Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #179688 in Books
• Published on: 1991-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

Customer Reviews

A vivid and powerfull insight into life in the 14th century
Barbara Tuchman transports the reader from the present world to fourteenth century France where we witness the contradictions, the decline and ultimately the self-destruction of the age of chivalry. We travel on a journey, via the life of a unique French nobleman, to world characterised by conflict and fear. In a world of political ambition, terror, inequality, and exploitation we learn of the great events of the age including the schism of Rome, the great plague, the crusades and the wars with England and other states. Barely surviving was the lowly peasant despite exploitation by state, church, landowner and mercenary alike. A historical tour de force.

A distant mirror - a reflection of life in the 14th century
How interesting can a history of the 14th century be? Extremely!

Barbara Tuchman has an easy reading style which transports the reader into life in 14th century life in England and France. Her vehicle of choice, Enguarrand VI, makes the book palatable and dispenses with the usual "hohum way of writing an historical tome."

The reader is taken on a voyage through this period and is exposed to the trauma which was the normal life for the peasant, and the obscenity, which was the excesses of nobles and kings alike.

A highly recommended book for someone daunted by the thought of reading an historical account. This truly makes easy and excellent reading for all. We are educated by stealth such is the manner in which Tuchman entiwnes us in her story.

wonderful, rich and absorbing
This is a wonderful, rich and absorbing read, covering all aspects of the 14th century in great detail. I read this deliberately fairly slowly, in order to savour it. The focus on Coucy at times seems slightly forced and means, from the point of view of the English reader, that there is relatively little coverage of English history (e.g. only about 7 pages on the Peasants' Revolt). But Coucy does bridge France and England through his marriage to one of Edward III's daughters and, as he also campaigned in Italy, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia Minor, his choice as a focus is understandable from the point of view of covering a broad sweep of location.

Only a few minor points of real criticism: the maps were wrongly placed within my edition and there could have been a few more. The book could also have done with a chronology and probably genealogical tables of the French royal family in particular.