Il margine dell'alba
By: Mariangela Cerrino
Series: Stilo
Publisher: Alacrán
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Milano
Language: ita
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 472
ISBN-13: 9788863610215
Notes: Novel.
Table of contents: title: Jean Louis Arlaud and Etienne de Villard crossed swords for the first time when they were only 14 years of age in the Tower of Oulx. It was not a game, for either of them; the duel wasn’t meant to decide a “winner”, but to seal a pact of friendship between them, for all time. The young men would duel again when they were 20, on the Fields of San Marco, on a holy day. This time, Etienne conceded the “victory” – because Jean Louis is his only friend.; title: It is the year 1540, and Europe is aflame with the neverending war between France and Spain. Jean Louis, the son of a notary from Oulx, has one goal and one goal only: to become a Captain, fight in war, and achieve the power and status of a nobleman. Status to which his friend Etienne is instead entitled by birth, being the only heir of a Waldensian family destroyed by Inquisition, which burned his grandfather, Guillaume de Villard, at the stake.; title: Etienne was raised a Catholic, but this doesn’t mean he is free from suspicions or immune to the lure of intrigues, where Holy Mother Church is concerned. Even more ominously, his sense of justice and spirit of tolerance put him at odds with his best friend Arlaud’s aspirations, and put his very life in jeopardy.; title: Finally achieving his desired rank under the nom de guerre  “Captain Lacazette”, Jean Louis pursues his course on the battlefields of Ceresole, Perpignan, and Bordeaux, and wins the protection of the powerful Guisa Family and the Dauphin of France. Etienne is ever at his side, the “fair” part of his soul that Jean Louis can’t afford to lose, just as he cannot afford to lose the love of the beautiful Félicienne, nor the safe haven of her inn in Briançon, the “Fleur de Lys”. To Etienne, the girl is like a sister, but the covenant that binds the three of them for life shall also seal, forever and devastatingly, each one’s separate fate.; title: The delicate balance of loves and loyalties is upset when Catholic pogroms set Provence and Briançonnais ablaze with burnings-at-the-stake. Ultimately, the Inquisition’s acts of persecution result in a full-fledged War of Religion between Catholics and Waldensians, forcing Etienne de Villard to finally decide which side he is on. But the side he ultimately chooses is the only one that his friend Captain Lacazette can not, and does not, wish to follow . . .; title: A real historical figure who actually lived in those times, Jean Louis Arlaud, “Captain de Lacazette”, mirrors the conflicts of his age with gentler emotions as well as deeply-felt rage, against an atmospherically-charged backdrop recreated in great detail, and with scrupulous adherence to historical sources. The story of Arlaud and his friends is an unforgettable tale of familiar places and long-ago memories!