those terrible middle ages
The lack of capitilization is not my fault. Regine Pernoud titled her book without capital letters.
I usually am delighted by Ignatius Press’ books. They publish high-quality and hard-to-find titles and, while they do print mostly (only?) paperbacks, all their bindings are sewn. However this book – those terrible middle ages: debunking the myths – was definitely a bit uneven. The topic was interesting and the writer obviously passionate but the prose was clunky and the reasoning easily drifted over the head (mine). The fifth chapter, on women, was fantastic. It has made me change my mind about whether or not I could have enjoyed living in another era. Turns out that the 20th century was not actually the first to recognize that women had brains. The “dark ages” for women were the 16th through the 19th centuries; not the 6th through the 15th.
The book has other high-points including a 40-years-early take down of Dan Brown. So do read it but don’t give up hope in the first few chapters.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:17 am
Sounds interesting. I’d ask to borrow it, but I know how you are about that.
I[‘ll get my own, if I ever have the time and money together.
July 1st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I actually borrowed it from someone else and have to return it…