreurs qui Bloquent votre Perte de poids" : https://extraforme.fr/cadeau ✪ Découvrez la méthode Demain Plus Mince : https://demainplusmince.com

Weeeeellllcommmme to Meeeeeereeee Rhetoooooric! It’s our annual Halloween episode, which means a little bit of the people, ideas and movements who have shaped rhetorical history, but mostly a ghost story. This year, we’re going with our first not-MR-James story. Don’t worry--there are still intials--but first--to business.   If you’re going to talk about ghost stories and influential thinkers, you won’t dig long until you come across Freud’s contribution, a little piece called “The Uncanny.” You might not peg Sigmund Freud as a connoisseur of boogeymen, but he was capital-f freaked capital-o out by ETA Hoffmann’s story “The Sandman.” If Hoffmann’s name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you know him from writing the story of the Nutcracker ballet. Look at that--our annual tradition here at Mere Rhetoric just founds 3-degrees of separation to every ballet company’s annual tradition! Anyway, the Sandman is a freaky sci-fi horror tale that eventually inspired another ballet called Coppelia. The original is even more terrifying. Don’t worry--it’s coming up after we talk about Freud. Right now all you need to know is that the line between reality and madness is thin, thin and shaky.   Freud was, as you might expect, very into that. He draws heavily on a German pun--evidentally heimlich means both homey or familiar and secret or hidden. In terms of the uncanny, things are most terrifying when we think we’re playing in the realm of our daylight reality and then suddenly the rules change. No one, for example, is horrified when Snow White RISES FROM THE DEAD, because we already are accepting that we’re in a fairy tale with, like, singing animals who do housework. As Freud says, ““as soon as it is given an arbitrary and unrealistic setting in fiction it is apt to lose its quality of the uncanny” (19). And what are these eerie occurances? Because Freud is a master classifier, they can be split across “either when repressed infantile complexes have been revived by some impression, or when the primitive beliefs we have surmounted seem once more to be confirmed (17)--so he believes either the terrors of childhood or of primitive man resurface in our horror stories. The parts of us that we repress resurface as ghosts and witches and we confront them in physical manifestations separate from us. For example, the supernatural power of, like, a giant or a firestarter, relates to our own narcissistic impulses to dominate others. Freud goes through and gives a catalogue of things that are uncanny:   dismembering the double living dolls repetition (like seeing the same number all day) evil eye ghosts witchcraft madness As you listen to this year’s Halloween episode, The Sandman, you can point out where these pop up--see if you can get Uncanny Bingo!   NATHANEL TO LOTHAIRE Certainly you must all be uneasy that I have not written for so long - so very long. My mother, am sure, is angry, and Clara will believe that I am passing my time in dissipation, entirely forgetful of her fair, angelic image that is so deeply imprinted on my heart. Such, however, is not the case. Daily and hourly I think of you all; and the dear form of my lovely Clara passes before me in my dreams, smiling upon me with her bright eyes as she did when I was among you. But how can I write to you in the distracted mood which has been disturbing my every thought! A horrible thing has crossed my path. Dark forebodings of a cruel, threatening fate tower over me like dark clouds, which no friendly sunbeam can penetrate. I will now tell you what has occurred. I must do so - that I plainly see - the mere thought of it sets me laughing like a madman. Ah, my dear Lothaire, how shall I begin ? How shall I make you in any way realize that what happened to me a few days ago can really have had such a fatal effect on my life? If you were here you could see for yourself; but, as it is, you will certainly take me for a crazy fellow who sees ghosts. To be brief, this horrible occurrence, the painful impression of which I am in vain endeavoring to throw off, is nothing more than this - that some days ago, namely on the 30th of October at twelve o'clock noon, a barometer-dealer came into my room and offered me his wares. I bought nothing, and threatened to throw him downstairs, upon which he took himself off of his own accord. Only circumstances of the most peculiar kind, you will suspect, and exerting the greatest influence over my life, can have given any import to this occurrence. Moreover, the person of that unlucky dealer must have had an evil effect upon me. So it was, indeed. I must use every endeavor to collect myself, and patiently and quietly tell you so much of my early youth as will bring the picture plainly and clearly before your eyes. As I am about to begin, I fancy that I hear you laughing, and Clara exclaiming, 'Childish stories indeed!' Laugh at me, I beg of you, laugh with all your heart. But, oh God! my hair stands on end, and it is in mad despair that I seem to be inviting your laughter, as Franz Moor did Daniel's in Schiller's play. But to my story. Excepting at dinner-time I and my brothers and sisters used to see my father very little during the day. He was, perhaps, busily engaged at his ordinary profession. After supper, which was served according to the old custom at seven o'clock, we all went with my mother into my father's study, and seated ourselves at the round table, where he would smoke and drink his large glass of beer. Often he told us wonderful stories, and grew so warm over them that his pipe continually went out. Whereupon I had to light it again with a burning spill, which I thought great sport. Often, too, he would give us picture-books, and sit in his arm-chair, silent and thoughtful, puffing out such thick clouds of smoke that we all seemed to be swimming in the clouds. On such evenings as these my mother was very melancholy, and immediately the clock struck nine she would say: 'Now, children, to bed - to bed! The Sandman's coming, I can see.' And indeed on each occasion I used to hear something with a heavy, slow step come thudding up the stairs. That I thought must be the Sandman. Once when the dull noise of footsteps was particularly terrifying I asked my mother as she bore us away: 'Mamma, who is this naughty Sandman, who always drives us away from Papa? What does he look like?' 'There is no Sandman, dear child,' replied my mother. 'When I say the Sandman's coming, I only mean that you're sleepy and can't keep your eyes open - just as if sane had been sprinkled into them.' This answer of my mother's did not satisfy me - nay, the thought soon ripened in my childish mind the she only denied the Sandman's existence to prevent our being terrified of him. Certainly I always heard him coming up the stairs. Most curious to know more of this Sandman and his particular connection with children, I at last asked the old woman who looked after my youngest sister what sort of man he was. 