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Wine of Satan - A Novel of the First Crusade
Wine of Satan - A Novel of the First Crusade Author:Laverne Gay One of the most talented of young historical novelists here opens pages of the past that are rich with strong medieval color. This book....is a powerful and dramatic tale of love and war in the high Middle Age, to the story of Bohemond, a man of superb subtlety and passion, whose amazing personality captivated his age and mapped the destinies of... more » the First Crusade. Bohemond was born Marc de Hauteville in Norman Italy, son of Count Robert de Hauteville, a towering redhead who was called Guiscard the Wary and was the greatest of the Twelve Norman Counts. Guiscard was a wonderful parent for a lucky boy to claim--the most exciting man in all Italy. But he was also something to give a growing boy unhappiness, for he was, in fact, nothing but a legend. Marc had been only a babe in arms when Guiscard, who made his own rules for life, had formed an infatuation for Sigelgaita, a Lombard princess--handsome, strong-willed, unscrupulous. So he had divorced Marc's mother by papal dispensation and had gone out and away, to conquer for himself all of South Italy and Sigelgaita with it.
And thus, as this story unfolds, we see a youth of thriteen leaving Melfi and his tearful mother and riding out alone for the Adriatic to join his idolized father whose face he cannot remember.....
Every page of this novel is pointed with action and imbued with the excitement that the really gifted storyteller can impart. But even more enthralling is the great sweep of events across its chapters, and the magical way it recreates for the reader the mood and atmosphere of an incredible era--its color, splendor, violence, spirituality--against the vivid backdrop of Syria and the fantastic adventures of the First Crusade. Published in 1949.« less