A Distant Mirror

The Calamitous Fourteenth Century

By: Barbara W. Tuchman

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 28 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's 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

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)

Enjoyable read

Tuchman is amazing as always . Also the narrator does a superb job of not losing you in potentially dense areas. Recommend if you’re interested in the period covered or just better understanding how we got the period in time we are in

Not what was expected

I’d first like to say that I believe this is my first ever review. I am disappointed because I wanted a look into this era’s society not the ruling class. Basically I got 28 hours of “this lord did this and that lady did that.” I had to read between the lines to get a glimpse of what the average person’s life was like.

To be perfectly honest I could have done without ever wasting my time on this publication. However I see where my own misunderstanding of the inaccuracies of recorded lead to my mistake in purchasing this title with the intent I had at the time.

Also, a bit of social commentary. The “nobles” of the past did not stand by the virtue they espoused at all but expected their subjects too. “Do as I say not as I do.”

Good book
Wrong book for me.

One of the great historians of the 20th century

Elegant prose, a concise understanding of the source material, and an excellent storyteller, Barbara Tuchman List the shroud away from the Papel schism, the Black Death, courtly love, chivalry and all the other dominant themes of 14 century Europe, all while stitching together a biography of an influential French noble.

This is good but I think I need to read it

This is really interesting but sometimes hard to follow - maybe it wouldn't be for someone already steeped in 14th century history, but I found many times I wasn't sure what prince or king was being spoken about (often that's what was said - "the prince" or "the king" without a name) and since it's audio I couldn't just flip back a page to clarify for myself. There's a lot of really interesting stuff in this book about the lives of the people and the impact of war and plague, but it's very long and extremely detailed, filled with names of people who I wasn't sure where to place. For a book like this, I'd like to see a recording broken down into more tracks with titles so I could get more of a feeling for where in the narrative I was.

14th Century history, 21st Century drama

Well worth the listen (and read too if you want to read the book). Barbara Tuchman's history of Europe in the 1300's will add to your understanding of Europe's origins and continuing entanglements. It's long, and engrossing. The narration by Nadia May is superb - I could listen to her for days.

A Fascinating Century Filled with Contrasts

Would you listen to A Distant Mirror again? Why?

Yes. There is so much in this book that you just can't take it all in with one listen. The book is so superbly written and so well narrated that listening to it many times would be a pleasure.

What other book might you compare A Distant Mirror to and why?

The Guns Of August by the same author. It was another superbly written and excellently narrated book that went into the prelude to, causes and first decisive months of World War I.

What does Nadia May bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She narrates the book just like I would imagine Barbara Tuchman meant it to sound. I'm not an expert, but her pronunciation of French, Italian and other names and quotations sounded totally correct. Her enunciation was such that I never missed a word.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Several times I laughed at the idiotic behavior of people or at the biting wit of both the author and of some of the commentators of the times.

I also was often stunned at the amazingly stupid decisions made by the aristocracy, especially in battle. Let's load up the barges with fine wines and food and leave the siege engines at home. Let's follow the same tactics time after time after time, even though they fail every time resulting in disaster and huge casualties.

I was also amazed at the similarities between our own society and that of the 14th Century - A Distant Mirror, indeed.

Any additional comments?

I have listened to three books by this author, The Guns of August, The Zimmerman Telegram and now this one. All three are superb. If you want to be entertained while learning history and its lessons then Barbara Tuchman is the author for you.

Immensely written and deftly narrated

Tuchman adeptly provides an imaginative and immensely engaging account of the 14th century Europe based upon a broad amount of research. I have been trying to finish this book since the fall of 1979a, my first quarter as a college freshman, but one thing after another interrupted. Wanda McCaddon does a fine job narrating the book. It really helped moving me through the reading because I had to get oriented to the direction and purpose of Tuchman. I had to reread chapters and pages because I just wasn’t comprehending. It took half the book before it dawned on me. It wasn’t Coucy’s biography but a comprehensive commentary on the social, political, religious, diplomatic, military, economic, and psychology of the14th century in mostly England and France during the Hundred Years War.

A worthy journey into the abyss of time.

it seems that endeavorous ambition is the only thing keeping people from vice and depression.

If you like history....

There is nothing new under the sun or Son as I prefer to see this phrase for we are all under God. God's been to this "rodeo" before and the author follows the life of a man as he carves his path through life.
So we look back through time to the fourteenth century using a distant mirror and what is in the reflection?
Ourselves.

Fruits of Tuchman's labor as good ad it gets

Tuchman has done an excellent job of researching all that was written about the 14th century in Europe then distilling that through the life of an extraordinary man, Enguerrand VII, Sire de Coucy. The editing task must have been enormous. Then to have introduced relevant political and public health dynamics (plague) made this book exceptional.