A World Lit Only By Fire Author:William Manchester The end of the Middle Ages and the arrival of the Renaissance was one of the most significant turning points in history, an era dominated by some of the greatest and most colorful personalities of all time: Galileo, Martin Luther, Magellan, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Lucrezia Borgia, Henry VIII. William Manchester brings all his storytelling pow... more »er to bear on a group portrait of a century of giants. Weaving together the extraordinary lives, tempestuous events and intellectual ferment of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, he spins out a spellbinding narrative that reads like a novel, the reality more colorful than any fiction. "Manchester has not forgotten the skills that, with invective, eloquence and anecdote, make him a master storyteller." (Kirkus Reviews)« less