Well, that was a long haul, but I don't regret the journey. This is basically an overview of France, England, and other parts of Europe in the 14th century as it follows the ancestors and life of Enguerrand VI de Coucy. It's not exactly a biography, but it uses de Coucy's life to provide human int...
Conflict is the engine of every narrative, but it is the engine of every individual life, every culture, and every age. Because conflict takes up so much of our time and energy, we often look to the past, the conflicts of which all have-- or at least appear to have-- cemented resolutions chronicled ...
I see most people seem to rate this book very highly. I don't and found the book a tough listen. I give the author kudos for presenting one of the best peeks into the start of the Renaissance at least from a mostly French perspective. A historian sometimes needs to tell a story in addition to presen...
I first gave this massive doorstop book a try in my teens, and the immense detail, I think, is what defeated me. I remember finding it dry and tedious (a complaint echoed in the few negative reviews.) The book's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness--its density. This is an intensely rich ...
I've been listening to this for a month, now. I think I've been through it 7 or 8 times, but I'm not remotely ready to be finished. The narrator's voice is lovely to drift off to at night, and wonderful to while away the afternoons whilst working around the house. I loved this book when I first read...
This is pretty good, but it's not up to the very high standard she has set with her other books. There are the usual great quotes and the usual penetrating, transcendent insights. However, she focuses far too much on England and France and she is in no way consistent with her use of English and Fr...
Audiobook.I moved this up in my queue as I worked my way through Martin's A Game of Thrones because I correctly surmised that it would help elucidate some of the beliefs and behaviors on which Martin's characters' actions are based. This was true, and A Distant Mirror was enjoyable in its own right....
I gave this three stars because, as one might imagine, it was a lot of work to finish. This is a long, long book about Europe in the 14th century. As a result, there are a lot of names and places to keep straight, and it doesn't help that everyone is named the same thing: John the II, the III, the I...
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