Book reviews
In which I get historical, academic and elitist.
Book Reviews:
Sex with Kings: Five Hundred Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge by Eleanor Herman, New York: Harper Perennial, 2005.
This was not the worst book I’ve ever read, but nowhere near the best. While the general tone of the book is an easy read, it was difficult for me to enjoy it. As a historian I like a book to have a rational flow to its contents and this book is severely lacking in that. It would have been so much better if Hermann did a chronological study of her subject, rather than the apparent thematic approach she undertook. There is a constant back-and-forth jumping between eras and subjects and it is difficult for the reader to keep everything in order including the overreaching comparisons Hermann attempts to make between the various courtesans and mistresses.
The book is, essentially, about the mistresses of powerful men, i.e. kings, starting mostly with the sixteenth century and supposedly going up to today. There is a great slant towards western monarchs and history, most especially France and England. Madame de Pompadour is a favorite subject of Hermann’s thesis, so to speak, and is often brought up, bit by bit, anecdote by anecdote, in each chapter. Each chapter addresses a supposed theme of the mistresses’ life and the situation in which she finds herself, between the King, the Queen, the Court, and the Commoners.
Hermann does know her history, that is not called in to question, though she incorrectly states that not much is known about mistresses before the Sixteenth Century. The information is there, but one also has to admit the differences in how Hermann’s ideal of a mistresses is defined as opposed to the general idea of concubine/courtesan/mistress. Hermann also skips over the Church sanctioned concubinage system which, for many years, produced many powerful mistresses, but as Hermann’s focus is on more secular power than the Vatican, this can be put aside.
Still, the book suffers from its disarray. One chapter alone takes you from 17th Century France to 18th Century Germany, to 1920s England than back to 17th Century France. The book would have worked so much better if Hermann either did it in a complete chronological fashion or did each section based off the mistresses she wished to highlight, comparing her to mistresses of the past and future.
I would suggest borrowing this book, or buying a used copy rather than paying full price. It’s not that good of a read, even for curiosity and guilty pleasure seekers.
***************
The First World War by John Keegan, New York: Vintage Books, 1998.
I actually read this book last March, but had to rush through it as it was for assignments in a class I was entering midway through the semester. Ah, grad school drama, I do not miss you. Anyway, as I enjoyed as much of it as I could the first time around, I decided to read it again.
Keegan’s books is very dense, full of information, and most importantly it’s good. It is well written, full of observation and emotion, personable, informative, and historical. The one thing I appreciate the most about Keegan’s book, besides his very in-depth writings on trench mentality, is his addressing of all types of soldiers, all fronts, and all aspects of the war. So much of “The Great War” literature is focused on the English or the French, but Keegan goes in-depth about the Turkish, the ANZAC and the fact that the Americans weren’t “saviors” because they were good, just because they were fresh.
I really can’t say more about the book, just that anyone with even a slight interest in World War I should read it. There is a reason why it is regarded as one of the best, and a classic source, across the board. It is definitely on my “must read/must buy” list.
**********
The Great War and Modern Memory: The Illustrated Edition by Paul Fussell, Oxford: University Press, 2000/ New York: Sterling.
If Keegan wrote my overall favorite academic historical work on WWI, than Fussell is the author of my favorite narrow-focus academic historical work on WWI. Fussell’s focus is mostly on the British and he is up front about this in his preface. He addresses one of the things that fascinate me most about “The Great War” and that is the cultural impact and the mythology which rose during and after it.
One of my grad professors suggested this book to me, since he knows of my love of going into literary works, especially poetry, and addressing the various historical events which influenced said works of literature. He well remembers my paper on “fascist” poets, addressing why Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot felt such draws to the foreign Fascist movement in Italy and the very small bits of fascist uprisings in their home countries. Anyway, that’s WWII. With WWI it’s more about the poetry and literature written by those who lived the war, died in the trenches, or got out. There is a reason why those who survived the War formed the “Lost Generation” and Fussell does an amazing job of addressing the culture where this arose.
The illustrated edition is full of pictures, war posters, newspaper articles etc that the original edition does not have. These only serve to add to the text and make the many points Fussell addresses even more clear. I’m also biased since there is something about WWI propaganda posters I like more than WWII, but that’s a personal thing.
Like Keegan, I highly recommended this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the era. It’s not as historically dense as Keegan, but still very well written. And for a hardback, it’s very cheap at only $30.
Tomorrow I shall try to go to the Harry Potter Exhibit, though I still might hold that off until next weekend. I do have to get a calendar for the year, and do the regular running about Boston/Dorchester/Q-town, but we shall see. I did buy some boots online tonight for DSW, saved over $60 and only spent $30. I count that as a win.
