A review by jazpb
The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione

4.0

I began reading The Book of the Courtier for a Humanities paper I was writing. I had no idea what it was in for, but I figured I could learn a thing or two about courtiership. I'll be honest, I thought this book was going to be terribly dry and boring. I didn't go into this very open minded. I was pleasantly surprised to find it interesting. Not thrilling, but I did have a few moments of "page turner" feelings. These were brief and few and far between, but it wasn't until the end that I lost interest. The forth chapter (and probably part of the third) drones on too long making no definitive points. I got bored. I may have skipped a page or two, but I am pretty sure it wouldn't have mattered since the same singular point is still being beaten to death 20 pages later.
Aside from that failing, I was impressed with Castiglione for writing something informative, philosophical, and entertaining.