((Minor Spoiler and Warning at the bottom of the blurb. Please read all the way through.))The war with Gaelis has gone poorly for Alex's foes and well for his allies. He's enriched himself, empowered his county with that coin, and built his county ever higher.The war swings in favor of his Duchess.Yet the war still goes on. The end doesn't seem to be near, nor does Alex feel as if is as simple as he'd once thought it.Alex would rather settle down in his county and live a quiet and enjoyable life. One filled with familial things and friends. Where he could make his county the pride of the empire in peace.Because he'd already gotten to the top once before. He'd climbed the corporate ladder in his previous life and missed out on really having one.Having friends. Or just a family.Now Alex wants only for the simple things. Things that have no place on the battlefield, kingdom politics, or the courts.That of course doesn't matter much when fate is concerned. Or really everyone else in the empire. They all have their own plans that all seem to run counter to Alex's.Fortunately, Alex has been preparing. Making changes and building his foundation and seat of power ever higher.He's empowered the people he relies on and in. His armies are expertly trained and almost over- equipped. His treasury is overflowing and ready to be spent.Even with all of that, Alex isn't sure it'll be enough for what he believes is coming.Because spring is here. And that means roads will be opening. Passes will be traversable.Making it possible for armies to march.Which means it's time for Alex to get back to work. Because more than ever he has a lot to lose, including his newborn children. If he wants to keep them safe, he's going to have to ride to war once again.And end it once and for all no matter the cost.Warning: This novel explores dark subjects, and what people will give up of themselves, and each other, to get what they want. The main character is written as a real person in a tough situation and will not make choices that line up with societal and cultural norms.It contains adult themes and moral ambiguities.As with my previous work, explicit scenes are found within. It has violence and a harem relationship.

A 1994 scholarly edition of a major Renaissance text linked with Marlowe's Dr Faustus.

BANQUET OF BLOOD Mephistopheles’s right leg has been found, and it turns out that a member of the church has been using the leg’s blood for nefarious purposes! But behind the scenes lurks another demon. Now Johanna must thrust herself into battle to stop a girl who is no longer among the truly living... Will Johanna and her cohorts retrieve her demon’s limb unscathed, or will they become dinner for the undead?

Since its emergence in sixteenth-century Germany, the magician Faust's quest has become one of the most profound themes in Western history. Though variants are found across all media, few adaptations have met with greater acclaim than in music. Bringing together more than two dozen authors in a foundational volume, The Oxford Handbook of Faust in Music testifies to the spectacular impact the Faust theme has exerted over the centuries. The Handbook's three-part organization enables readers to follow the evolution of Faust in music across time and stylistic periods. Part I explores symphonic, choral, chamber, and solo Faust works by composers from Beethoven to Schnittke. Part II discusses the range of Faustian operas, and Part III examines Faust's presence in ballet and musical theater. Illustrating the interdisciplinary relationships between music and literature and the fascinating tapestry of intertextual relationships among the works of Faustian music themselves, the volume suggests that rather than merely retelling the story of Faust, these musical compositions contribute significant insights on the tale and its unrivalled cultural impact.

Faust Adaptations, edited and introduced by Lorna Fitzsimmons, takes a comparative cultural studies approach to the ubiquitous legend of Faust and his infernal dealings. Including readings of English, German, Dutch, and Egyptian adaptations ranging from the early modern period to the contemporary moment, this collection emphasizes the interdisciplinary and transcultural tenets of comparative cultural studies. Authors variously analyze the Faustian theme in contexts such as subjectivity, genre, politics, and identity. Chapters focus on the work of Christopher Marlowe, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Adelbert von Chamisso, Lord Byron, Heinrich Heine, Thomas Mann, D. J. Enright, Konrad Boehmer, Mahmoud Aboudoma, Bridge Markland, Andreas Gössling, and Uschi Flacke. Contributors include Frederick Burwick, Christa Knellwolf King, Ehrhard Bahr, Konrad Boehmer, and David G. John. Faust Adaptations demonstrates the enduring meaningfulness of the Faust concept across borders, genres, languages, nations, cultures, and eras. This collection presents innovative approaches to understanding the mediated, translated, and adapted figure of Faust through both culturally specific inquiry and timeless questions.

With alphabetical indexes of firms and trade specialties.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • An "extraordinary ... profoundly moving" history (The New York Times Book Review) of the American Civil War that reveals the ways that death on such a scale changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation. An estiated 750,000 soldiers lost their lives in the American Civil War. An equivalent proportion of today's population would be seven and a half million. In This Republic of Suffering, Drew Gilpin Faust describes how the survivors managed on a practical level and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the unprecedented carnage with its belief in a benevolent God. Throughout, the voices of soldiers and their families, of statesmen, generals, preachers, poets, surgeons, nurses, northerners and southerners come together to give us a vivid understanding of the Civil War's most fundamental and widely shared reality. With a new introduction by the author, and a new foreword by Mike Mullen, 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.