A Distant Mirror

The Calamitous 14th Century

De: Barbara Tuchman

Narrado por: Aviva Skell

The Bubonic Plague of the 14th century killed one third of all human beings in Europe and Western Asia; many who survived the plague killed each other in the Hundred Years War that followed. What was it like to live in this calamitous century, when knighthood (and much more) died a violent death? Find out.

©1978 Barbara W. Tuchman (P)1984 Recorded Books

Intermediate French

I wouldn’t recommend this unless you’ve got an intermediate grasp of French language and French history otherwise you’ll be left in the dust fairly quickly.

Masterful Portrait of a Tragic Era

Tuchman’s voice shines among the greatest historians in the English language. This book was an incredible journey.

I gave up. Ruined by the reader. Argh!

Why oh why do some authors read their own works. Writing is a talent, and a skill. So is reading. The readers voice would be OK for a short time, but this is a very wordy book and a long one. Her voice is hard on the ear after a few moments. She speaks rapidly, which is usually a good thing, but in this case she’s hard to follow. Many people can carry a tune but few make great singers because it’s the tone that matters. The same as true of a reader. She is articulate and clear speaking with good diction, but the tone of her voice is harpy. I’m disappointed. I want to hear the information in this book. I think it’s valuable but I fear I may have to buy the printed version and read it myself.
Please, please authors, put your ego aside and pay someone to read your books!

Very good

Excellent writing and excellent narration Bur very long. The story is good however a little goes a long way and it has to be listened to in pieces

Difficult to Follow, untranslated French, many dates and names

Some very interesting material in the first 6 chapters on life in Europe during the Middle Ages but in chapter 7, she starts to focus on an individual French nobleman and it becomes an incredibly fast paced whirlwind of French names, dates, and places without any grounding context or cohesiveness. There is also a fair amount of French that the author doesn't bother to translate and a significant number of references to events, people, and places that are not explained or explored. The book feels like it was written for other experts on the period and not the casual history fan. There are still pockets of interesting cultural information and you can sometimes piece together what seems to be happening but the book is read at an incredible speed which leaves the less informed reader in the dust. The French pronunciation is perfect I am sure but if you are unfamiliar with the spelling of french words, as I am, you can't even look up the material yourself to flesh out what you don't understand.

Overall, despite the interesting first 6 chapters, probably not worth the time unless you are already an expert on the Hundred Years' War, speak French, and already have thorough background knowledge of French medieval history. Not for the novice. However! The reader is a greater narrator and has that wonderful old school, ambiguous North Atlantic accent.

beautiful writing

The writing reads more like a story rather than a textbook or other historical books i’ve read. Even though I already knew most of the info in the book, I was still at times gripped with suspense for what comes next. It was in my opinion what every historical book should be like. At times I got emotional, and the epilogue gave me chills. It may be slightly outdated in some minor areas but I feel it could definitely still be used as a scholarly source to this day.

Tedious

I had tried to read this book before and thought the audiio book would be easier. It was still a lot like reading an encyclopia...lots of names, dates, and places but no thread to make it relevant.

Great historical narrative

I’m not a history buff, but I found this book interesting and enlightening. The narrator was superb

A classic history

I really enjoy Barbara Tuchman's work. To listen is to be immersed in14th century Europe, where knights are bold, vicious, arrogant, conniving, sometimes not very bright, and very dangerous. The church is all about power and control, holding souls hostage to a harsh God, ransoming them for material gain. Villages are wiped off the map by the Black Death in a matter of weeks. Riveting!

But, I can't wholeheartedly recommend this performance. The reader does a reasonable job, but her pace is not mine. A slower, slightly more relaxed reading would make this book even more engrossing. I must say that I've enjoyed this title in spite of the narrator, she reads just a little too fast for me. If I were to recommend this book, I'd recommend a version by a different narrator.

Great book, but read too fast

Barbara Tuchman is an awesome historian and writer and I've never before read anything like this book. I bought the kindle version in order to re-read it in parts that were simply too quickly read for adequate comprehension. It is extremely dense with information--many, many names, places, and dates. In addition to going too fast (and barely, if at all pausing between paragraphs), I found the narrator's pronunciation of French names a little distracting. Sometimes it was perfect, sometimes half-right, and sometimes completely off, e.g. "Reims." But if you don't speak French you won't notice the mispronunciations. On the other hand, I would imagine that it would be very hard to keep the names straight without any knowledge of the language.

The content describing life in fourteenth century France was absolutely fascinating.