A TALE OF SORCERY AND PASSION IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON?WHERE WITCHES HAUNT
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND HIS DARK LADY, THE PLAYWRIGHT'S MUSE AND ONE TRUE LOVE
The daughter of a Venetian musician, Aemilia Bassano came of age in Queen
Elizabeth's royal court. The Queen's favorite, she develops a love of poetry and
learning, maturing into a young woman known not only for her beauty but also her
sharp mind and quick tongue. Aemilia becomes the mistress of Lord Hunsdon, but
her position is precarious. Then she crosses paths with an impetuous playwright
named William Shakespeare and begins an impassioned but ill-fated affair. A
decade later, the Queen is dead, and Aemilia Bassano is now Aemilia Lanyer,
fallen from favor and married to a fool. Like the rest of London, she fears the
plague. And when her young son Henry takes ill, Aemilia resolves to do anything
to save him, even if it means seeking help from her estranged lover, Will?or
worse, making a pact with the Devil himself. In rich, vivid detail, Sally
O'Reilly breathes life into England's first female poet, a mysterious woman
nearly forgotten by history. Full of passion and devilish schemes, Dark Aemilia
is a tale worthy of the Bard.