Scales of Gold by Dorothy Dunnett

Scales of Gold by Dorothy Dunnett

With the bravura storytelling and pungent authenticity of detail she brought to her acclaimed Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett, grande dame of the historical novel, presents The House of Niccolò series. The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyer's apprentice who schemes and swashbuckles his way to the helm of a mercantile empire.
      
The year 1464 finds Nicholas back in Venice. Plagued by enemies bent on dissolving his assets and smearing his character, he sets sail for Africa, legendary location of the Fountain of Youth, home to a descendant of Sheba and Solomon, and the source of gold in such abundance that men prefer to barter in shells. He will learn firsthand the brutality and grandeur of the Dark Continent, from the horror of the slave trade to the austere nobility of Islamic Timbuktu. He will discover, too, the charms of the beautiful Gelis van Borselen--a woman whose passion for Nicholas is rivaled only by her desire to punish him for his role in her sister s death. Erotic and lush with detail, Scales of Gold embraces the complexity of the Renaissance, where mercantile adventure couples with more personal quests behind the silken curtains of the Age of Discovery.

Dorothy Dunnett was born in the Scottish town of Dunfermline in the year 1923. Her period at Gillespie's High School for Girls coincided with that of Muriel Spark, the novelist. She worked as a publicity officer for the Civil Service from 1940 to 1955. She married Alastair Dunnett, the eventual editor of The Scotsman, in 1946. In the late 1950s, Dunnett began writing.

The Game of Kings, her first novel, was released in the United States in 1961 and the United Kingdom the following year. She co-authored another volume with her husband and wrote 22 volumes in total, including the six-part Lymond Chronicles and the eight-part Niccolo Series. Dunnett was also a skilled professional portrait painter who showed frequently at the Royal Scottish Academy and had portraits commissioned by a number of famous Scottish public personalities. She also worked as a member of the National Library of Scotland's Board of Trustees, a Trustee of the Scottish National War Monument, and the Director of the Edinburgh Book Festival.

She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and worked on various cultural committees. She was granted the Office of the British Empire in 1992 for her contributions to literature. She died at the age of 78 on November 9, 2001.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780375704802
ISBN 10	0375704809
Title	Scales of Gold
Author	Dorothy Dunnett
Series	House Of Niccolo Series
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	1999-06-01
Number of pages	544
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.