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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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About this listen

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 Witty Siege Comedy Royalty France War England King 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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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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Fascinating, with wonderful illuminating detail. I enjoyed it immensely.

More please

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Okay, this is a very long book and, as the previous reviewer remarks, it is certainly full of information. Precise information, at that. He also calls it 'dry' but I disagree. I found myself quite absorbed by the parallels between present-day politics and warmongering and those of our ancestors. I'm not an academic and I admit I would have found sitting and reading so much detail hard going at times but (and isn't this the whole point of Audible?) when busy with mundane tasks that keep the hands occupied but leave the brain free, my ipod-transmitted history lesson worked very well. And I truly enjoyed it.

A Distant Mirror

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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I was interested in finding information about all aspects of life in the fourteenth century. This book provided that in full. Highly listenable, and never dull. Gave detail without ending up drowning in minutiae.

Hit the spot

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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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Brilliantly conceived to combine the life of a central character with an overview of the peak and decline of European medieval culture. It's well narrated (don't care about her accent; she's always as clear as a bell) and at just north of 24 hours duration, excellent value.

Outstanding

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Although I enjoy audiobooks, I think I would have preferred to read this in print, for two reasons. Firstly because I could have skimmed over the endless lists - everything has to be listed in excruciating detail, from meals to armour to knights in a battle to... and so on. Other than that, the content is actually fascinating, with much of interest about a very turbulent century that, in many ways, had a major impact on the following three or four hundred years.

The other reason I think I would have preferred to read it was the narration, which frankly appalled me. First of all, it's a constant sing-song, with no apparent reference to what is being said: it sounded like Joyce Grenfell on acid. And secondly, so many of the words were wrongly or bizarrely pronounced. It really interfered with what should have been an enjoyable listen.

OK, but too many lists, and a poor narration

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When you buy this, you're signing up for (if you download the richest format) 4 100MB downloads, read by a lady with a middle class English accent and of a certain age. So be aware of what you're lettting yourself in for.

However, I found the book rewarding of the extended attention. Essentially, it tracks the career of one French nobleman, Enguerrand de Coucy, against the wider tapestry of the period of the black death of the papal schism and of the hundred years war. Somehow, de Coucy, the existence of whom I'm pretty sure nobody learned during their school history lessons, happened to be present, sometimes on the English side, latterly on the French, at almost all of the events you did hear about.

It's a clever device, and an effective retelling of Froissart's chronicles in the light of what we now know. It turns what starts out seeming dry into something thrilling and absorbing. I dearly wish, now, there was a volume from Tuchman to take us into the of the renaissance and the reformation.

More like this, please, Audible.

Worth the investment of both time and money

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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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Tuchman’s narrative is flawless, nobody does popular history better. The narration is good, do Americans really pronounce ‘schism’ as ‘sism’ and ‘joust’ as ‘joost’? Why? Otherwise superb.

Classic Tuchman

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