A Distant Mirror

The Calamitous 14th Century

By: Barbara Tuchman

Narrated by: 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

Masterful Portrait of a Tragic Era

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

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.

comprehensive

detailed yet concise for covering an entire century. my one complaint was the reader's pronunciation of the word, 'sire.' she pronounced it 'seer.'

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

Plague and Pillage, Bullies and Brigands

The 14th Century must have been a horrible time to live. Wars, riots, torture, massacres, plague, pillage and corruption were common. The lessons of Barbara Tuchman’s scholarly yet readable history led to one conclusion: people can be very bad!

I learned a lot of medieval history from “A Distant Mirror,” and what I learned did not offer hope. Royalty was often incompetent; the nobles were selfish and brutal, the peasants bigoted. Even a relatively decent and pragmatic man, like the central figure the Lord of Coucy, was capable of cruelty.

The book is very long. Too much was about battles I had never heard of, royal alliances that don’t matter today and nobles whose names are long forgotten. My mind often wandered as I listened, like, what’s for dinner tonight?

The narrator was clear, and her pronunciations of foreign names and words sounded right, but she read too quickly. That kept the book moving, but it made it more difficult to grasp who was doing what to whom.