A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th CenturyA “marvelous history”* of medieval Europe, from the bubonic plague and the Papal Schism to the Hundred Years’ War, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Guns of August *Lawrence Wright, author of The End of October, in The Wall Street Journal The fourteenth century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering age of crusades, cathedrals, and chivalry; on the other, a world plunged into chaos and spiritual agony. In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries, and guilty passions, Tuchman re-creates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, dominating all, the knight—in all his valor and “furious follies,” a “terrible worm in an iron cocoon.” Praise for A Distant Mirror “Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship . . . What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was. . . . No one has ever done this better.”—The New York Review of Books “A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer.”—The Wall Street Journal “Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . a great book, in a great historical tradition.”—Commentary |
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14th century Anjou archers armor arms army Avignon battle Bernabò Berry Bishop Black Death bourgeois Brittany brother Calais campaign cardinals castle Charles of Navarre chivalry Christian Chron chronicler Church Clement clergy Clisson combat Coucy's Council Count court crown crusade daughter Delachenal Deschamps Duke of Brittany Duke of Burgundy Edward Emperor enemy England English Enguerrand Enguerrand de Coucy Estates fear fight Flanders Florence florins force French Froissart Gian Galeazzo gold honor horses Italy Jacques Jean Jean de Venette Jews killed King of France King's knights ladies Lancaster land livres lord Louis d'Orléans marriage medieval men-at-arms Milan monks Naples Navarre never nobles Normandy Orléans papacy papal Paris peace peasants Philip Picardy plague Poitiers Pope Prince prisoners ransom Rome royal schism seigneur siege Sire de Coucy squires sword taxes took towns treaty Treaty of Brétigny Turks uncles Valois villages Visconti