'Eh, Natty,' said she, 'don't you know that yet? He is a wicked man, who comes to children when they won't go to bed, and throws a handful of sand into their eyes, so that they start out bleeding from their heads. He puts their eyes in a bag and carries them to the crescent moon to feed his own children, who sit in the nest up there. They have crooked beaks like owls so that they can pick up the eyes of naughty human children.' A most frightful picture of the cruel Sandman became impressed upon my mind; so that when in the evening I heard the noise on the stairs I trembled with agony and alarm, and my mother could get nothing out of me but the cry, 'The Sandman, the Sandman!' stuttered forth through my tears. I then ran into the bedroom, where the frightful apparition of the Sandman terrified me during the whole night. I had already grown old enough to realize that the nurse's tale about him and the nest of children in the crescent moon could not be quite true, but nevertheless this Sandman remained a fearful spectre, and I was seized with the utmost horror when I heard him once, not only come up the stairs, but violently force my father's door open and go in. Sometimes he stayed away for a long period, but after that his visits came in close succession. This lasted for years, but I could not accustom myself to the terrible goblin; the image of the dreadful Sandman did not become any fainter. His intercourse with my father began more and more to occupy my fancy. Yet an unconquerable fear prevented me from asking my father about it. But if I, I myself, could penetrate the mystery and behold the wondrous Sandman - that was the wish which grew upon me with the years. The Sandman had introduced me to thoughts of the marvels and wonders which so readily gain a hold on a child's mind. I enjoyed nothing better than reading or hearing horrible stories of goblins, witches, pigmies, etc.; but most horrible of all was the Sandman, whom I was always drawing with chalk or charcoal on the tables, cupboards and walls, in the oddest and most frightful shapes. When I was ten years old my mother removed me from the night nursery into a little chamber situated in a corridor near my father's room. Still, as before, we were obliged to make a speedy departure on the stroke of nine, as soon as the unknown step sounded on the stair. From my little chamber I could hear how he entered my father's room, and then it was that I seemed to detect a thin vapor with a singular odor spreading through the house. Stronger and stronger, with my curiosity, grew my resolution somehow to make the Sandman's acquaintance. Often I sneaked from my room to the corridor when my mother had passed, but never could I discover anything; for the Sandman had always gone in at the door when I reached the place where I might have seen him. At last, driven by an irresistible impulse, I resolved to hide myself in my father's room and await his appearance there. From my father's silence and my mother's melancholy face I perceived one evening that the Sandman was coming. I, therefore, feigned great weariness, left the room before nine o'clock, and hid myself in a corner close to the door. The house-door groaned and the heavy, slow, creaking step came up the passage and towards the stairs. My mother passed me with the rest of the children. Softly, very softly, I opened the door of my father's room. He was sitting, as usual, stiff end silent, with his back to the door. He did not perceive me, and I swiftly darted into the room and behind the curtain which covered an open cupboard close to the door, in which my father's clothes were hanging. The steps sounded nearer and nearer - there was a strange coughing and scraping and murmuring without. My heart trembled with anxious expectation. A sharp step close, very close, to the door - the quick snap of the latch, and the door opened with a rattling noise. Screwing up my courage to the uttermost, I cautiously peeped out. The Sandman was standing before my father in the middle of the room, the light of the candles shone full upon his face. The Sandman, the fearful Sandman, was the old advocate Coppelius, who had often dined with us. But the most hideous form could not have inspired me with deeper horror than this very Coppelius. Imagine a large broad-shouldered man, with a head disproportionately big, a face the color of yellow ochre, a pair of bushy grey eyebrows, from beneath which a pair of green cat's eyes sparkled with the most penetrating luster, and with a large nose curved over his upper lip. His wry mouth was often twisted into a malicious laugh, when a couple of dark red spots appeared upon his cheeks, and a strange hissing sound was heard through his gritted teeth. Coppelius always appeared in an ashen-gray coat, cut in old fashioned style, with waistcoat and breeches of the same color, while his stockings were black, and his shoes adorned with agate buckles. His little peruke scarcely reached farther than the crown of his head, his curls stood high above his large red ears, and a broad hair-bag projected stiffly from his neck, so that the silver clasp which fastened his folded cravat might be plainly seen. His whole figure was hideous and repulsive, but most disgusting to us children were his coarse brown hairy fists. Indeed we did not like to eat anything he had touched with them. This he had noticed, and it was his delight, under some pretext or other, to touch a piece of cake or some nice fruit, that our kind mother might quietly have put on our plates, just for the pleasure of seeing us turn away with tears in our eyes, in disgust and abhorrence, no longer able to enjoy the treat intended for us. He acted in the same manner on holidays, when my father gave us a little glass of sweet wine. Then would he swiftly put his hand over it, or perhaps even raise the glass to his blue lips, laughing most devilishly, and we could only express our indignation by silent sobs. He always called us the little beasts; we dared not utter a sound when he was present, end we heartily cursed the ugly, unkind man who deliberately marred our slightest pleasures. My mother seemed to hate the repulsive Coppelius as much as we did, since as soon as he showed himself her liveliness, her open and cheerful nature, were changed for a gloomy solemnity. My father behaved towards him as though he were a superior being, whose bad manners were to be tolerated and who was to be kept in good humor at any cost. He need only give the slightest hint, and favorite dishes were cooked, the choicest wines served. When I now saw this Coppelius, the frightful and terrific thought took possession of my soul, that indeed no one but he could be the Sandman. But the Sandman was no longer the bogy of a nurse's tale, who provided the owl's nest in the crescent moon with children's eyes. No, he was a hideous, spectral monster, who brought with him grief, misery and destruction - temporal and eternal - wherever he appeared. I was riveted to the spot, as if enchanted. At the risk of being discovered and, as I plainly foresaw, of being severely punished, I remained with my head peeping through the curtain. My father received Coppelius with solemnity. 'Now to our work!' cried the latter in a harsh, grating voice, as he flung off his coat. My father silently and gloomily drew off his dressing gown, and both attired themselves in long black frocks. Whence they took these I did not see. My father opened the door of what I had always thought to be a cupboard. But I now saw that it was no cupboard, but rather a black cavity in which there was a little fireplace. Coppelius went to it, and a blue flame began to crackle up on the hearth. All sorts of strange utensils lay around. Heavens! As my old father stooped down to the fire, he looked quite another man. Some convulsive pain seemed to have distorted his mild features into a repulsive, diabolical countenance. He looked like Coppelius, whom I saw brandishing red-hot tongs, which he used to take glowing masses out of the thick smoke; which objects he afterwards hammered. I seemed to catch a glimpse of human faces lying around without any eyes - but with deep holes instead. 'Eyes here' eyes!' roared Coppelius tonelessly. Overcome by the wildest terror, I shrieked out and fell from my hiding place upon the floor. Coppelius seized me and, baring his teeth, bleated out, 'Ah - little wretch - little wretch!' Then he dragged me up and flung me on the hearth, where the fire began to singe my hair. 'Now we have eyes enough - a pretty pair of child's eyes,' he whispered, and, taking some red-hot grains out of the flames with his bare hands, he was about to sprinkle them in my eyes. My father upon this raised his hands in supplication, crying: 'Master, master, leave my Nathaniel his eyes!' Whereupon Coppelius answered with a shrill laugh: 'Well, let the lad have his eyes and do his share of the world's crying, but we will examine the mechanism of his hands and feet.' And then he seized me so roughly that my joints cracked, and screwed off my hands and feet, afterwards putting them back again, one after the other. 'There's something wrong here,' he mumbled. 