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A review by ebeyrent
Cromwell by Antonia Fraser
4.0
This was a really tough book to get through. I love history, and knew nothing about the time period of the Protectorate, and was excited to dig in.
I was immediately thrown by the author's prose, which was extremely verbose and overly academic. This is not a book for general consumption; it is clearly written for other academics. I found myself re-reading passages over and over just to keep clear what was happening.
Battle descriptions were not nearly as complex, and were the best parts of the book. The author's narrative regarding the battles of Naseby and Worcester were superb, and I flew through those sections. The parliamentary squabbles, power plays, and political dynamics were very dry and heavily analyzed.
If you're a scholar of English history, or of history in general, I recommend this book. If you're an armchair historian like myself, you may want to find something a bit more digestible.
I was immediately thrown by the author's prose, which was extremely verbose and overly academic. This is not a book for general consumption; it is clearly written for other academics. I found myself re-reading passages over and over just to keep clear what was happening.
Battle descriptions were not nearly as complex, and were the best parts of the book. The author's narrative regarding the battles of Naseby and Worcester were superb, and I flew through those sections. The parliamentary squabbles, power plays, and political dynamics were very dry and heavily analyzed.
If you're a scholar of English history, or of history in general, I recommend this book. If you're an armchair historian like myself, you may want to find something a bit more digestible.