Books, Friday Favorites

Friday Favorites: Tom Hiddleston and the French Revolution

As if my collection of audio books wasn’t big enough, our Favorite this week is going to add to the pile. Take the French Revolution, add a 14-year-old magician’s assistant and a 12-year-old marquis’s daughter, stir in a little magic…and ask Tom Hiddleston to read the resulting story 🙂  It’s The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner, a well-reviewed Young Adult Historical novel. Here’s the blurb from the back cover:

A mysterious gypsy boy, Yann Margoza, and his guardian, a dwarf, work for the magician Topolain in 1789. On the night of Topolain’s death, Yann’s life truly begins. That’s when he meets Sido, an heiress with a horrible father. An attachment is born that will determine both their paths. Revolution is afoot in France, and Sido is being used as a pawn. Only Yann will dare to rescue her from a fearful villain named Count Kalliovski. It will take all of Yann’s newly discovered talent to unravel the mysteries of Sido’s past and his own and to fight the devilish count.

Alas, Tom’s narration is only available in the UK at Audible or on CD, but here’s a little taste via Youtube:

 

Regency, This Week In History

This Week In History: July 13-19

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July 13, 1814: The Carabinieri, the national gendarmerie of Italy, is established.


July 14, 1798: The citizens of Paris storm the Bastille.


July 15, 1799: The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-Francois Bouchard during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign.


July 16, 1782: First performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail.


July 17, 1794: The sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror.


July 18, 1389: The Kingdoms of France and England agree to the Truce of Leulinghem, inaugurating a 13 year peace (the longest period of sustained peace during the Hundred Years War).


July 19, 1848: A two-day Women’s Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regency, This Week In History

This Week In History: June 22-28

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June 22, 1783: A poisonous cloud caused by the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland reaches Le Havre in France.


 

June 23, 1794: Empress Catherine II of Russia grants Jews permission to settle in Kiev.


June 24, 1793: The first Republican constitution in France is adopted.


June 25, 1788: Virginia becomes the tenth state to ratify the United States Constitution.


June 26, 1857: The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.


 

June 27, 1806: British forces take Buenos Aires during the first British invasion of the Rio de la Plata.


June 28, 1461: Edward IV is crowned King of England.


 

 

 

 

 

 

Regency, This Week In History

This Week In History: June 15-21

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June 15, 1215: King John puts his seal to the Magna Carta.


June 16, 1816: Lord Byron challenges Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori to write a ghost story at his villa in Italy.


June 17, 1839: In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands.


June 18, 1815: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonapart by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher forcing him to abdicate the throng of France for the second time.


June 19, 1862: The US Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sanford.


June 20, 1837: Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.


June 21, 1791: King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during the French Revolution.


 

Regency, This Week In History

This Week In History: May 4-10

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May 4, 1814: Napoleon arrives at Protoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.


May 5, 1821: Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.


May 6, 1527: Spanish and German forces sack Rome, and event considered by some historians to be the end of the Renaissance.


May 7, 1794: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme Being  as the new state religion of the First French Republic.


May 8, 1899: The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin opens.


May 9, 1874: The first horse-drawn bus begins operation in Mumbai, traveling two routes.


May 10, 1824: The National Gallery in London opens to the public.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regency, This Week In History

This Week In History: February 23-March 1

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February 23, 1848: The French Revolution of 1848 begins.


February 24, 1809: London’s Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.


February 25, 1836: Samuel Colt is granted a US patent for the Colt revolver.


February 26, 1815: Napoleon Bonapart escapes from Elba.


February 27, 1812: Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords.


February 28, 1838: Robert Nelson proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (Quebec).


March 1, 1790: The first US census is authorized.


 

Regency, This Week In History

This Week In History: January 26-February 1

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January 26, 1788: The British First Fleet sails into Port Jackson to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement in Australia.


January 27, 1785: The University of Georgia is founded, becoming the first public university in the US.


January 28, 1813: Pride and Prejudice is first published in the UK.


January 29, 1856: Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.


January 30, 1826: The Menai Suspension Bridge connecting the Isle of Anglesey to north coast of Wales is opened.


January 31, 1747: The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.


February 1, 1793: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.