Joan of Naples: Celebrated Crimes

Alexandre Dumas turns his masterful eye to one of history's most tragic queens in this granular account of Joan's reign. When the young princess inherits the throne of Naples at just fourteen, she finds herself encircled by predators: foreign powers demanding tribute, noble factions carving up influence, and a Hungarian prince forced upon her as a husband. But it is the suffering of the common people that becomes the novel's beating heart. The vast chasm between the pampered court and the starving city below erupts into violence, and the queen who once seemed omnipotent discovers that her power rests on foundations of sand. Dumas constructs not merely a biography but a forensic examination of how authority corrupts and how the governed eventually rebel.