Optics by Isaac Newton is a treatise on light and the science of reflected light, refracted light, and colors. The book analyzes the fundamental nature of light using the refraction of light with prisms and lenses, the diffraction of light by closely spaced sheets of glass, and the behavior of color mixtures with spectral lights or pigment powders. Excerpt: "Exper. 1. I took a black oblong stiff Paper terminated by Parallel Sides, and with a Perpendicular right Line drawn cross from one side to the other, distinguished it into two equal Parts. One of these parts I painted with a red color and the other with blue. The Paper was very black, and the Colors intense and thickly laid on, that the Phænomenon might be more conspicuous. This Paper I viewed through a Prism of solid Glass, whose two Sides through which the Light passed to the Eye was plane and well polished, and contained an Angle of about sixty degrees; which Angle I call the refracting Angle of the Prism."

Pavilion - Samuel's story sets the opulence and excesses of the former Prince Regent, recently crowned George IV and his summer residence the magnificent Brighton Pavilion against a young architect's assistant Samuel Grey who finds himself working there. Samuel has a heavy social conscience and is appalled at the King's profligacy when the working people of England are hungry and suppressed following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. After accidentally witnessing the violation of Caroline a young servant girl in the fables tunnels underneath the Pavilion by one of the King's acolytes, Samuel first vows to avenge her, then falls in love with her. But after making a terrible discovery in one of the tunnels their plans for revenge expand even further than either of them had dared to imagine, perhaps even to the toppling of the Monarchy itself. A lot of the characters, the King, Lord Alvanley and John Nash obviously did exist but I have taken some liberties with their manner and propensities!

"D'Orsay's style and charm soon found favor with the influential Lord and Lady Blessington, who invited him to tour Europe with them. While on tour there he met some of the continent's most influential figures and boosted his reputation, and a lengthy stay in Naples cemented his extravagant tastes." "The Blessington-d'Orsay menage intrigued and scandalized London society, and gossip reached a fever pitch when d'Orsay agreed to marry Blessington's fifteen-year-old daughter, without ever having seen her."