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  • The Dark Queens

  • The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World
  • De: Shelley Puhak
  • Narrado por: Cassandra Campbell
  • Duración: 10 h y 50 m
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (332 calificaciones)

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The Dark Queens

De: Shelley Puhak
Narrado por: Cassandra Campbell
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Resumen del Editor

“A well-researched and well-told epic history. The Dark Queens brings these courageous, flawed, and ruthless rulers and their distant times back to life.” (Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times best-selling author of Hidden Figures)

The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule.

Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet - in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport - these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe.

The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war - against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths - one gentle, the other horrific - their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend.

In The Dark Queens, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak sets the record straight. She resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture's stubbornest myths about female power. The Dark Queens offers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world.

©2022 Shelley Puhak (P)2022 Audible, Inc.
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Lo que los oyentes dicen sobre The Dark Queens

Calificaciones medias de los clientes
Total
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 estrellas
    199
  • 4 estrellas
    71
  • 3 estrellas
    40
  • 2 estrellas
    14
  • 1 estrella
    8
Ejecución
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    203
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    48
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    18
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    5
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    1
Historia
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    178
  • 4 estrellas
    54
  • 3 estrellas
    26
  • 2 estrellas
    10
  • 1 estrella
    7

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  • Total
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ejecución
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Historia
    5 out of 5 stars

Suspenseful, in-depth history

It's not often that a historical narrative can hold me on the edge of my seat. The fact that this book did that is a huge tribute to Puhak's ability as a storyteller. She's not just a storyteller, though: she obviously has the academic chops to grapple with the sources and the tough questions, and she gives her conclusions in a way that always respects the reader's intelligence—I never felt talked down to or brushed off, as sometimes happens when academic historians write books for laypeople. Nor did I feel like Puhak was distorting history for the sake of a gripping narrative, as sometimes happens when fiction authors (or aspiring fiction authors) try their hand at history. This is an author who has real respect for the source material, and real respect for the reader.

Now, as to the suspense: it helps, of course, that the period (Merovingian France) is one that I have very little familiarity with so I had no idea how the story ended. But I've read plenty of new-to-me histories, and "suspenseful" is very rarely a word I can use to describe them. I'm reading a history of the Thirty Years' War right now, and while I'm fascinated by the intricacies of what's happening, I don't feel any suspense about the outcome (even though I don't know what it is).

What Puhak does is select two people from this period in history (Queen Brunhild and Queen Fredegund) and then make very real their fears, concerns, ambitions, and desires. Throughout the twisting and complex civil wars that follow, she always makes ensures that we know the stakes for Brunhild and Fredegund. What could be a rather confusing list of betrayals, battles, and royal marriages in another author's hands is instead rendered completely clear, and completely vivid, because we see them through Brunhild's and Fredegund's eyes, and we see how they fit into their calculations and anxieties. And because we see all these events through their eyes (again, in a historically respectful way—this isn't fiction) we feel the weight of how each event might affect them. The result is a surprisingly taught and suspenseful narrative.

Along the way, we get plenty of the smaller stories that pull the reader onto fascinating side-trips. I will be forever grateful to this book for introducing me to Radegund, the captive Princess of a destroyed kingdom who escaped to become an Abbess and political power-broker in her own right.

Excellent, excellent stuff, and quite possibly the best book I've read this year. Highly recommended.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

  • Total
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved this story!

This is a must read! I loved the story - it’s inspiring and beautiful. Hurry and download

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  • Total
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ejecución
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Historia
    5 out of 5 stars

The Most Riveting History Book I've Ever Read

Genuinely one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. I was hooked from the first few sentences.

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  • Total
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ejecución
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Historia
    5 out of 5 stars

Very well researched book! I I enjoyed it!

Very good read ! Historically interesting & informative! The story regarding this time in history was both religiously & diplomatically quite captivating.

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  • Total
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ejecución
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Historia
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it + recommended it all my friends + family

Super interesting + well researched. It's an epic story of survival, boldness, + clever minds. I'm looking forward to reading more of Shelley's writing.

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  • Total
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ejecución
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Historia
    5 out of 5 stars

Thought about this book all the time!

Even though it was sometimes hard to catch the names of all of the kings ( I listened in my convertible with the top down), it was so fascinating that I would take the long way home. The writing wasn’t perfect, but the narrator more than made up for it.

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esto le resultó útil a 16 personas

  • Total
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Meh

It was interesting but not gripping. I learned a bit but probably won’t remember much.

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  • Total
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ejecución
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Historia
    5 out of 5 stars

Essential History

A well-told, well-researched, and long-overdue account of two of the most formidable women in European history.

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  • Total
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ejecución
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Historia
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating and compelling!

Loved this audiobook and the fascinating portrayal of Fredegund and Brunhild. I wish there was more!

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  • Total
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ejecución
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Historia
    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling

Excellent reconstruction of ancient lives and events using a great variety of primary materials. Told in a compelling narrative.

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