Prince of Foxes: The Best-Selling Historical Epic

by Samuel Shellabarger, Jonathan Yardley (Introduction)

Overview

Set in Renaissance Italy, this classic of American popular fiction is the story of Andrea Orsini, a peasant boy who rises to perform delicate political, military, and romantic missions for Cesare Borgia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781882593644
Publisher:	Bridgeworks
Publication date:	10/28/2002
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	366,768
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 8.48(h) x 0.96(d)

Editorial Reviews

With equal skill he touches on the complex nature of that fierce and flowering age, manipulates love as well as battle, agitates one, amid a ceaseless whirl of pomp, murder, sex , intrigue, romance, war, high adventure, into a near swoon os suspense. Dr. Shellabarger displays his great learning with exceptional skill. The sets are opulent, but so adroitly organized that one is not so much impressed by the erudition they manifest as hypnotized by their glowing vitality...A faithful and fascinating resurrection of the spirit and look of a furiously exciting, cruel and splendid age.

The New York Times

A magnificent job from beginning to end—a completely absorbing book.

Boston Herald

If you like historical novels (personally, I do) it is certainly required reading.

Saturday Review Of Literature

A novel as colorful as the era itself. Fiction yes, but convincing fiction, based on sound scholarship and inspired research.

San Francisco Chronicle

There are many reasons for reading Prince of Foxes—not least, as some reviewers like to say, that it's just about impossible to put it down once you start it—but I would like to put it forward as a textbook example of what American were reading during the golden age of American popular fiction. This period lasted for about three decades, from the early 1930's to the late 1950's, during which much of the commercial fiction that millions of American read for pleasure—ficstion that made the best-seller lists—was work of considerable literary skill and stylistic distinctiveness. That stands in sharp contrast to the popular fiction Americans now read...None wrote better than Shellabarger...Shellabarger was an educator by training and inclination, and he wanted readers to learn from his novels as wella s be entertained by them. To say that you will learn a lot about Renaissance Italy from Princes of Foxes is an understatement.

Jonathan Yardely

Released in 1945 and 1947, respectively, these are two of the author's six historical novels. Captain follows young Spanish nobleman Pedro de Vargas, who joins Cort s on his conquest of Mexico, while Prince jumps to Italy and Andrea Orsini, a pawn in Cesare Borgia's quest for power.

Library Journal