'But now it's as good as ever. The old man has caught the idea!' hissed and lisped Coppelius. But all around me became black, a sudden cramp darted through my bones and nerves - and I lost consciousness. A gentle warm breath passed over my face; I woke as from the sleep of death. My mother had been stooping over me. 'Is the Sandman still there?' I stammered. 'No, no, my dear child, he has gone away long ago - he won't hurt you!' said my mother, kissing her darling, as he regained his senses. Why should I weary you, my dear Lothaire, with diffuse details, when I have so much more to tell ? Suffice it to say that I had been discovered eavesdropping and ill-used by Coppelius. Agony and terror had brought on delirium and fever, from which I lay sick for several weeks. 'Is the Sandman still there?' That was my first sensible word and the sign of my amendment - my recovery. I have only to tell you now of this most frightful moment in all my youth, and you will be convinced that it is no fault of my eyes that everything seems colorless to me. You will, indeed, know that a dark fatality has hung over my life a gloomy veil of clouds, which I shall perhaps only tear away in death. Coppelius was no more to be seen; it was said he had left the town. About a year might have elapsed, and we were sitting, as of old, at the round table. My father was very cheerful, and was entertaining us with stories about his travels in his youth; when, as the clock struck nine, we heard the house-door groan on its hinges, and slow steps, heavy as lead, creaked through the passage and up the stairs. 'That is Coppelius,' said my mother, turning pale. 'Yes! - that is Coppelius'' repeated my father in a faint, broken voice. The tears started to my mother's eyes. 'But father - father!' she cried, 'must it be so?' 'He is coming for the last time, I promise you,' was the answer. 'Only go now, go with the children - go - go to bed. Good night!' I felt as if I were turned to cold, heavy stone - my breath stopped. My mother caught me by the arm as I stood immovable. 'Come, come, Nathaniel!' I allowed myself to be led, and entered my chamber! 'Be quiet - be quiet - go to bed - go to sleep!' cried my mother after me; but tormented by restlessness and an inward anguish perfectly indescribable, I could not close my eyes. The hateful, abominable Coppelius stood before me with fiery eyes, and laughed maliciously at me. It was in vain that I endeavored to get rid of his image. About midnight there was a frightful noise, like the firing of a gun. The whole house resounded. There was a rattling and rustling by my door, and the house door was closed with a violent bang. 'That is Coppelius !' I cried, springing out of bed in terror. Then there was a shriek, as of acute, inconsolable grief. I darted into my father's room; the door was open, a suffocating smoke rolled towards me, and the servant girl cried: 'Ah, my master, my master!' On the floor of the smoking hearth lay my father dead, with his face burned, blackened and hideously distorted - my sisters were shrieking and moaning around him - and my mother had fainted. 'Coppelius! - cursed devil! You have slain my father!' I cried, and lost my senses. When, two days afterwards, my father was laid in his coffin, his features were again as mild and gentle as they had been in his life. My soul was comforted by the thought that his compact with the satanic Coppelius could not have plunged him into eternal perdition. The explosion had awakened the neighbors, the occurrence had become common talk, and had reached the ears of the magistracy, who wished to make Coppelius answerable. He had, however, vanished from the spot, without leaving a trace. If I tell you, my dear friend, that the barometer-dealer was the accursed Coppelius himself, you will not blame me for regarding so unpropitious a phenomenon as the omen of some dire calamity. He was dressed differently, but the figure and features of Coppelius are too deeply imprinted in my mind for an error in this respect to be possible. Besides, Coppelius has not even altered his name. He describes himself, I am told, as a Piedmontese optician, and calls himself Giuseppe Coppola. I am determined to deal with him, and to avenge my father's death, be the issue what it may. Tell my mother nothing of the hideous monster's appearance. Remember me to my dear sweet Clara, to whom I will write in a calmer mood. Farewell. CLARA TO NATHANIEL It is true that you have not written to me for a long time; but, nevertheless, I believe that I am still in your mind and thoughts. For assuredly you were thinking of me most intently when, designing to send your last letter to my brother Lothaire, you directed it to me instead of to him. I joyfully opened the letter, and did not perceive my error till I came to the words: 'Ah, my dear Lothaire.' NO, by rights I should have read no farther, but should have handed over the letter to my brother. Although you have often, in your childish teasing mood, charged me with having such a quiet, womanish, steady disposition, that, even if the house were about to fall in, I should smooth down a wrong fold in the window curtain in a most ladylike manner before I ran away, I can hardly tell you how your letter shocked me. I could scarcely breathe-----the light danced before my eyes. Ah, my dear Nathaniel, how could such a horrible thing have crossed your path ? To be parted from you, never to see you again - the thought darted through my breast like a burning dagger. I read on and on. Your description of the repulsive Coppelius is terrifying. I learned for the first time the violent manner of your good old father's death. My brother Lothaire, to whom I surrendered the letter, sought to calm me, but in vain. The fatal barometer dealer, Giuseppe Coppola, followed me at every step; and I am almost ashamed to confess that he disturbed my healthy and usually peaceful sleep with all sorts of horrible visions. Yet soon even the next day - I was quite changed again. Do not be offended, dearest one, if Lothaire tells you that in spite of your strange fears that Coppelius will in some manner injure you, I am in the same cheerful and unworried mood as ever. I must honestly confess that, in my opinion, all the terrible things of which you speak occurred merely in your own mind, and had little to do with the actual external world. Old Coppelius may have been repulsive enough, but his hatred of children was what really caused the abhorrence you children felt towards him. In your childish mind the frightful Sandman in the nurse's tale was naturally associated with old Coppelius. Why, even if you had not believed in the Sandman, Coppelius would still have seemed to you a monster, especially dangerous to children. The awful business which he carried on at night with your father was no more than this: that they were making alchemical experiments in secret, which much distressed your mother since, besides a great deal of money being wasted, your father's mind was filled with a fallacious desire after higher wisdom, and so alienated from his family - as they say is always the case with such experimentalists. Your father, no doubt, occasioned his own death, by some act of carelessness of which Coppelius was completely guiltless. Let me tell you that I yesterday asked our neighbor, the apothecary, whether such a sudden and fatal explosion was possible in these chemical experiments? 