4.06 AVERAGE

dark informative sad slow-paced

The contemporary conversation around medieval suffering has probably progressed past this book. Regardless- I liked it a lot because I love popes and anti popes and plague and crusades. "France" is the main terrain and I like my content slightly less France focused, but I understand the necessity of that decision. It took a while for me to trust why Enguerrand VII de Coucy was the right choice to tell the story of fourteenth century Europe, but with his lineage and downfall in one of the many failed crusades actually tells a demonstrative narrative. Dense and overly thorough at times but if you're willing to read a book about medieval Europe and you aren't comfortable with that I don't know what to tell you.

What an excellent glimpse into life in the 14th c. The narrative follows individuals through their personal trials and tribulations. This book is an immersive, broad view of the lives and lifestyles of western Europe’s most intriguing characters. Highly recommended.

There is altogether too much information packed into A Distant Mirror. The reader is left struggling with recalling the motives and relationships of a large cast of characters, as well as sometimes exceptionally detailed descriptions of 14th century life. Frankly, it causes significant non-fiction reading fatigue, something Tuchman entirely avoided in [b:The Guns of August|40779082|The Guns of August|Barbara W. Tuchman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1531263026l/40779082._SY75_.jpg|1884932] perhaps thanks to it's more recent historical setting & relatable context.

Nonetheless, Tuchman has an incredible ability to create a cohesive narrative despite covering an era so far in the past and for which the historical record is even more spotty than for several Ancient cultures. Along with the occasional but regular pearls of insight about 14th century life this is what keeps you pushing on to the end. But it does not overcome the repetitiveness of the constant motifs Tuchman dives into with agonizing detail of religious strife, haphazard harsh taxation, the failing knightly culture and general lawlessness.

I read this back in July and August of 2020. I didn't quite finish it. I'd like to pick it up again. I've just had a hard time concentrating this year. Lots of stuff in here about battles which I wasn't in the mood for. The information about daily life is good but I've read about it before.


Medieval history isn’t usually my thing, but someone must have recommended this book to me because it’s been on my “to read” list for a loooong time. I am so glad I did make time for this!

It’s fascinating and the closest thing to a narrative that you could probably get from a time so long ago when written records are so unreliable.

Also, the audiobook made for food listening while I was moving house.
adventurous challenging informative slow-paced

Tuchman, Barbara W. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. 1978. Random House, 1987.
Barbara Tuchman’s readable history of the European late middle ages won a national book award. Academic historians grumped that she used outdated translations and depended too much on secondary sources. Well, OK, though their complaints do sometimes sound a little like jealousy. Certainly, though, the book’s approach to history does seem a bit dated in its great and not-so-great man approach to historical causation. How much different, for instance, would history have been if knights had abandoned the myth of chivalry for a more modern approach to warfare? Maybe a lot, maybe a little, depending on which knight managed it in which battles. Two complaints are harder to dismiss. Tuchman has an if-it-bleeds-it-leads approach to narrative. Good for selling books, but it may miss some important trends. Her narrative style also makes the book heavy on detail at the risk of burying the argument. But the details are fun, and they do often leave one shaking the head in wonder. Finally, the individual characters do come to life in some particularly modern ways. There is a late-century duke of Milan who reminds me a lot of our most recent former president. It is instructive to learn that the 14th century also had more than its share of fake news, especially regarding women and Jews. The book is certainly worth reading, therefore, if only to remind us that plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.


challenging informative reflective slow-paced

Fascinating book if you're interested in the history of the Middle Ages. While the narrative of the book is centered around the life of Enguerrand de Coucy, a French nobleman, you'll learn a lot about various aspects of life in the 14th century along the way, including the Hundred Years' War, the Black Plague, and so much more. The language used isn't always easy to digest but overall it's worth powering through. 

This was a really interesting survey of the 14th century through the lens of the life of Enguerrand de Coucy VII, an extraordinary French nobleman. It provides insight into the world and culture of chivalric knights and the broader world of people from many social classes. It was, however, at times a bit dry. I never lost interest but sometimes lost the impetus to pick it back up again. Recommend the audiobook over actually reading it.