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A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century
  
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A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century (Paperback)

by Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 704 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (25 Sep 1980)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140054073
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140054071
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 140,491 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #84 in  Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > France
    #99 in  Books > History > Europe > Renaissance, Reformation, Thirty Years War 1501-1750

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A vivid and powerfull insight into life in the 14th century, 15 Oct 2001
This review is from: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (Paperback)
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.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A distant mirror - a reflection of life in the 14th century, 19 Jul 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (Paperback)
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.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful, rich and absorbing , 16 Dec 2006
By John Hopper (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (Paperback)
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all time top ten books
I have quite a wide range of book interests - history, thrillers, sci-fi, comedy - but this book ranks in my all time top ten books, probably in the top five. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2007 by Mr. Elliot P. Renton

5.0 out of 5 stars Tuchman shows us our own world , in the disaster of the 14th
This is first class history. Tuchman presents us with a fourteenth century which is falling apart, ripped to shreds by the unmitigated brutality of a ruling elite who have failed... Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2001 by xporterfield@fxcfrance.com

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding reading even if your not a historian
she reminds us that no matter how strange or surreal we found the decades that we have lived through, it could have been worse... Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2000

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