The Burning Times

by JeanneKalogridis (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $14.21

  During the height of superstition, in the midst of the Great Plague, religious fervour and terror of witchcraft sweep fourteenth-century France. Caught at the heart of this conflict are two young lovers: Brother Luc, Grand Inquisitor's scribe; and the Abbess Marie Francoise, known prior to taking her vows as Sybille. In a torture chamber in the medieval city of Carcassonne, these two people, separated by their convictions and by cruel fate, are suddenly and shockingly reunited. Luc is there to transcribe the confession of a known heretic, who to his horror turns out to be Sybille, his lost love. The guilty secret that Luc fled from, into the safe arms of Mother Church, is that he and Sybille share forbidden magical powers: they are both members of the Race, a mystical sect whose roots lie with the Knights Templar, and far far beyond, to the worship of that most ancient and powerful of deities, the Goddess. In the union between these two lovers lie the future hopes of the Race: but Sybille is condemned to die at the stake; and Luc's heart is caught between the fires of Christian purification, and the flames of his desire.

• Used

  Paperback
  2011

  $3.35

  A sweeping historical epic and powerful romantic drama set in medieval France: a time of the Great Plague, of witchcraft, and the Inquisition. During the height of superstition, in the midst of the Great Plague, religious fervour and terror of witchcraft sweep fourteenth-century France. Locked in a torture chamber within the walled city of Carcassonne the Abbess Marie Francoise listens helplessly to the screams of her sisters while she awaits the arrival of the Inquisition to take her confession. As relapsa, the worst of heretics, a fiery death awaits her at the stake. The Grand Inquisitor's scribe, Brother Michel, arrives with his mentor, Father Charles, confident that her soul can be saved. But upon meeting the Abbess, Michel is assailed by a sudden, horrifying wave of desire for her: a desire that is both physical, and attended by memories of another man's life; and spiritual: for surely this is the woman he saw with his own eyes perform a miracle outside the Palace of the Popes in holy Avignon? As the Abbess slowly divulges her past, Michel's safe and ordered world is ripped apart. Her tale will shake the very foundation of his belief, while his heart will be trapped between the cleansing fires of Christian purity and the seductive flames of his desire.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $17.32

  Of the Black Death, they said it was the end of the world; I knew better. The world can withstand the sickness of the body, but it remains to be seen whether it will survive the sickness that eats at the souls of our persecutors... So professes Mother Marie Franoise, born Sybille, a poor midwife who is taught pagan ways and magic by her grandmother and is forced to take refuge among the Franciscan sisterhood as the Inquisition threatens. Her extraordinary life story unfolds when a monk is charged with determining whether the mysterious abbess is a saint or a witch. Sybille is possessed of exceptional powers, and she is in full command of them -- practicing white and black magic, winning the hearts of people with her wisdom, and terrorizing church authorities with her cunning. But even witches are not immune to earthly love, and Sybille embarks on a passionate, dangerous quest to be reunited with her beloved. As she confronts an exceptional destiny -- one that will require her to face the flames in order to save others like her -- she relates a tale of impossible triumph that forever changes the inquisitor who hears it. The Burning Times brilliantly weaves the mythology of the Knights Templar, witchcraft, and gnosticism against a backdrop of actual historical events: the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and the catastrophic defeat of France by England. Demonstrating the same meticulous research and page-turning plotting that made her Diaries of the Family Dracul series a success, Jeanne Kalogridis crafts a vivid portrait of this turbulent and fascinating period in world history and, at the same time, delivers a searing love story with a redeeming moral of itsown: The greatest magic is that of compassion.