2 Novels by Francesca Stanfill
Requirements: .ePUB Reader, 4.2 MB
Overview: Francesca Stanfill has created an enthralling novel with echoes of Mary Shelley and the Bronte sisters, yet rich in striking observations about contemporary circles of wealth and power.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Wakefield Hall (2012): Called “a born writer” by Lawrence Durrell, Francesca Stanfill weaves a rich tapestry of romance, gothic suspense, and literary divertissement in her new novel, Wakefield Hall. Here is a sensuous evocation of late 1980s New York City-where a facade of jewels, couture, luxurious residences, and exquisitely arranged dinner parties cloaks a treacherous fin de siecle world of shadows, deceptions, and darkly charted ambitions.
Wall Street Journal reporter Elisabeth Rowan is authorized by the family of Joanna Eakins, a famous Shakespearean actress, to write a posthumous biography. The research begins at Wakefield Hall, a splendid estate in the Berkshires, which Joanna had not merely renovated but re-created as a monument to her troubled life and career. At Wakefield assemble the people who adored, worshiped, and hated the great star: the urbane London theater director who discovered her; her third husband, a Wall Street lion and collector of art and famous women; her stepdaughter, whose classic beaUty belies a shocking hardness; and her best friend, a sophisticated New York hostess with a mysterious past and a talent for orchestrating others’ lives.
Yet only Wakefield itself may reveal the truth about its mistress’s tortured genius; within its manicured grounds, Joanna constructed a tantalizing Shakespearean maze with statues of the heroines that constituted her greatest roles. Do these ladies of stone disclose what Joanna never could during her lifetime?
Propelled by her discoveries at Wakefield, Elisabeth embarks on a dangerous quest for the truth hidden far beneath the elegant, civilized surfaces of New York, London, and Paris. In the labyrinthine twists and turns of the actress’s legacy, Elisabeth discovers passion, terror, jealous fury, madness, and-ultimately-an astonishing secret.
The Falcon’s Eyes (2022): Set in France and England at the end of the twelfth century, the moving story of a spirited, questing young woman, Isabelle, who defies convention to forge a remarkable life, one profoundly influenced by the fabled queen she idolizes and comes to know – Eleanor of Aquitaine
Willful and outspoken, sixteen-year-old Isabelle yearns to escape her stifling life in provincial twelfth century France. The bane of her mother’s existence, she admires the notorious queen most in her circle abhor: Eleanor of Aquitaine. Isabelle’s arranged marriage to Gerard — a rich, charismatic lord obsessed with falcons — seems, at first, to fulfill her longing for adventure. But as Gerard’s controlling nature, and his consuming desire for a male heir, become more apparent, Isabelle, in the spirit of her royal heroine, makes bold, often perilous, decisions which will forever affect her fate.
A suspenseful, sweeping tale about marriage, freedom, identity, and motherhood, THE FALCON’S EYES brings alive not only a brilliant century and the legendary queen who dominated it, but also the vivid band of complex characters whom the heroine encounters on her journey to selfhood: noblewomen, nuns, servants, falconers, and courtiers. The various settings — Château Ravinour, Fontevraud Abbey, and Queen Eleanor’s exiled court in England — are depicted as memorably as those who inhabit them. The story pulses forward as Isabelle confronts one challenge, one danger, after another, until it hurtles to its final, enthralling, page.
With the historical understanding of Hillary Mantel and the storytelling gifts of Ken Follett, Francesca Stanfill has created an unforgettable character who, while firmly rooted in her era, is also a woman for all times.
Download Instructions:
Wakefield Hall:
https://ouo.io/4v5GaQU
https://ouo.io/p41awq
The Falcon’s Eyes:
https://ouo.io/38yor7
https://ouo.io/mHX9nTR
