Well, what better book to read when you are in the Netherlands than Erasmus' tributed to stupidity. Okay, I'm sure he is not being serious, though it is difficult to tell at times, particularly when he suggests that by being an idiot one does become healthy, wealthy (but not necessarily wise – actua...
Praise of Folly was written by Erasmus when he was ill for a few days. It got a bit tweaked and published, even though Erasmus himself thought it wasn't very good.Yet Praise of Folly sparked a literary revolution with its commentary on medieval values and more modern view of society. The whole novel...
This is the fifth book by an ancient historian that I have read. Livy doesn't have the story telling ability of Herodotus, the commitment to historical insight that Tacitus and Thucyides had, nor the gift for gossip of Suetonius. The book is quite long and bogs down a lot. Having said that, some ...
Hannibal or scipio?
This 'History of Rome' is proving to be much more entertaining than I expected. It reads much more like an exciting storybook than 'history'. The recurrent themes from two millennia ago are still relevant to this day, and the speeches Livy quotes are compelling and eloquent. The continuous strife, e...
The Vikings were the first Europeans in the New World. It did not end well, and there are even two different versions of how it failed. There is some light flashing of the Native Americans by the only Viking lady there in order to scare them away. It's the right level of Icelandic crazy with a dash ...
I loved this book when I read it the first time back in the 90s, still do today.What baffles me are all the incompetent and unsympathetic reviews that love to bash Abelard. Apparently the don't get what goes on with the male mind after the male in question has been castrated against his will. That's...
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