'Certainly,' he replied and, after his fashion, told me at great length and very circumstantially how such an event might take place, uttering a number of strange-sounding names which I am unable to recollect. Now, I know you will be angry with your Clara; you will say that her cold nature is impervious to any ray of the mysterious, which often embraces man with invisible arms; that she only sees the variegated surface of the world, and is as delighted as a silly child at some glittering golden fruit, which contains within it a deadly poison. Ah ! my dear Nathaniel! Can you not then believe that even in open, cheerful, careless minds may dwell the suspicion of some dread power which endeavors to destroy us in our own selves ? Forgive me, if I, a silly girl, presume in any manner to present to you my thoughts on such an internal struggle. I shall not find the right words, of course, and you will laugh at me, not because my thoughts are foolish, but because I express them so clumsily. If there is a dark and hostile power, laying its treacherous toils within us, by which it holds us fast and draws us along the path of peril and destruction, which we should not otherwise have trod; if, I say there is such a power, it must form itself inside us and out of ourselves, indeed; it must become identical with ourselves. For it is only in this condition that we can believe in it, and grant it the room which it requires to accomplish its secret work. Now, if we have a mind which is sufficiently firm, sufficiently strengthened by the joy of life, always to recognize this strange enemy as such, and calmly to follow the path of our own inclination and calling, then the dark power will fail in its attempt to gain a form that shall be a reflection of ourselves. Lothaire adds that if we have willingly yielded ourselves up to the dark powers, they are known often to impress upon our minds any strange, unfamiliar shape which the external world has thrown in our way; so that we ourselves kindle the spirit, which we in our strange delusion believe to be speaking to us. It is the phantom of our own selves, the close relationship with which, and its deep operation on our mind, casts us into hell or transports us into heaven. You see, dear Nathaniel, how freely Lothaire and I are giving our opinion on the subject of the dark powers; which subject, to judge by my difficulties in writing down. its most important features, appears to be a complicated one. Lothaire's last words I do not quite comprehend. I can only suspect what he means, and yet I feel as if it were all very true. Get the gruesome advocate Coppelius, and the barometer-dealer, Giuseppe Coppola, quite out of your head, I beg of you. Be convinced that these strange fears have no power over you, and that it is only a belief in their hostile influence that can make them hostile in reality. If the great disturbance in your mind did not speak from every line of your letter, if your situation did not give me the deepest pain, I could joke about the Sandman-Advocate and the barometer dealer Coppelius. Cheer up, I have determined to play the part of your guardian-spirit. If the ugly Coppelius takes it into his head to annoy you in your dreams, I'll scare him away with loud peals of laughter. I am not a bit afraid of him nor of his disgusting hands; he shall neither spoil my sweetmeats as an Advocate, nor my eyes as a Sandman. Ever yours, my dear Nathaniel. NATHANIEL TO LOTHAIRE I am very sorry that in consequence of the error occasioned by my distracted state of mind, Clara broke open the letter intended for you, and read it. She has written me a very profound philosophical epistle, in which she proves, at great length, that Coppelius and Coppola only exist in my own mind, and are phantoms of myself, which will be dissipated directly I recognize them as such. Indeed, it is quite incredible that the mind which so often peers out of those bright, smiling, childish eyes with all the charm of a dream, could make such intelligent professorial definitions. She cites you - you, it seems have been talking about me. I suppose you read her logical lectures, so that she may learn to separate and sift all matters acutely. No more of that, please. Besides, it is quite certain that the barometer-dealer, Giuseppe Coppola, is not the advocate Coppelius. I attend the lectures of the professor of physics, who has lately arrived. His name is the same as that of the famous natural philosopher Spalanzani, and he is of Italian origin. He has known Coppola for years and, moreover, it is clear from his accent that he is really a Piedmontese. Coppelius was a German, but I think no honest one. Calmed I am not, and though you and Clara may consider me a gloomy visionary, I cannot get rid of the impression which the accursed face of Coppelius makes upon me. I am glad that Coppola has left the town - so Spalanzani says. This professor is a strange fellow - a little round man with high cheek-bones, a sharp nose, pouting lips and little, piercing eyes. Yet you will get a better notion of him than from this description, if you look at the portrait of Cagliostro, drawn by Chodowiecki in one of the Berlin annuals; Spalanzani looks like that exactly. I lately went up his stairs, and perceived that the curtain, which was generally drawn completely over a glass door, left a little opening on one side. I know not what curiosity impelled me to look through. A very tall and slender lady, extremely well-proportioned and most splendidly attired, sat in the room by a little table on which she had laid her arms, her hands being folded together. She sat opposite the door, so that I could see the whole of her angelic countenance. She did not appear to see me, and indeed there was something fixed about her eyes as if, I might almost say, she had no power of sight. It seemed to me that she was sleeping with her eyes open. I felt very uncomfortable, and therefore I slunk away into the lecture-room close at hand. Afterwards I learned that the form I had seen was that of Spalanzani's daughter Olympia, whom he keeps confined in a very strange and barbarous manner, so that no one can approach her. After all, there may be something the matter with her; she is half-witted perhaps, or something of the kind. But why should I write you all this? I could have conveyed it better and more circumstantially by word of mouth. For I shall see you in a fortnight. I must again behold my dear, sweet angelic Clara. My evil mood will then be dispersed, though I must confess that it has been struggling for mastery over me ever since her sensible but vexing letter. Therefore I do not write to her today. A thousand greetings, etc.   Nothing more strange and chimerical can be imagined than the fate of my poor friend, the young student Nathaniel, which I, gracious reader, have undertaken to tell you. Have you ever known something that has completely filled your heart, thoughts and senses, to the exclusion of every other object? There was a burning fermentation within you; your blood seethed like a molten glow through your veins, sending a higher color to your cheeks. Your glance was strange, as if you were seeking in empty space forms invisible to all other eyes, and your speech flowed away into dark sighs. Then your friends asked you: 'What is it, my dear sir?' 'What is the matter?' And you wanted to draw the picture in your mind in all its glowing tints, in all its light and shade, and labored hard to find words only to begin. You thought that you should crowd together in the very first sentence all those wonderful, exalted, horrible, comical, frightful events, so as to strike every hearer at once as with an electric shock. But every word, every thing that takes the form of speech, appeared to you colorless, cold and dead. You hunt and hunt, and stutter and stammer, and your friends' sober questions blow like icy wind upon your internal fire until it is almost out. Whereas if, like a bold painter, you had first drawn an outline of the internal picture with a few daring strokes, you might with small trouble have laid on the colors brighter and brighter, and the living throng of varied shapes would have borne your friends away with it. Then they would have seen themselves, like you, in the picture that your mind had bodied forth. Now I must confess to you, kind reader, that no one has really asked me for the history of the young Nathaniel, but you know well enough that I belong to the queer race of authors who, if they have anything in their minds such as I have just described, feel as if everyone who comes near them, and the whole world besides, is insistently demanding: 'What is it then - tell it, my dear friend?' Thus was I forcibly compelled to tell you of the momentous life of Nathaniel. The marvelous singularity of the story filled my entire soul, but for that very reason and because, my dear reader, I had to make you equally inclined to accept the uncanny, which is no small matter, I was puzzled how to begin Nathaniel's story in a manner as inspiring, original and striking as possible. 