Product Description

With wit, intelligence and his trademark eye for riveting detail, John Julius Norwich has brought together the most important and fascinating events from his trilogy of the rise and fall of the Byzantine empire.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112846 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 504 pages

About the Author
Apart from his Byzantium trilogy, John Julius Norwich's books include THE NORMANS IN THE SOUTH, THE KINGDOM IN THE SUN, MOUNT ATHOS (with Reresby Sitwell), SAHARA, THE ARCHITECTURE OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND and GLYNDEBOURNE.

Customer Reviews

Not in-depth, but definitely readable
Covering a thousand years of history in as many pages is a challenge but this 'Short History...' does a pretty good job of condensing the whole thing into a readable format.

A previous reviewer criticised the author for skimping on detail. But for a reader (like me) who's just interested in getting a flavour of the times, it's perfect. It's rather sensational at points, but more than once I found myself slack-jawed at the goings-on: plots, murders, adultery, intrigue...sometimes it's more like an extended soap opera than a history book.

So it's not for the serious academic then, but as an introduction to the subject it makes for a good read.

Great Introduction to a Fascinating Subject
JJ Norwich manages to condense over 1,000 years of history into a single volume and does it with style. The book is well-written and keeps the reader's interest from beginning to end. For me, this has certainly whetted my appetite for buying and reading the original 3-volume work and also other books on this amazing period in European and Asian history. It is amazing how much of our culture and knowledge is owed to the Byzantines and until you read about them, how little most of us know.
I can heartily recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest interest in understanding more about how religion, ambition, greed, courage, vice, weakness and many other factors intertwined to dictate the course of the Empire and indeed most of Europe and Asia Minor over such a long period of time.

A spellbinding introduction to a fascinating subject
For all students of history, this is a great intro to a period that has been largely ignored in English schools, for hundreds of years.
It does seem a little rushed at times, but this is only to be expected from this edited version, and JJN apologises for this in the preface.
I enjoyed this so much, I am now reading the individual volumes. It's highly entertaining and a real page turner - not something one normally says about a history book.
Quite simply one of the best books I have ever read.