Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City
by Thomas M. Eccardt
from Hippocrene Books
Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier
by J. Randy Taraborrelli
from Warner Books
She was an Oscar-winning Hollywood actress; he the scion of Europe's longest reigning monarchy. The marriage of movie star Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier Grimaldi of Monaco (a romance ironically spawned by a chance, MGM publicity-driven photo op) was one of the 20th century's most enchanting fables come to life. Yet, in veteran Hollywood biographer J. Randy Taraborelli's retelling, (the first comprehensive chronicle of the royal couple's romance and quarter-century reign) their day-to-day struggle with romantic inertia and a legacy of familial dysfunction cast their fairy tale existence in a bittersweet light long before the 1982 automobile accident that took Grace's life.
Taraborelli's struggle to walk the fine line between the respectful biography he intends and the salacious, tell-all exposes he decries makes for occasionally awkward passages. However, the author eventually succeeds in giving his royal subjects--and the ongoing conflicts with their respective families--a familiar, all-too-human scale. --Jerry McCulley
Grace Kelly was swept away when the handsome Prince Rainier, a man she barely knew, asked for her hand in marriage. After a series of relationships with married co-stars, she was exhausted by the show-business lifestyle. If she married Rainier, she would be more than just a movie star, she would be Her Serene RoyalHighness Princess Grace. Once in the palace, however, Grace found herself trapped in a fairy tale of her own making. Forced to make sacrifices that cut deeply into the core of who she was as a woman, she would then surrender her desires and ambitions for her spouse and her children. Grace and Rainier may have been royalty, but they were also husband and wife, and parents-and, as such, just as vulnerable to the conflicts that can contaminate any household. Drawing upon hundreds of exclusive interviews with family and friends, ONCEUPONATIME portrays its subjects with passion and sympathy, revealing Grace, Rainier,Caroline,Albert, and Stephanie in ways both startling and compelling.
Grace Kelly was swept away when the handsome Prince Rainier, a man she barely knew, asked for her hand in marriage. After a series of relationships with married co-stars, she was exhausted by the show-business lifestyle. If she married Rainier, she would be more than just a movie star, she would be Her Serene Royal Highness Princess Grace. Once in the palace, however, Grace found herself trapped in a fairytale of her own making. Forced to make sacrifices that cut deeply into the core of who she was as a woman, she would then surrender her desires and ambitions for her spouse and her children. Grace and Rainier may have been royalty, but they were also husband and wife, and parents-and as such, just as vulnerable to the conflicts that can contaminate any household. Drawing upon hundreds of exclusive interviews with family and friends, ONCE UPON A TIME portrays its subjects with passion and sympathy, revealing Grace, Rainier, Caroline, Albert, and Stephanie in ways both startling and compelling.
The History of Monaco, past and present
by H. Pemberton
from Adamant Media Corporation
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1867 edition by Tinsley Brothers, London.
The Royal House of Monaco: Dynasty of Glamour, Tragedy and Scandal
by John Glatt
from St. Martin's Press
The jewel in the crown of Europe's lush Cote D'Azur, the fiercely independent principality of Monaco gleams like a diamond above the Mediterranean. This playground of the rich and beautiful reached its zenith with Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and their three children-- until Grace's tragic death in 1982. As the myth began to crumble, scandal rocked Monaco in every way, from its institutions to its image to the royal family itself. Now, through searching interviews with family members, personal friends, and long-time courtiers, the intimate, shocking truths about Monaco are explored in vivid detail, including:
* The ancient Curse of the Grimaldis and its legacy of misfortune
* The never-before-told story of Princess Grace's abortion before she married Prince Rainier
* New details about Princess Grace on the night before she died, and her death in a Monaco hospital
* The alleged secret plot to destroy Princess Stephanie's marriage
* The appalling rumors about the death of Stefano Casiraghi, Princess Caroline's second husband
* The wild love life of Prince Albert and the rumors that haunt him
With eight pages of dramatic photos!
Palace: My Life in the Royal Family of Monaco
Grace of Monaco: An Interpretive Biography
Grand Prix De Monaco: Profile of a Legend
by Rainer W. Schlegelmilch
from Motorbooks International
The Grimaldis of Monaco
Lorenzo Monaco
Marvin Eisenberg examines the art of Lorenzo Monaco, the Camaldolese monk who was the preeminent Florentine painter during the two decades before the advent of Masaccio and Fra Angelico. In Don Lorenzo's works, which are among the most expressively beautiful images in late medieval European art, traditional Christian themes and elegant Late Gothic forms were infused with a fervent monastic devotion. His earliest panels and miniatures, of the 1390s, reflect various stylistic trends in later fourteenth-century Florentine painting and sculpture; in his maturity he assimilated elements of the International Style into an essentially Tuscan idiom; the final works, from the early 1420s, convey a degree of recognition of the emergent Renaissance. This is the first comprehensive book on the art of Lorenzo Monaco since 1905, including an essay on his principal works, an extensive catalogue of the altarpieces, crucifixes, choir book miniatures, and frescoes by Don Lorenzo and his prolific shop, and a catalogue of other works ascribed to him. The book is lavishly illustrated, and numerous comparative illustrations provide the artist's work with a visual context.
Monte Carlo: A Living Legend
+++