'Once upon a time,' the beautiful beginning of every tale, was too tame. 'In the little provincial town of S____ lived' - was somewhat better, as it at least prepared for the climax. Or should I dart at once, medias in res, with "'Go to the devil," cried the student Nathaniel with rage and horror in his wild looks, when the barometer-dealer, Giuseppe Coppola . . .?' - I had indeed already written this down, when I fancied that I could detect something ludicrous in the wild looks of the student Nathaniel, whereas the story is not comical at all. No form of language suggested itself to my mind which seemed to reflect ever in the slightest degree the coloring of the internal picture. I resolved that I would not begin it at all. So take, gentle reader, the three letters. which friend Lothaire was good enough to give me, as the sketch of the picture which I shall endeavor to color more and more brightly as I proceed with my narrative. Perhaps, like a good portrait-painter, I may succeed in catching the outline in this way, so that you will realize it is a likeness even without knowing the original, and feel as if you had often seen the person with your own corporeal eyes. Perhaps, dear reader, you will then believe that nothing is stranger and madder than actual life; which the poet can only catch in the form of a dull reflection in a dimly polished mirror. To give you all the information that you will require for a start, we must supplement these letters with the news that shortly after the death of Nathaniel's father, Clara and Lothaire, the children of a distant relative, who had likewise died and left them orphans, were taken by Nathaniel's mother into her own home. Clara and Nathaniel formed a strong attachment for each other; and no one in the world having any objection to make, they were betrothed when Nathaniel left the place to pursue his studies in G___ . And there he is, according to his last letter, attending the lectures of the celebrated professor of physics, Spalanzani. Now, I could proceed in my story with confidence, but at this moment Clara's picture stands so plainly before me that I cannot turn away; as indeed was always the case when she gazed at me with one of her lovely smiles. Clara could not by any means be reckoned beautiful, that was the opinion of all who are by their calling competent judges of beauty. Architects, nevertheless, praised the exact symmetry of her frame, and painters considered her neck, shoulders and bosom almost too chastely formed; but then they all fell in love with her wondrous hair and coloring, comparing her to the Magdalen in Battoni's picture at Dresden. One of them, a most fantastical and singular fellow, compared Clara's eyes to a lake by Ruysdael, in which the pure azure of a cloudless sky, the wood and flowery field, the whole cheerful life of the rich landscape are reflected. Poets and composers went still further. 'What is a lake what is a mirror!' said they. 'Can we look upon the girl without wondrous, heavenly music flowing towards us from her glances, to penetrate our inmost soul so that all there is awakened and stirred? If we don't sing well then, there is not much in us, as we shall learn from the delicate smile which plays on Clara's lips, when we presume to pipe up before her with something intended to pass for a song, although it is only a confused jumble of notes.' So it was. Clara had the vivid fancy of a cheerful, unembarrassed child; a deep, tender, feminine disposition; an acute, clever understanding. Misty dreamers had not a chance with her; since, though she did not talk - talking would have been altogether repugnant to her silent nature - her bright glance and her firm ironical smile would say to them: 'Good friends, how can you imagine that I shall take your fleeting shadowy images for real shapes imbued with life and motion ?' On this account Clara was censured by many as cold, unfeeling and prosaic; while others, who understood life to its clear depths, greatly loved the feeling, acute, childlike girl; but none so much as Nathaniel, whose perception in art and science was clear and strong. Clara was attached to her lover with all her heart, and when he parted from her the first cloud passed over her life. With what delight, therefore, did she rush into his arms when, as he had promised in his last letter to Lothaire, he actually returned to his native town and entered his mother's room! Nathaniel's expectations were completely fulfilled; for directly he saw Clara he thought neither of the Advocate Coppelius nor of her 'sensible' letter. All gloomy forebodings had gone. However, Nathaniel was quite right, when he wrote to his friend Lothaire that the form of the repulsive barometer-dealer, Coppola, had had a most evil effect on his life. All felt, even in the first days, that Nathaniel had undergone a complete change in his whole being. He sank into a gloomy reverie, and behaved in a strange manner that had never been known in him before. Everything, his whole life, had become to him a dream and a foreboding, and he was always saying that man, although he might think himself free, only served for the cruel sport of dark powers These he said it was vain to resist; man must patiently resign himself to his fate. He even went so far as to say that it is foolish to think that we do anything in art and science according to our own independent will; for the inspiration which alone enables us to produce anything does not proceed from within ourselves, but is the effect of a higher principle without. To the clear-headed Clara this mysticism was in the highest degree repugnant, but contradiction appeared to be useless. Only when Nathaniel proved that Coppelius was the evil principle, which had seized him at the moment when he was listening behind the curtain, and that this repugnant principle would in some horrible manner disturb the happiness of their life, Clara grew very serious, and said: 'Yes, Nathaniel, you are right. Coppelius is an evil, hostile principle; he can produce terrible effects, like a diabolical power that has come visibly into life; but only if you will not banish him from your mind and thoughts. So long as you believe in him, he really exists and exerts his influence; his power lies only in your belief.' Quite indignant that Clara did not admit the demon's existence outside his own mind, Nathaniel would then come out with all the mystical doctrine of devils and powers of evil. But Clara would break off peevishly by introducing some indifferent matter, to the no small annoyance of Nathaniel. He thought that such deep secrets were closed to cold, unreceptive minds, without being clearly aware that he was counting Clara among these subordinate natures; and therefore he constantly endeavored to initiate her into the mysteries. In the morning, when Clara was getting breakfast ready, he stood by her, reading out of all sorts of mystical books till she cried: 'But dear Nathaniel, suppose I blame you as the evil principle that has a hostile effect upon my coffee? For if, to please you, I drop everything and look in your eyes while you read, my coffee will overflow into the fire, and none of you will get any breakfast.' Nathaniel closed the book at once and hurried indignantly to his chamber. Once he had a remarkable forte for graceful, lively tales, which he wrote down, and to which Clara listened with the greatest delight; now his creations were gloomy, incomprehensible and formless, so that although, out of compassion, Clara did not say so, he plainly felt how little she was interested. Nothing was more unbearable to Clara than tediousness; her looks and words expressed mental drowsiness which she could not overcome. Nathaniel's productions were, indeed, very tedious. His indignation at Clara's cold, prosaic disposition constantly increased; and Clara could not overcome her dislike of Nathaniel's dark, gloomy, boring mysticism, so that they became mentally more and more estranged without either of them perceiving it. The shape of the ugly Coppelius, as Nathaniel