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A review by seanquistador
The Borgias and Their Enemies: 1431-1519 by Christopher Hibbert
3.0
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.