Weddingelegant prose withimpeccable historical research, this highly acclaimed history absorbingly charts the interaction between the vibrantly cosmopolitan capital of Constantinoplethe city of the world's desireand its ruling family. In 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror entered Constantinople on a white horse, beginning an Ottoman love affair with the city that lasted until 1924, when the last Caliph hurriedly left on the Orient Express. For almost five centuries Constantinople, with its enormous racial and cultural diversity, was the center of the dramatic and often depraved story of an...

The grandeur and extravagance of the court of Napoleon I once surpassed even that of that Louis XIV, the Sun King. His palaces at Saint-Cloud and the Tuileries shimmered with walls of Lyons silk and exotic treasures gleaned from distant campaigns; it echoed with the rustle of jewel-encrusted gowns, the drums of military marches and the whispers of his courtiers intrigues. This was the center of Napoleon s magnetic power, a dazzling reflection of the greatest empire in European history. Napoleon s military conquests changed the world, but it was through the splendor of his court that he...