Bloodsilver

Résumé : 1691 : un bateau transportant de mystérieux passagers aborde la côte est du continent nord-américain. Les vampires viennent de débarquer de la vieille Europe. Ils forment bientôt le Convoi, longue colonne de chariots recouverts de plaques de plomb, et se lancent à la conquête de l'Ouest, anticipant le trajet du chemin de fer dans une lente et implacable progression... 1692 : à Salem, une poignée d'hommes impitoyables fonde la confrérie des Chasseurs, bien décidés à stopper l'avancée du Convoi et à en découdre avec les créatures des ténèbres. De Fort Alamo aux territoires sioux, de Wounded Knee à Silver City, les hommes du Nouveau Monde, Billy the Kid, les frères Dalton ou encore Doc Holliday mêlent le sang à l'argent, luttant sans merci contre les vampires, ou formant avec eux d'improbables alliances...

Ce petit livre est fait de bric et de broc: ce sont de petites histoires sortant de l'ordinaire de l'application des mathématiques à la vie quotidienne, et d'autres histoires qui n'en sont pas très éloignées. On peut lire ces cent histoires dans l'ordre qu'on veut: il n'y a aucun ordre caché ni fil d'Ariane sous-jacent. On ne rencontrera le plus souvent que des mots, mais quelquefois aussi des nombres et, de temps en temps, de petites explications qui révèlent les formules dissimulées sous les apparences. Devant les profondeurs de la physique fondamentale et l'immensité de l'univers astronomique, on est habitué à l'idée que les maths sont indispensables. On découvrira très vite ici que des idées simples peuvent mettre en évidence quantité de faits qui, autrement, sembleraient d'une banalité assommante ou passeraient même inaperçus.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) was one of the finest and most distinctive of the Victorian painters. Dutch-born, he moved to London in 1870, and became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky. In this original and penetrating study, Rosemary Barrow presents an absorbing and often amusing portrait of an exuberant personality who carved out a brilliant career for himself at the heart of London's artistic and cultural élite. But above all she subjects the paintings to a fresh and rigorous scrutiny, revealing that Alma-Tadema was a highly knowledgeable student of antiquity, who made effective use of precise literary and archaeological allusions to play a game of interpretation with his viewers. Time and again the seeming innocence of the scenes he depicts is subverted by a mischievously placed inscription or statue, suggesting to the initiated a darker and usually risqué meaning. Like his contemporaries, Alma-Tadema was neglected after his death, but his paintings are once again admired for their beauty and their mastery of light, colour and texture. With its fresh and intriguing new insights into his personality and intentions, this book now provides a challenging reassessment of a major artist

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) was one of the finest and most distinctive of the Victorian painters. Dutch-born, he moved to London in 1870, and became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky. In this original and penetrating study, Rosemary Barrow presents an absorbing and often amusing portrait of an exuberant personality who carved out a brilliant career for himself at the heart of London's artistic and cultural élite. But above all she subjects the paintings to a fresh and rigorous scrutiny, revealing that Alma-Tadema was a highly knowledgeable student of antiquity, who made effective use of precise literary and archaeological allusions to play a game of interpretation with his viewers. Time and again the seeming innocence of the scenes he depicts is subverted by a mischievously placed inscription or statue, suggesting to the initiated a darker and usually risqué meaning. Like his contemporaries, Alma-Tadema was neglected after his death, but his paintings are once again admired for their beauty and their mastery of light, colour and texture. With its fresh and intriguing new insights into his personality and intentions, this book now provides a challenging reassessment of a major artist