时为19世纪中叶，世界各国正孕育着一场变革风潮，即使闭关锁国的日本也无法置身其外，拥有两百多年历史的德川幕府正渐渐走向终点。 西南一隅，萨摩藩主岛津齐彬（本田博太郎 饰）为从内部瓦解幕府的统治，想尽办法将养女笃子（菅野美穂 饰）送入大奥，成为13代将军家定（北村一辉 饰）的正室。大奥在泷山夫人（浅野ゆう子 饰）管理下井井有条，戒律重重。桀骜不驯的笃姬厌恶各种繁文缛节，加上各种政治因素搅和其中，因此她和泷山夫人矛盾逐渐升级。日后家定去世，庆福（葛山信吾 饰）上台，皇女和宫（安達祐実 饰）下嫁江户。在动荡的时代关隘，大奥上演着最后一出女人的战争……

Elizabeth I is a two-part 2005 British historical drama television miniseries directed by Tom Hooper, written by Nigel Williams, and starring Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I of England. The miniseries covers approximately the last 24 years of her nearly 45-year reign. Part 1 focuses on the final years of her relationship with the Earl of Leicester, played by Jeremy Irons. Part 2 focuses on her subsequent relationship with the Earl of Essex, played by Hugh Dancy. The series originally was broadcast in the United Kingdom in two two-hour segments on Channel 4. It later aired on HBO in the United States, CBC and TMN in Canada, ATV in Hong Kong, ABC in Australia, and TVNZ Television One in New Zealand. The series went on to win Emmy, Peabody, and Golden Globe Awards.

The story of the ascension to the throne and the early reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, the endless attempts by her council to marry her off, the Catholic hatred of her and her romance with Lord Robert Dudley.

Three narratives, set in the fifth, fourteenth, and twentieth centuries, all revolving around an ancient text and each with a love story at its center, are the elements of this ingenious novel, a follow-up to the bestselling, An Instance Of The Fingerpost. The centuries are the fifth (the final days of the Roman Empire); the fourteenth (the years of the Black Death); and the twentieth (World War II). The setting for each is the same--Provence--and each has at its heart a love story. The narratives intertwine seamlessly, but what joins them thematically is an ancient text--"The Dream of Scipio"--a work of neo-Platonism that poses timeless philosophical questions. What is the obligation of the individual in a society under siege? What is the role of learning when civilization itself is threatened, whether by acts of man or nature? Does virtue lie more in engagement or in neutrality? "Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless," warns one of Pears's characters.

A dramatic, revisionist panorama of an age whose material triumphs and spiritual crises prefigure our own. The nineteenth century saw greater changes than any previous era: in the ways nations and societies were organized; in scientific knowledge; in nonreligious intellectual development; and in capital and its consequences. The crucial players in this drama were the British, who invented both capitalism and imperialism and were incomparably the richest, hence the most important, investors in the developing world. In this sense, England's position has strong resemblances to America's in the late twentieth century. As one of our most accomplished biographers and novelists, A. N. Wilson has a keen eye for a good story, and in these pages he singles out those writers, statesmen, scientists, philosophers, and soldiers whose lives illuminate so grand and revolutionary a history: Darwin, Marx, Gladstone, Christina Rossetti, Gordon, Cardinal Newman, George Eliot, Kipling. Wilson's accomplishment in this book is to explain through these signature lives how Victorian England started a revolution that still hasn't ended. 32 pages of b/w illustrations.

The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese story telling. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety and absolute dedication to the Way of the Samurai, it depicts vividly a world Westerners know only vaguely.

1590年末的伊斯坦布尔，国王苏丹秘密委制一本伟大的书籍，颂扬他的生活与帝国。四位当朝最优秀的细密画家齐聚京城，分工合作，精心绘制这本旷世之作。此时离家12年的青年黑终于回到他的故乡——伊斯坦布尔，迎接他归来的除了爱情，还有接踵而来的谋杀案…… 一位细密画家失踪了，随即被发现死于深井中，奉命为苏丹绘制抄本的长者也惨遭杀害。遇害的画家究竟是死于画师间的夙仇、爱情的纠葛、还是与苏丹的这次秘密委托有关？苏丹要求宫廷绘画大师奥斯曼和青年黑在三天内查出结果，而线索，很可能……就藏在书中未完成的图画某处。 究竟谁是凶手？动机是什么？作者让相关人士全部都现身说法了：一只狗、一棵树、一枚金币、红色，两具尸体及死亡，甚至凶手全都站出来了。他们仿若有生命般，靠着自己的经历与观察，仔细地告诉我们每一条蛛丝马迹。

本书通过亲身游历和直接体验西班牙所遗留的古代阿拉伯文化遗产，以及对于古代摩尔人在西班牙的王朝兴替等历史史迹和阿拉伯相关优秀文学遗产的翻译和解读，作者把对西班牙南部历史名城"赭城"的游历变成了一次旅途中的旅途，从现实中的地理的旅行进入了历史与文化的深层文本旅行。并配以相关精美的艺术与历史遗迹的图片，使得本书成了一场活色生香的文字的盛宴。作者少年即负诗名，文字精致老到，译笔(包括散文和诗歌)天衣无缝。实为文字之美的生动展示。

After his wife dies, a blacksmith named Balian is thrust into royalty, political intrigue and bloody holy wars during the Crusades.