The History and Haunting of the Palace of Versailles


Book Description

It was a palace of the Kings of France; the creation of the Sun King, Louis XIV. The marvel of all Europe it soon became a gilded cage for the monarchs and the courtiers who lived there. The saga of Versailles is filled with intrigue, scandal, glory, and tragedy. It is here that the nobility of France manipulated and poisoned their way to the top. Marriages, deaths, mistresses, secret passageways, and betrayal---it all added up to the French Revolution that cost Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette their heads. Yet it is also within these opulent walls that we find the dreams of those who conquered Europe through military campaigns or outsmarting their own bloodline. No one was safe. No one was exempt from the King's spies who secretly opened letters and reported on every move within the palace and grounds. Join me as we look behind the scenes at the lives of the French Kings, their wives, their mistresses, and blood relations as they built, tore down, and rebuilt a name that became synonymous with jaw-dropping opulence, power, wealth, fashion, and scandal. Come with me inside the golden gates of Versailles. Packed with photographs, floor plans, and maps, this is a comprehensive look at the palace's history. Also included is the documented hauntings at the palace, including the bestselling account of two women academics who visited the Petit Trianon grounds in 1901 and interacted with the ghost of Marie Antoinette and others of her time period. It is a story that has fascinated the world for decades. Other reports of paranormal activity at the palace are also included. Rebecca F. Pittman is a bestselling author of 14 titles. Her History and Haunting Of series is regularly featured on international TV, radio, and podcast shows. She researches the most-haunted venues in the world, staying in their shadowed bedrooms and interviewing the owners and staff. Her book The History and Haunting of Lizzie Borden spotlights five new pieces of evidence Ms. Pittman found in the famous murder case of 1892. A companion rummy-style card game, The Lizzie Borden Paranormal Card Game, featuring evidence, suspects, alibis and a paranormal twist, is available for sale on her website. She makes her home in Colorado.




The Ghosts of Trianon


Book Description

This is the true story of two Englishwomen getting caught up in one of the most fascinating and inexplicable "time travel" experiences ever recorded. After travelling down to the grand French palaces of Versailles, they proceed to take a walk along the various pathways and gardens outside, only to lose their way and on top of that, get lost in a time warp, literally. It takes them back in time to the palace gardens at the time of the French Revolution and to a face-to-face confrontation with Marie Antoinette, among others. No, this is not fiction, it purports to be fact. The two women, both prominent academics, give us a very convincing and staggering account of their claims. This book is their clear and thought-provoking explanation of exactly what happened to them. Were they mistaken? Was it a hoax? Was the experience real? You decide. This is a truly fascinating book, which quickly sold 10, 000 copies when it was first published. Here it is back in print again at long last.




Marie Antoinette and the Last Garden of Versailles


Book Description

Marie-Antoinette has been idolized as the height of eighteenth-century French style and vilified as the spark that ignited the French Revolution. This book departs from such traditional interpretations of the infamous queen’s reign and chooses to reflect on the humanistic aspects of her private realm. To escape the formalities and royal obligations of Louis XVI’s court, Marie-Antoinette created a private realm of pleasure for herself at the Petit Trianon and Hameau, where she planted the first Anglo-Chinese garden; created a trysting grotto; a working farm; and revolutionized architecture and gardening trends for the century to come. Marie-Antoinette’s entire private domain and its story are told in beautiful photographic detail by François Halard for the first time since its recent restoration and accompanied by well-researched texts by garden expert Christian Duvernois.




An Adventure


Book Description

Renowned 20th-century authors Moberly and Jourdain describe a visit they made to the Petit Trianon, a small château on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. At the chateau, they see the chilling sight of the gardens as they had been in the late eighteenth century. Moberly and Jourdain cross paths with several terrifying ghosts of famous figures including Marie Antoinette.




Farewell, My Queen


Book Description

Follows a woman whose function it once was to read books aloud to Marie Antoinette, as she recounts her memories of living at Versailles during the final days of the French revolution.