Book Reviews:
Sex with Kings: Five Hundred Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge by Eleanor Herman, New York: Harper Perennial, 2005.
This was not the worst book I’ve ever read, but nowhere near the best. While the general tone of the book is an easy read, it was difficult for me to enjoy it. As a historian I like a book to have a rational flow to its contents and this book is severely lacking in that. It would have been so much better if Hermann did a chronological study of her subject, rather than the apparent thematic approach she undertook. There is a constant back-and-forth jumping between eras and subjects and it is difficult for the reader to keep everything in order including the overreaching comparisons Hermann attempts to make between the various courtesans and mistresses.
The book is, essentially, about the mistresses of powerful men, i.e. kings, starting mostly with the sixteenth century and supposedly going up to today. There is a great slant towards western monarchs and history, most especially France and England. Madame de Pompadour is a favorite subject of Hermann’s thesis, so to speak, and is often brought up, bit by bit, anecdote by anecdote, in each chapter. Each chapter addresses a supposed theme of the mistresses’ life and the situation in which she finds herself, between the King, the Queen, the Court, and the Commoners.
Hermann does know her history, that is not called in to question, though she incorrectly states that not much is known about mistresses before the Sixteenth Century. The information is there, but one also has to admit the differences in how Hermann’s ideal of a mistresses is defined as opposed to the general idea of concubine/courtesan/mistress. Hermann also skips over the Church sanctioned concubinage system which, for many years, produced many powerful mistresses, but as Hermann’s focus is on more secular power than the Vatican, this can be put aside.
Still, the book suffers from its disarray. One chapter alone takes you from 17th Century France to 18th Century Germany, to 1920s England than back to 17th Century France. The book would have worked so much better if Hermann either did it in a complete chronological fashion or did each section based off the mistresses she wished to highlight, comparing her to mistresses of the past and future.
I would suggest borrowing this book, or buying a used copy rather than paying full price. It’s not that good of a read, even for curiosity and guilty pleasure seekers.
***************
The First World War by John Keegan, New York: Vintage Books, 1998.
I actually read this book last March, but had to rush through it as it was for assignments in a class I was entering midway through the semester. Ah, grad school drama, I do not miss you. Anyway, as I enjoyed as much of it as I could the first time around, I decided to read it again.
Keegan’s books is very dense, full of information, and most importantly it’s good. It is well written, full of observation and emotion, personable, informative, and historical. The one thing I appreciate the most about Keegan’s book, besides his very in-depth writings on trench mentality, is his addressing of all types of soldiers, all fronts, and all aspects of the war. So much of “The Great War” literature is focused on the English or the French, but Keegan goes in-depth about the Turkish, the ANZAC and the fact that the Americans weren’t “saviors” because they were good, just because they were fresh.
I really can’t say more about the book, just that anyone with even a slight interest in World War I should read it. There is a reason why it is regarded as one of the best, and a classic source, across the board. It is definitely on my “must read/must buy” list.
**********
The Great War and Modern Memory: The Illustrated Edition by Paul Fussell, Oxford: University Press, 2000/ New York: Sterling.
If Keegan wrote my overall favorite academic historical work on WWI, than Fussell is the author of my favorite narrow-focus academic historical work on WWI. Fussell’s focus is mostly on the British and he is up front about this in his preface. He addresses one of the things that fascinate me most about “The Great War” and that is the cultural impact and the mythology which rose during and after it.
One of my grad professors suggested this book to me, since he knows of my love of going into literary works, especially poetry, and addressing the various historical events which influenced said works of literature. He well remembers my paper on “fascist” poets, addressing why Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot felt such draws to the foreign Fascist movement in Italy and the very small bits of fascist uprisings in their home countries. Anyway, that’s WWII. With WWI it’s more about the poetry and literature written by those who lived the war, died in the trenches, or got out. There is a reason why those who survived the War formed the “Lost Generation” and Fussell does an amazing job of addressing the culture where this arose.
The illustrated edition is full of pictures, war posters, newspaper articles etc that the original edition does not have. These only serve to add to the text and make the many points Fussell addresses even more clear. I’m also biased since there is something about WWI propaganda posters I like more than WWII, but that’s a personal thing.
Like Keegan, I highly recommended this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the era. It’s not as historically dense as Keegan, but still very well written. And for a hardback, it’s very cheap at only $30.
Tomorrow I shall try to go to the Harry Potter Exhibit, though I still might hold that off until next weekend. I do have to get a calendar for the year, and do the regular running about Boston/Dorchester/Q-town, but we shall see. I did buy some boots online tonight for DSW, saved over $60 and only spent $30. I count that as a win.