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A Distant Mirror

The Calamitous Fourteenth Century

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A Distant Mirror

By: Barbara W. Tuchman
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
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Summary

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.”

©1978 Barbara W. Tuchman (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks Europe Medieval Western Europe World Middle Ages Witty Siege Comedy Royalty War England Crusade Renaissance
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Critic reviews

"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." (New York Review of Books)

"Barbara Tuchman at the top of her powers.... A beautiful, extraordinary book.... She has done nothing finer." (Wall Street Journal)

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An interesting, engagingly written book on a fascinating period history. At over 28rs long it’s good value for your credit too.

The narrator has an easy to listen to accent and natural speaking cadence. Strangely, she correctly pronounces some often mispronounced words, especially French place names like ‘Rheims’, but completely mispronounces quite common ones (‘jousts’ pronounced ‘jhoosts’, ‘clerks’ as spelled, ‘Schism’ as ‘Sisum’, ‘non’ as ‘nun’) which come up with jarring frequency. She talks with UK English Received Pronunciation but pronounces many words like ‘Dynasty’, ‘Lieutenant’ and ‘process’ as if a US American. She pronounces dates as ‘November two’ rather than ‘the second of November’. Perhaps this seems minor, but by hour 20 it gets quite annoying. Despite this, overall an enjoyable listen.

A lot of history for your credit

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I listened to 1415 and marvelled at the minute detail. Longer period but again very detailed, it's amazing what information appears to be available, but whether you get any closer to understanding I'm increasingly inclined to think not. Perhaps my brain is too keen to classify and categorize.
I also dislike the pronunciation of joust as juice-st but at least Caen was right not cayenne as in 1415.

Detailed, very very detailed

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Using the life of one nobleman as the fulcrum of the tale, the author spins a great summary of one of the worst centuries to be a European I can think of. It is well read barring a few mispronunciations which I let go initially. Some like 'simony' are unusual so understandable BUT the mispronunciation of 'schism' eventually got to me. It's the time of the great Papal Schism and consequently she has to say it about 500 times. By about the 30th time I began correcting her out loud - I couldn't help it - and during the actual chapter about the Schism I was shouting the word so often the dog left the room. So, I heartily recommend the book but you have been warned - prepare your pets!

Excellent coverage of a turbulent time

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I did enjoy and read this book through in its entirety. It’s big and assumes a lot of prior knowledge- I was looking for more English history and this book focuses on the life of a Frenchman.

Phew - stonker of a book

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This is an undoubtedly impressive work. However the fine-grained detail is excessive. So much familiarity with the subject could have produced a more engaging work had the analysis been under thematic headings rather than a blow-by-blow chronological narrative

The work of a great historian, but over- detailed

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