himself was forced to confess, was growing dimmer in his fancy, and it often cost him some pains to draw him with sufficient color in his stories, where he figured as the dread bogy of ill omen. It occurred to him, however, in the end to make his gloomy foreboding, that Coppelius would destroy his happiness, the subject of a poem. He represented himself and Clara as united by true love, but occasionally threatened by a black hand, which appeared to dart into their lives, to snatch away some new joy just as it was born. Finally, as they were standing at the altar, the hideous Coppelius appeared and touched Clara's lovely eyes. They flashed into Nathaniel's heart, like bleeding sparks, scorching and burning, as Coppelius caught him, and flung him into a flaming, fiery circle, which flew round with the swiftness of a storm, carrying him along with it, amid its roaring. The roar is like that of the hurricane, when it fiercely lashes the foaming waves, which rise up, like black giants with white heads, for the furious combat. But through the wild tumult he hears Clara's voice: 'Can't you see me then? Coppelius has deceived you. Those, indeed, were not my eyes which so burned in your breast - they were glowing drops of your own heart's blood. I have my eyes still - only look at them!' Nathaniel reflects: 'That is Clara, and I am hers for ever!' Then it seems to him as though this thought has forcibly entered the fiery circle, which stands still, while the noise dully ceases in the dark abyss. Nathaniel looks into Clara's eyes, but it is death that looks kindly upon him from her eyes While Nathaniel composed this poem, he was very calm and collected; he polished and improved every line, and having subjected himself to the fetters of metre, he did not rest till all was correct and melodious. When at last he had finished and read the poem aloud to himself, a wild horror seized him. 'Whose horrible voice is that?' he cried out. Soon, however, the whole appeared to him a very successful work, and he felt that it must rouse Clara's cold temperament, although he did not clearly consider why Clara was to be excited, nor what purpose it would serve to torment her with frightful pictures threatening a horrible fate, destructive to their love. Both of them - that is to say, Nathaniel and Clara - were sitting in his mother's little garden, Clara very cheerful, because Nathaniel had not teased her with his dreams and his forebodings during the three days in which he had been writing his poem. He was even talking cheerfully, as in the old days, about pleasant matters, which caused Clara to remark: 'Now for the first time I have you again! Don't you see that we have driven the ugly Coppelius away?' Not till then did it strike Nathaniel that he had in his pocket the poem, which he had intended to read. He at once drew the sheets out and began, while Clara, expecting something tedious as usual, resigned herself and began quietly to knit. But as the dark cloud rose ever blacker and blacker, she let the stocking fall and looked him full in the face. He was carried irresistibly along by his poem, an internal fire deeply reddened his cheeks, tears flowed from his eyes. At last, when he had concluded, he groaned in a state of utter exhaustion and, catching Clara's hand, sighed forth, as if melted into the most inconsolable grief: 'Oh Clara! - Clara!' Clara pressed him gently to her bosom, and said softly, but very solemnly and sincerely: 'Nathaniel, dearest Nathaniel, do throw that mad, senseless, insane stuff into the fire!' Upon this Nathaniel sprang up enraged and, thrusting Clara from him, cried: 'Oh, inanimate, accursed automaton!' With which he ran off; Clara, deeply offended, shed bitter tears, and sobbed aloud: 'Ah, he has never loved me, for he does not understand me.' Lothaire entered the arbor; Clara was obliged to tell him all that had occurred. He loved his sister with all his soul, and every word of her complaint fell like a spark of fire into his heart, so that the indignation which he had long harbored against the visionary Nathaniel now broke out into the wildest rage. He ran to Nathaniel and reproached him for his senseless conduce towards his beloved sister in hard words, to which the infuriated Nathaniel retorted in the same style. The appellation of 'fantastical, mad fool,' was answered by that of 'miserable commonplace fellow.' A duel was inevitable. They agreed on the following morning, according to the local student custom, to fight with sharp rapiers on the far side of the garden. Silently and gloomily they slunk about. Clara had overheard the violent dispute and, seeing the fencing-master bring the rapiers at dawn, guessed what was to occur. Having reached the place of combat, Lothaire and Nathaniel had in gloomy silence flung off their coats, and with the lust of battle in their flaming eyes were about to fall upon one another, when Clara rushed through the garden door, crying aloud between her sobs: 'You wild cruel men! Strike me down before you attack each other. For how can I live on if my lover murders my brother, or my brother murders my lover.' Lothaire lowered his weapon, and looked in silence on the ground; but in Nathaniel's heart, amid the most poignant sorrow, there revived all his love for the beautiful Clara, which he had felt in the prime of his happy youth. The weapon fell from his hand, he threw himself at Clara's feet. 'Can you ever forgive me, my only - my beloved Clara? Can you forgive me, my dear brother, Lothaire?' Lothaire was touched by the deep contrition of his friend; all three embraced in reconciliation amid a thousand tears, and vowed eternal love and fidelity. Nathaniel felt as though a heavy and oppressive burden had been rolled away, as though by resisting the dark power that held him fast he had saved his whole being, which had been threatened with annihilation. Three happy days he passed with his dear friends, and then went to G___ , where he intended to stay a year, and then to return to his native town for ever. All that referred to Coppelius was kept a secret from his mother. For it was well known that she could not think of him without terror since she, as well as Nathaniel, held him guilty of causing her husband's death.   How surprised was Nathaniel when, proceeding to his lodging, he saw that the whole house was burned down, and that only the bare walls stood up amid the ashes. However, although fire had broken out in the laboratory of the apothecary who lived on the ground-floor, and had therefore consumed the house from top to bottom, some bold active friends had succeeded in entering Nathaniel's room in the upper story in time to save his books, manuscripts and instruments. They carried all safe and sound into another house, where they took a room, to which Nathaniel moved at once. He did not think it at all remarkable that he now lodged opposite to Professor Spalanzani; neither did it appear singular when he perceived that his window looked straight into the room where Olympia often sat alone, so that he could plainly recognize her figure, although the features of her face were indistinct and confused. At last it struck him that Olympia often remained for hours in that attitude in which he had once seen her through the glass door, sitting at a little table without any occupation, and that she was plainly enough looking over at him with an unvarying gaze. He was forced to confess that he had never seen a more lovely form but, with Clara in his heart, the stiff Olympia was perfectly indifferent to him. Occasionally, to be sure, he gave a transient look over his textbook at the beautiful statue, but that was all. He was just writing to Clara, when he heard a light tap at the door; it stopped as he answered, and the repulsive face of Coppola peeped in. Nathaniel's heart trembled within him, but remembering what Spalanzani had told him about his compatriot Coppola, and also the firm promise he had made to Clara with respect to the Sandman Coppelius, he felt ashamed of his childish fear and, collecting himself with all his might, said as softly and civilly as possible: 'I do not want a barometer, my good friend; pray go.' Upon this, Coppola advanced a good way into the room, his wide mouth distorted into a hideous laugh, and his little eyes darting fire from beneath their long grey lashes: 'Eh, eh - no barometer - no barometer?' he said in a hoarse voice, 'I have pretty eyes too - pretty eyes!' 