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A Distant Mirror

The Calamitous 14th CenturyBy Barbara W. TuchmanNarrated by Wanda McCaddon
Length28h 38m

About this audiobook

A “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 time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and the exquisitely decorated Books of Hours; and on the other, a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague. Barbara Tuchman reveals both the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived. Here are the guilty passions, loyalties and treacheries, political assassinations, sea battles and sieges, corruption in high places and a yearning for reform, satire and humor, sorcery and demonology, and lust and sadism on the stage. Here are proud cardinals, beggars, feminists, university scholars, grocers, bankers, mercenaries, mystics, lawyers and tax collectors, and, dominating all, the knight in his valor and “furious follies,” a “terrible worm in an iron cocoon.”

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 4.2 (89.1K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon, StoryGraph
GenreHistory
Length28 hrs 38 mins
Narrated byWanda McCaddon
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateDec 1, 2005
LanguageEnglish

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