Gemini, Dorothy Dunnett
Gemini, Dorothy Dunnett
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
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Gemini

Author: Dorothy Dunnett, Judith Wilt

Narrator: John Banks

Unabridged: 31 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/18/2023


Synopsis

Scotland, 1477: Nicholas de Fleury, former banker and merchant, has reappeared in the land that, four years earlier, he had brought very close to ruin in the course of an intense commercial and personal war with secret enemies—and, indeed, with his clever wife Gelis.

Now the opportunity for redemption is at hand, but Nicholas soon finds himself pursuing his objectives amid a complex, corrosive power struggle centering on the Scottish royal family but closely involving the powerful merchants of Edinburgh, the gentry, the clergy, the English, the French, the Burgundians. His presence soon draws Gelis and their son Jodi to Scotland, as well as Nicholas's companions and subordinates in many a past endeavor. Here, too, Nicholas meets again with others who have had an influence, for good or evil, in his life: King James III of Scotland and his rebellious siblings; the St. Pols: Jordan, Simon, and young Henry; Mistress Bel of Cuthilgurdy and David de Salmeton; Anselm Adorne and Kathi his niece. And as the secrets of his birth and heritage come to light, Nicholas has to decide whether he desires to establish a future in Scotland for himself and his family, and a home for his descendants.

About Dorothy Dunnett

Dorothy Dunnett was born in 1923 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. Her time at Gillespie's High School for Girls overlapped with that of the novelist Muriel Spark. From 1940-1955, she worked for the Civil Service as a press officer. In 1946, she married Alastair Dunnett, later editor of The Scotsman.

Dunnett started writing in the late 1950s. Her first novel, The Game of Kings, was published in the United States in 1961, and in the United Kingdom the year after. She published twenty-two books in total, including the six-part Lymond Chronicles and the eight-part Niccolo Series, and coauthored another volume with her husband. Also an accomplished professional portrait painter, Dunnett exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on many occasions and had portraits commissioned by a number of prominent public figures in Scotland.

She also led a busy life in public service, as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Library of Scotland, a trustee of the Scottish National War Memorial, and director of the Edinburgh Book Festival. She served on numerous cultural committees, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 1992 she was awarded the Office of the British Empire for services to literature. She died on November 9, 2001, at the age of seventy-eight.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Laurie

WHAT a family. Good God. Dorothy Dunnett is really quite the master of genetic complication. What is it that Philippa says in The Ringed Castle ... "I didn't know another permutation in breeding was possible."? Oh Philippa. With Dorothy Dunnett it is always possible. This is without question the best......more