'Madman!' cried Nathaniel in horror. 'How can you have eyes? Eyes?' But Coppola had already put his barometer aside and plunged his hand into his wide coat-pocket, whence he drew lorgnettes and spectacles, which he placed upon the table. 'There - there - spectacles on the nose, those are my eyes - pretty eyes!' he gabbled, drawing out more and more spectacles, until the whole table began to glisten and sparkle in the most extraordinary manner. A thousand eyes stared and quivered, their gaze fixed upon Nathaniel; yet he could not look away from the table, where Coppola kept laying down still more and more spectacles, and all those flaming eyes leapt in wilder and wilder confusion, shooting their blood red light into Nathaniel's heart. At last, overwhelmed with horror, he shrieked out: 'Stop, stop, you terrify me!' and seized Coppola by the arm, as he searched his pockets to bring out still more spectacles, although the whole table was already covered. Coppola gently extricated himself with a hoarse repulsive laugh; and with the words: 'Ah, nothing for you - but here are pretty glasses!' collected all the spectacles, packed them away, and from the breast-pocket of his coat drew forth a number of telescopes large and small. As soon as the spectacles were removed Nathaniel felt quite easy and, thinking of Clara, perceived that the hideous phantom was but the creature of his own mind, that this Coppola was an honest optician and could not possibly be the accursed double of Coppelius. Moreover, in all the glasses which Coppola now placed on the table, there was nothing remarkable, or at least nothing so uncanny as in the spectacles; and to set matters right Nathaniel resolved to make a purchase. He took up a little, very neatly constructed pocket telescope, and looked through the window to try it. Never in his life had he met a glass which brought objects so clearly and sharply before his eyes. Involuntarily he looked into Spalanzani's room; Olympia was sitting as usual before the little table, with her arms laid upon it, and her hands folded. For the first time he could see the wondrous beauty in the shape of her face; only her eyes seemed to him singularly still and dead. Nevertheless, as he looked more keenly through the glass, it seemed to him as if moist moonbeams were rising in Olympia's eyes. It was as if the power of seeing were being kindled for the first time; her glances flashed with constantly increasing life. As if spellbound, Nathaniel reclined against the window, meditating on the charming Olympia. A humming and scraping aroused him as if from a dream. Coppola was standing behind him: 'Tre zecchini - three ducats!' He had quite forgotten the optician, and quickly paid him what he asked. 'Is it not so ? A pretty glass - a pretty glass ?' asked Coppola, in his hoarse, repulsive voice, and with his malicious smile. 'Yes - yes,' replied Nathaniel peevishly; 'Good-bye, friend.' Coppola left the room, but not without casting many strange glances at Nathaniel. He heard him laugh loudly on the stairs. 'Ah,' thought Nathaniel, 'he is laughing at me because, no doubt, I have paid him too much for this little glass.' While he softly uttered these words, it seemed as if a deep and lugubrious sigh were sounding fearfully through the room; and his breath was stopped by inward anguish. He perceived, however, that it was himself that had sighed. 'Clara is right,' he said to himself, 'in taking me for a senseless dreamer, but it is pure madness - nay, more than madness, that the stupid thought of having paid Coppola too much for the glass still pains me so strangely. I cannot see the cause.' He now sat down to finish his letter to Clara; but a glance through the window assured him that Olympia was still sitting there, and he instantly sprang up, as if impelled by an irresistible power, seized Coppola's glass, and could not tear himself away from the seductive sight of Olympia till his friend and brother Sigismund called him to go to Professor Spalanzani's lecture. The curtain was drawn close before the fatal room, and he could see Olympia no longer, nor could he upon the next day or the next, although he scarcely ever left his window and constantly looked through Coppola's glass. On the third day the windows were completely covered. In utter despair, filled with a longing and a burning desire, he ran out of the town-gate. Olympia's form floated before him in the air, stepped forth from the bushes, and peeped at him with large beaming eyes from the clear brook. Clara's image had completely vanished from his mind; he thought of nothing but Olympia, and complained aloud in a murmuring voice: 'Ah, noble, sublime star of my love, have you only risen upon me to vanish immediately, and leave me in dark hopeless night?' As he returned to his lodging, however, he perceived a great bustle in Spalanzani's house. The doors were wide open, all sorts of utensils were being carried in, the windows of the first floor were being taken out, maid-servants were going about sweeping and dusting with great hairbrooms, and carpenters and upholsterers were knocking and hammering within. Nathaniel remained standing in the street in a state of perfect wonder, when Sigismund came up to him laughing, and said: 'Now, what do you say to our old Spalanzani?' Nathaniel assured him that he could say nothing because he knew nothing about the professor, but on the contrary perceived with astonishment the mad proceedings in a house otherwise so quiet and gloomy. He then learnt from Sigismund that Spalanzani intended to give a grand party on the following day - a concert and ball - and that half the university was invited. It was generally reported that Spalanzani, who had so long kept his daughter most scrupulously from every human eye, would now let her appear for the first time. Nathaniel found a card of invitation, and with heart beating high went at the appointed hour to the professor's, where the coaches were already arriving and the lights shining in the decorated rooms. The company was numerous and brilliant. Olympia appeared dressed with great richness and taste. Her beautifully shaped face and her figure roused general admiration. The somewhat strange arch of her back and the wasp-like thinness of her waist seemed to be produced by too tight lacing. In her step and deportment there was something measured and stiff, which struck many as unpleasant, but it was ascribed to the constraint produced by the company. The concert began. Olympia played the harpsichord with great dexterity, and sang a virtuoso piece, with a voice like the sound of a glass bell, clear and almost piercing. Nathaniel was quite enraptured; he stood in the back row, and could not perfectly recognize Olympia's features in the dazzling light. Therefore, quite unnoticed, he took out Coppola's glass and looked towards the fair creature. Ah! then he saw with what a longing glance she gazed towards him, and how every note of her song plainly sprang from that loving glance, whose fire penetrated his inmost soul. Her accomplished roulades seemed to Nathaniel the exultation of a mind transfigured by love, and when at last, after the cadence, the long trill sounded shrilly through the room, he felt as if clutched by burning arms. He could restrain himself no longer, but with mingled pain and rapture shouted out, 'Olympia!' Everyone looked at him, and many laughed. The organist of the cathedral made a gloomier face than usual, and simply said: 'Well, well.' The concert had finished, the ball began. 