Washington

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Carolyn Relei

Through the centuries, the rich tones and lovely designs of stained glass art have enhanced the doorway and entries of countless buildings, providing a welcoming aura of beauty and light. The appealing and highly inviting patterns in this splendid sourcebook make it easy for craftspeople to create 163 traditional motifs, ideal for use in sidelights, fanlights, transoms and other doorway configurations. Based on authentic originals, the attractive designs feature a dazzling array of subjects, including geometric configurations, florals and foliates in curvilinear presentations, and more. (A magnificent peacock, in a fan-shaped format, is especially spectacular.) Reminiscent of exquisite Victorian and Art Nouveau designs, these lovely patterns come in a number of useful shapes: rectangles, squares, circles, semi-circles and ovals. Artists, artisans and craftspeople looking for patterns that evoke the charm of a bygone era will find these attractive copyright-free stained glass designs lend themselves equally well to a host of other art and craft projects.

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Terry Bisson

A biography of the slave and preacher who, believing that God wanted him to free the slaves, led a major revolt in 1831.

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Susan King

An antiquarian for the National Museum, Christina Blackburn has her reasons for disguising her smoldering beauty with a pair of prim spectacles and an icy facade. She posed for a painting that scandalized the Victorian art world --- and it nearly ruined her life. Ever since, she has vowed to suppress her passionate nature and keep her identity a secret. But when the museum sends her on a trip across Scotland, Christina finds herself face-to-face with the same notorious painting --- and its dangerously handsome owner. Sir Aedan Arthur MacBride knows the local legend about the sleeping maiden, of course, but refuses to believe in such a curse. Then he gazes upon this very real maiden's face, and he knows he is utterly doomed .

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Gernot Gruber

In the first comprehensive history of the changing reception of Mozart and his music over the last two hundred years, Gernot Gruber skillfully charts Mozart's evolution from forgotten composer to "a youth beloved of the gods." He considers Mozart's waning reputation during the decade preceding his death in 1791, and thoroughly examines how Mozart was deified by the Romantics, sanitized by the Victorians, and commercialized in the 1980s and early 1990s. This insightful volume probes beyond the sphere of music into literature, philosophy, the fine arts, and theology to provide a refreshing discussion of the shifting ideas, images, interpretations, and questions surrounding Mozart over the last two centuries. With profound knowledge of the relevant literature, Gruber shows how figures such as Goethe, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Felix Mendelssohn, Soren Kierkegaard, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Hermann Hesse, Marc Chagall, Ingmar Bergman, and Peter Shaffer attempted to define the elusive nature of the composer's genius in their quest to discover the "true" Mozart. The volume includes provocative perspectives on the impact of Milos Forman's highly successful film Amadeus and on the commercial packaging of Mozart for mass consumption. . Gruber's compelling account of the evolving perceptions of Mozart's music reveals as much about the changes in European ideology and culture as it does about the composer of his music.