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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Have you seen the Showtime series? The Borgia’s would be so much cooler if they were actually like that. Still worth reading to get the idea of Italian Papal politics, but not half as interesting if they had really poisoned people.
Eh, enjoyed the other one I recently read more.
An enjoyable introduction, which is what I was looking for. I would have liked footnotes, but didn't feel that the book was in any way spurious or poorly researched.
The writing style is conversational without being chatty, and very fair to its subjects.
The writing style is conversational without being chatty, and very fair to its subjects.
An interesting overview with minimal insight, commentary, or authorial voice. Half the book seems to be bookended by quotation marks. No doubt the research was exemplary; there's no overlooking it. I feel I might have been as well served by a lengthy Wikipedia entry.
I was not enchanted as I'd hoped to be, but as much as I enjoy looking at timelines, this assemblage of events rang a pretty dull note. An abundance of telling rather than showing. It didn't help that the book read like a bus tour with a driver who never took their foot off the gas to let me absorb the scenery. If there's an audiobook I feel certain it's read by John Moschitta.
Until recently I was looking forward to another Hibbert work, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall. Now I am apprehensive.
I was not enchanted as I'd hoped to be, but as much as I enjoy looking at timelines, this assemblage of events rang a pretty dull note. An abundance of telling rather than showing. It didn't help that the book read like a bus tour with a driver who never took their foot off the gas to let me absorb the scenery. If there's an audiobook I feel certain it's read by John Moschitta.
Until recently I was looking forward to another Hibbert work, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall. Now I am apprehensive.
There's not too much to say about this book. It will introduce you to the main players surrounding this family while recounting the main events and rumors that defined their moment in history. There's really nothing in the way of analysis and far too little historical context to understand the larger political dynamics in Europe at this time. I disagree with reviewers who said the author was too credulous - he mentions some of the more salacious rumors, but I didn't get the sense that he believed them, especially those surrounding Lucrezia. I would have appreciated more sources that could have given different perspectives on the events described, and the lack of any maps showing the shifting boundaries of the various Italian polities was a gross oversight that made it difficult for me to understand some of the stakes of the conflicts.
I can't really say whether it is better or worse than other introductory texts that consider the House of Borgia, but you can definitely get through this quickly, and it will do a good enough job providing you with some background if you're interested in consuming some of the TV shows or other media that fictionalizes their lives. I didn't regret the time spent reading it and largely found it fun and jaunty, but it is not a serious work of history by any stretch of the imagination.
I can't really say whether it is better or worse than other introductory texts that consider the House of Borgia, but you can definitely get through this quickly, and it will do a good enough job providing you with some background if you're interested in consuming some of the TV shows or other media that fictionalizes their lives. I didn't regret the time spent reading it and largely found it fun and jaunty, but it is not a serious work of history by any stretch of the imagination.
Really 3 and a half stars.
This is a fantastic introduction for those who know only very little about the Borgias (or are familiar with the TV show and felt like reading about them in real life). It contains a handful of great lively anecdotes, and the reading is very accessible. It can get a little dry at times, but then, what history book doesn't?
Where this book falls short is analysis and interpretation. On the surface, it seems like a simple reporting of events sounds ideal for an introductory history book, but it becomes clear very quickly that the author doesn't address the issue of Why. He diligently reports events as they happened, but he isn't always clear about **WHY** certain people did certain things, what their motivations were. He also struggles to put their decisions and motivations (when offered) within the context of the time, so we don't know if what's being done is unusual or typical for the period.
On the whole, it's a wonderful book for getting a general introduction and overview of the Borgias, but unlike other popular histories, it doesn't do a satisfactory job of exploring the context and motivations of the principle players.
This is a fantastic introduction for those who know only very little about the Borgias (or are familiar with the TV show and felt like reading about them in real life). It contains a handful of great lively anecdotes, and the reading is very accessible. It can get a little dry at times, but then, what history book doesn't?
Where this book falls short is analysis and interpretation. On the surface, it seems like a simple reporting of events sounds ideal for an introductory history book, but it becomes clear very quickly that the author doesn't address the issue of Why. He diligently reports events as they happened, but he isn't always clear about **WHY** certain people did certain things, what their motivations were. He also struggles to put their decisions and motivations (when offered) within the context of the time, so we don't know if what's being done is unusual or typical for the period.
On the whole, it's a wonderful book for getting a general introduction and overview of the Borgias, but unlike other popular histories, it doesn't do a satisfactory job of exploring the context and motivations of the principle players.
This is short and easy to read, and it's interesting to do so while watching the Showtime TV series. I did bog down a bit here and there but I blame my lack of knowledge of the intricacies of the history of Italy. I have to read more than one book more than one time to get it all to sink and stay straight. For a starter book, it's fine. (there is, as one reviewer pointed out, a LOT about how many mules it took to carry this and that here and there. I don't imagine I'll try to commit any of that to memory.)
Love!!! Being mildly obsessed with the Medici and Italian Renaissance history, I found this book a valuable resource for history of that era. It was, however, written like an exciting fictional story and it was difficult to put down because I wanted to know what happened to the characters next. I often had to remind myself that the characters were, in fact, real people. Lucrezia Borgia was my absolute favorite! Regardless of your interest in Renaissance history, this book is a great read. If, however, the history of the Renaissance interests you, this book is a must. It ties up any loose ends and connects all the key players and families so commonly known to those who have studied the Renaissance.