'To dance with her - with her!' That was the aim of all Nathaniel's desire, of all his efforts; but how to gain courage to ask her, the queen of the ball? Nevertheless - he himself did not know how it happened - no sooner had the dancing begun than he was standing close to Olympia, who had not yet been asked to dance. Scarcely able to stammer out a few words, he had seized her hand. Olympia's hand was as cold as ice; he felt a horrible deathly chill thrilling through him. He looked into her eyes, which beamed back full of love and desire, and at the same time it seemed as though her pulse began to beat and her life's blood to flow into her cold hand. And in the soul of Nathaniel the joy of love rose still higher; he clasped the beautiful Olympia, and with her flew through the dance. He thought that his dancing was usually correct as to time, but the peculiarly steady rhythm with which Olympia moved, and which often put him completely out, soon showed him that his time was most defective. However, he would dance with no other lady, and would have murdered anyone who approached Olympia for the purpose of asking her. But this only happened twice, and to his astonishment Olympia remained seated until the next dance, when he lost no time in making her rise again. Had he been able to see any other object besides the fair Olympia, all sorts of unfortunate quarrels would have been inevitable. For the quiet, scarcely suppressed laughter which arose among the young people in every corner was manifestly directed towards Olympia, whom they followed with very curious glances - one could not tell why. Heated by the dance and by the wine, of which he had freely partaken, Nathaniel had laid aside all his ordinary reserve. He sat by Olympia with her hand in his and, in a high state of inspiration, told her his passion, in words which neither he nor Olympia understood. Yet perhaps she did; for she looked steadfastly into his face and sighed several times, 'Ah, ah!' Upon this, Nathaniel said, 'Oh splendid, heavenly lady! Ray from the promised land of love - deep soul in whom all my being is reflected !' with much more stuff of the like kind. But Olympia merely went on sighing, 'Ah - ah!' Professor Spalanzani occasionally passed the happy pair, and smiled on them with a look of singular satisfaction. To Nathaniel, although he felt in quite another world, it seemed suddenly as though Professor Spalanzani's face was growing considerably darker, and when he looked around he perceived, to his no small horror, that the last two candles in the empty room had burned down to their sockets, and were just going out. The music and dancing had ceased long ago. 'Parting - parting!' he cried in wild despair; he kissed Olympia's hand, he bent towards her mouth, when his glowing lips were met by lips cold as ice! Just as when he had touched her cold hand, he felt himself overcome by horror; the legend of the dead bride darted suddenly through his mind, but Olympia pressed him fast, and her lips seemed to spring to life at his kiss. Professor Spalanzani strode through the empty hall, his steps caused a hollow echo, and his figure, round which a flickering shadow played, had a fearful, spectral appearance. 'Do you love me, do you love me, Olympia? Only one word! Do you love me?' whispered Nathaniel; but as she rose Olympia only sighed, 'Ah - ah!' 'Yes, my gracious, my beautiful star of love,' said Nathaniel, 'you have risen upon me, and you will shine, for ever lighting my inmost soul.' 'Ah - ah!' replied Olympia, as she departed. Nathaniel followed her; they both stood before the professor. 'You have had a very animated conversation with my daughter,' said he, smiling; 'So, dear Herr Nathaniel, if you have any pleasure in talking with a silly girl, your visits shall be welcome.' Nathaniel departed with a whole heaven beaming in his heart. The next day Spalanzani's party was the general subject of conversation. Notwithstanding that the professor had made every effort to appear splendid, the wags had all sorts of incongruities and oddities to talk about. They were particularly hard upon the dumb, stiff Olympia whom, in spite of her beautiful exterior, they considered to be completely stupid, and they were delighted to find in her stupidity the reason why Spalanzani had kept her so long concealed. Nathaniel did not hear this without secret anger. Nevertheless he held his peace. 'For,' thought he, 'is it worth while convincing these fellows that it is their own stupidity that prevents their recognizing Olympia's deep, noble mind?' One day Sigismund said to him: 'Be kind enough, brother, to tell me how a sensible fellow like you could possibly lose your head over that wax face, over that wooden doll up there?' Nathaniel was about to fly out in a passion, but he quickly recollected himself and retorted: 'Tell me, Sigismund, how it is that Olympia's heavenly charms could escape your active and intelligent eyes, which generally perceive things so clearly? But, for that very reason, Heaven be thanked, I have not you for my rival; otherwise, one of us must have fallen a bleeding corpse!' Sigismund plainly perceived his friend's condition. So he skillfully gave the conversation a turn and, after observing that in love-affairs there was no disputing about the object, added: 'Nevertheless, it is strange that many of us think much the same about Olympia. To us - pray do not take it ill, brother she appears singularly stiff and soulless. Her shape is well proportioned - so is her face - that is true! She might pass for beautiful if her glance were not so utterly without a ray of life - without the power of vision. Her pace is strangely regular, every movement seems to depend on some wound-up clockwork. Her playing and her singing keep the same unpleasantly correct and spiritless time as a musical box, and the same may be said of her dancing. We find your Olympia quite uncanny, and prefer to have nothing to do with her. She seems to act like a living being, and yet has some strange peculiarity of her own.' Nathaniel did not completely yield to the bitter feeling which these words of Sigismund's roused in him, but mastered his indignation, and merely said with great earnestness, 'Olympia may appear uncanny to you, cold, prosaic man. Only the poetical mind is sensitive to its like in others. To me alone was the love in her glances revealed, and it has pierced my mind and all my thought; only in the love of Olympia do I discover my real self. It may not suit you that she does not indulge in idle chit-chat like other shallow minds. She utters few words, it is true, but these few words appear as genuine hieroglyphics of the inner world, full of love and deep knowledge of the spiritual life, and contemplation of the eternal beyond. But you have no sense for all this, and my words are wasted on you.' 'God preserve you, brother,' said Sigismund very mildly almost sorrowfully. 'But you seem to me to be in an evil way. You may depend upon me, if all - no, no, I will not say anything further.' All of a sudden it struck Nathaniel that the cold, prosaic Sigismund meant very well towards him; he therefore shook his proffered hand very heartily. Nathaniel had totally forgotten the very existence of Clara, whom he had once loved; his mother, Lothaire - all had vanished from his memory; he lived only for Olympia, with whom he sat for hours every day, uttering strange fantastical stuff about his love, about the sympathy that glowed to life, about the affinity of souls, to all of which Olympia listened with great devotion. From the very bottom of his desk he drew out all that he had ever written. Poems, fantasies, visions, romances, tales - this stock was daily increased by all sorts of extravagant sonnets, stanzas and canzoni, and he read them all tirelessly to Olympia for hours on end. Never had he known such an admirable listener. She neither embroidered nor knitted, she never looked out of the window, she fed no favorite bird, she played neither with lapdog nor pet cat, she did not twist a slip of paper or anything else in her hand, she was not obliged to suppress a yawn by a gentle forced cough. In short, she sat for hours, looking straight into her lover's eyes, without stirring, and her glance became more and more lively and animated Only when Nathaniel rose at last, and kissed her hand and her lips did she say, 'Ah, ah!' to which she added: 'Good night, dearest.' 'Oh deep, noble mind!' cried Nathaniel in his own room, 'you, you alone, dear one, fully under