Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of Baroness de Pontalba

( Born into wealth in New Orleans in 1795 and married int...)

Born into wealth in New Orleans in 1795 and married into misery fifteen years later, the Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba led a life ripe for novelization. Intimate Enemies, however, is the spellbinding true account of this resilient woman's life -- and the three men who most affected its course. Immediately upon marrying Célestin de Pontalba, Micaela was removed to his family's estate in France. For twenty years her father-in-law attempted to drive her to abandon Célestin; by law he could then seize control of her fortune. He tried dozens of strategies, including at one point instructing the entire Pontalba household to pretend she was invisible. Finally, in 1834, the despairing elder Pontalba trapped Micaela in a bedroom and shot her four times before turning his gun on himself. Miraculously, she survived. Five years later, after securing both a separation from Célestin and legal power over her wealth, Micaela focused her attention on building, following in the footsteps of her late, illustrious father, Andrés Almonester. Her Parisian mansion, the Hôtel Pontalba, is today the official residence of the American embassy in France; and her Pontalba Buildings, which flank Jackson's Square in New Orleans, form together with her father's St. Louis Cathedral, Presbytere, and Cabildo one of the loveliest architectural complexes in America. As for Célestin, he eventually suffered a total physical and mental breakdown and begged Micaela to return. She did so, caring for him for the next twenty-three years until her death in 1874. In Intimate Enemies, Christina Vella embroiders the compelling story of the Almonester-Pontalba alliance against a richly woven background of the events and cultures of two centuries and two vivid societies. She provides a window into the yellow fever epidemics that raged in New Orleans; the rebuilding of Paris, the Paris Commune uprising, and the Second Empire of Napoleon III; European ideas of power, class, money, marriage, and love during the baroness' lifetime and their inflection in the New World setting of New Orleans; medical treatments, legal procedures, imperial court life, banking practices, and much more. Combining the historian's meticulous research with the biographer's exacting knowledge of her subject and the novelist's gift for narrative, Vella has crafted a rare cross-genre work that will capture the imagination and admiration of every reader.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807129623/?tag=2022091-20

Indecent Secrets: The Infamous Murri Murder Affair

(On a hot summer day in Italy in 1902, the brutally stabbe...)

On a hot summer day in Italy in 1902, the brutally stabbed body of Count Francesco Bonmartini was discovered, by means of its decomposing stench, inside his locked apartment. He was a typical Italian provincial aristocrat in all but one way: he had married into a prominent but deeply troubled family. His father-in-law was one of the nation's most famous doctors. His wife, Linda, a young freethinker, was the apple of her father's eye. Linda's brother dabbled in anarchism. Linda's lover was her father's top assistant. Her relations with them were illicit, incestuous -- and murderous. The scandal that erupted was a top news story in Europe and America for three consecutive years. Investigators uncovered successive layers of a conspiracy that constantly twisted and changed its shape. The suspects included all these men as well as their servants and lovers. There was a diverse array of murder weapons, including knives, heavy pellets, and poison. There were rumors of missing accomplices. Intimate relations among many suspects were uncovered through sensational letters and testimonials. Witnesses died mysteriously. A suspect tried to kill himself. One question lingered throughout and still haunts researchers today: what role did Bonmartini's widow, Linda, known as "The Enchantress," play? Was she the spider at the center of the vast web, or did the plot originate with the key men who loved her so desperately? Scholar and writer Christina Vella combines meticulous research with a novelist's eye for a great story. As she unspools the tight, tense drama, she offers a fascinating picture of Italian society in the early 20th century, with a historian's insights into life at both the top and the bottom. From sexual dysfunctions, to prison conditions, to the patronage systems that permeated medicine, law, and politics, the Bonmartini murder provides a window into a rich world.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416576045/?tag=2022091-20

The Hitler Kiss: A Memoir of the Czech Resistance (World War II)

(This gripping autobiography is at once a heart-pounding a...)

This gripping autobiography is at once a heart-pounding adventure story, a moving recollection of a larger-than life father, and an important account of the Czech resistance. Radomir Luza's father was a revered army general when the Nazis stormed into Czechoslovakia. After his father went underground to avoid arrest and torture, the nineteen-year old Radomir spent weeks in a Gestapo prison. Eventually released in the hope that he would leas the Nazis to his father, Radomir instead joined him in hiding. General Luza became the military commander of the Czech resistance network, providing critical intelligence to the Allies and leading bands of resisters and escaped Russian was prisoners in guerilla attacks. Luza's narrative gives a panoramic picture of the resistance and makes palpable the terror of living in attics, sheds and holes dug in the woods, constantly hunted and nearly snared by betrayals and Gestapo raids, In courageously intimate terms, he reflects on his relationship with his stern father-whom Luza worshiped from afar until sharing rat-infested barns brought the consummate general and intellectual son closer together. Rarely does a historical document read like a mystery thriller. As an eyewitness account, The Hitler Kiss offers evidence of human ability to overcome staggering odds. It is not a memoir of atrocity, but a portrait of courage, tenderness, optimism, and sheer survival.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807127817/?tag=2022091-20

Indecent Secrets: The Infamous Murri Murder Affair by Vella, Christina (2007) Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011MEOZ9Y/?tag=2022091-20