"The events described in this book played out in an age when the line between reliable historical information on the one hand, and the myths, legends "The events described in this book played out in an age when the line between reliable historical information on the one hand, and the myths, legends and narratives of later ages on the other, is often blurred, and sometimes impossible to draw clearly for historians. My aim has been to write a coherent, documentable account based on primary sources and on insight from 150 years of historical, archaeological and philological research, without tiring my readers with long clarifications, discussions and reservations. This is a difficult balance to achieve, SINCE ALL OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THIS DISTANT AGE IS FUNDAMENTALLY UNCERTAIN." [emphasis added]
Personally, I would have liked to have had some of those "long clarifications, discussions and reservations".
The printed text does include some sketchy source notes - although it is not really possible to connect the material in the text with the original texts which provide historian Skeie with his material.
The edition I read didn't include an index. ...more
More interesting than I thought it would be. For some reason, I had thought of Eden's background being that of middling country gentry, or perhaps eveMore interesting than I thought it would be. For some reason, I had thought of Eden's background being that of middling country gentry, or perhaps even professional upper middle class, but this memoir makes it clear that his family was mid-level aristocratic in wealth and outlook, perhaps one level below that of the plutocratic Londonderrys - who were near neighborhoods in England's North. It's true that his father squandered the family millions, so to speak, but Eden's early years and adolescence certainly were ones of extreme wealth and privilege. (Eden was considerably higher in social class than his successor Harold MacMillan, even though MacMillan did score the "coup" of marrying a Duke's daughter.)
Also interesting for its detailed though detached account of Eden's harrowing service on the Western Front - as a young (very young) junior officer in 1916 and 1917. He was just 19! ...more
I wish I could give this book 2.5 stars - what I mean is that I enjoyed reading it, but I didn't really think it was a good book. As I see it, "The ByI wish I could give this book 2.5 stars - what I mean is that I enjoyed reading it, but I didn't really think it was a good book. As I see it, "The Byzantine Lady" is comprised of ten separate biographies that don't cohere into a book. In my view, it lacks analysis or even an interpretative framework which would explain why these particular lives have been narrated, and other relevant or contemporary lives have not. Are these lives meant to be seen as representative? Or are they exceptional? Furthermore. Nicol never really explores the meaning of gender as a lived reality in this time period.
I'm not at all familiar with Byzantine History - or with this time period in general. Nicol consults and has clearly mastered a wide range of impressive primary sources here. But - as if this were a project of one of my students - I wish that Nicol had worked a little harder to develop a workable and practical thesis. And it would have been good too for the title to more accurately reflect the way that nearly all the women who lives are told in this book were either Empresses or Queens. ...more
Nope. I gave up on this about halfway through - just wasn't worth going further. (And I almost never abandon books once I am more than 100 pages in.) Nope. I gave up on this about halfway through - just wasn't worth going further. (And I almost never abandon books once I am more than 100 pages in.) These journals started out okay, fairly interesting reports on Ginsberg's travels and his encounters with other "beat" authors. But it turns into what essentially seems a drug journal, an unfiltered and unedited account of his stray and random "daytime dreaming" thoughts composed largely under the influence of various substances.I thought it was quite tedious....more
Enormously moving, evocative of the transformative power of nature in locales ranging from Burma and South Africa to Lake Superior and the Oregon coasEnormously moving, evocative of the transformative power of nature in locales ranging from Burma and South Africa to Lake Superior and the Oregon coast. Jaspal Singh challenge the reader to understand the sweet and the bitter in a wandering life....more
Tbh, this book is a bit of a mess structurally, and there are some irritating historical infelicities and inaccuracies. The title itself is questionabTbh, this book is a bit of a mess structurally, and there are some irritating historical infelicities and inaccuracies. The title itself is questionable, as the author really does not anywhere show that there the women in question ever concerned themselves with Mary, Queen of Scots - so to speak of an "enduring legacy" which was not understood, conceived of, or ever mentioned by the individuals in questions is specious at best.
HOWEVER, it is certainly undeniably that the Elizabeth Stuart, ill-fated but persevering "Queen of Bohemia," "Queen of Hearts," Winter Queen of all Winter Queens, and her four surviving daughters were all remarkable women, and it is useful and illuminating to have their lives, their difficulties, their endurances all presented in a relatively clear and undeniably interesting historical narrative.
Having already been somewhat familiar with the live of the Hanoverian Electress Sophia - mother of King George I - I was especially interested to read in detail about the lives of Sophia's older sisters, each interesting in her own way. It was the first time in my long historical life that I have ever read about any of them in detail. One of them, named Henrietta Maria after her aunt-by-marriage, received a sizable dowry as a result of the Treaty of Westphalia, which her politically astute relatives used to ensnare her in marriage to a distant Prince of Transylvania. Another daughter, the eldest, another Princess Elizabeth, was well-educated and curious about the world, and became a friend and correspondent of the philosopher Descartes. Later, although Calvinist in her religion herself, Princess Elizabeth became an Abbess of a Lutheran foundation in central Germany. A third sister, Princess Louise Hollandine, studied painting with Dutch master Gerritt von Honthorst and became a skilled portraitist herself. Louise, an independent minded woman herself, shocked and grieved her family by converting to Roman Catholicism and becoming an Abbess herself of famous institution outside of Paris.
It's interesting to read this book about the opportunities and challenges faced by high-born women in Early Modern Europe. It is certainly a good thing to recognize that talented and energetic women like the Winter Queen and her daughters found ways to live independent, influential, interesting lives in the context of a continent at war, while they were subject to patriarchal religion and the constraints of international politics....more
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