Author Francis Marion Crawford (1854– 1909) was a prolific American writer, known especially for his novels set in Italy, and for his classic weird and fantastic stories. 'The Heart of Rome' is an historical romance set in 19th-century Rome. The family of the heroine, Sabine Conti, is suddenly impoverished. Her selfish mother leaves her with a social-climbing woman who's married to Baron Volterra--the man mainly responsible for the fall of the Conti...