Top 15 Ghosts and Spirits from History


Book Description

👻 Discover the Most Chilling Ghosts and Spirits from History! 👻 Step into the eerie world of the supernatural with "Top 15 Ghosts and Spirits from History." From the haunted halls of the Tower of London to the spectral figures of the Myrtles Plantation, this book unveils the most spine-tingling tales of ghosts and spirits that have terrified and fascinated people for centuries. 🌕 Highlights Include: The tragic White Lady of the Tower of London The mysterious Brown Lady of Raynham Hall The vengeful spirit of Anne Boleyn The eerie Bell Witch of Tennessee The spectral figures of the RMS Queen Mary 🔮 Each chapter delves into the history, legends, and personal accounts of these supernatural entities, offering a captivating read for history buffs and paranormal enthusiasts alike. Whether you believe in ghosts or are simply intrigued by the unknown, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat. Dive into the shadows and explore the haunted past with "Top 15 Ghosts and Spirits from History." Perfect for a late-night read... if you dare!




Stuff They Don't Want You to Know


Book Description

“Interesting...Bowlin's calmly rational approach to the subject of conspiracy theories shows the importance of logic and evidence.”—Booklist "A page-turning book to give to someone who believes in pizza pedophilia or that the Illuminati rule the world."—Kirkus Reviews The co-hosts of the hit podcast Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know, Ben Bowlin, Matthew Frederick, & Noel Brown, discern conspiracy fact from fiction in this sharp, humorous, compulsively readable, and gorgeously illustrated book. In times of chaos and uncertainty, when trust is low and economic disparity is high, when political institutions are crumbling and cultural animosities are building, conspiracy theories find fertile ground. Many are wild, most are untrue, a few are hard to ignore, but all of them share one vital trait: there’s a seed of truth at their center. That seed carries the sordid, conspiracy-riddled history of our institutions and corporations woven into its DNA. Ben Bowlin, Matt Frederick, and Noel Brown host the popular iHeart Media podcast, Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know. They are experts at exploring, explaining, and interrogating today’s emergent conspiracies—from chem trails and biological testing to the secrets of lobbying and the indisputable evidence of UFOs. Written in a smart, witty, and conversational style, elevated with amazing illustrations, Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know is a vital book in understanding the nature of conspiracy and using truth as a powerful weapon against ignorance, misinformation, and lies.




The History and Haunting of Lizzie Borden


Book Description

The brutal murders of Abby and Andrew Borden on August 4, 1892, is still America's biggest unsolved murder mystery. Now, for the first time, evidence of a second murder plot, identities of key players, and never-before-seen photos of Lizzie's Maplecroft. Reports of hauntings at the Lizzie Borden B&B, how the hatchet was broken, and much more. Come...peek through the keyhole at the bizarre world of Lizzie Borden.




Sophie's World


Book Description

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.




Ghosts


Book Description

A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice A comprehensive, authoritative and readable history of the evolution of the ghost in the west, examining the behavior of the subject in its preferred environment: the stories we tell each other. "Roger Clarke tells this [the story that inspired Henry James' The Turn of the Screw] and many other gloriously weird stories with real verve, and also a kind of narrative authority that tends to constrain the skeptical voice within... [An] erudite and richly entertaining book." —New York Times Book Review No matter how rationally we order our lives, few of us are completely immune to the suggestion of the uncanny and the fear of the dark. What explains sightings of ghosts? Why do they fascinate us? What exactly do those who have been haunted see? What did they believe? And what proof is there? Taking us through the key hauntings that have obsessed the world, from the true events that inspired Henry James's classic The Turn of the Screw right up to the present day, Roger Clarke unfolds a story of class conflict, charlatans, and true believers. The cast list includes royalty and prime ministers, Samuel Johnson, John Wesley, Harry Houdini, and Adolf Hitler. The chapters cover everything from religious beliefs to modern developments in neuroscience, the medicine of ghosts, and the technology of ghosthunting. There are haunted WWI submarines, houses so blighted by phantoms they are demolished, a seventeenth-century Ghost Hunter General, and the emergence of the Victorian flash mob, where hundreds would stand outside rumored sites all night waiting to catch sight of a dead face at a window. Written as grippingly as the best ghost fiction, A Natural History of Ghosts takes us on an unforgettable hunt through the most haunted places of the last five hundred years and our longing to believe.