Subject: (urth) mostly OT: Herodotus

From: Lisa Schaffer-Doggett <harlekin at earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2003 00:22:17 +0000

Hey everyone,

I just want everyone to know that I'm having a damned entertaining time 
reading Herodotus.  I'm beginning book three and I don't know if it's 
the translation (U of Chicago, by David Grene) or what, but it's really 
great.  It reads like an engaging classroom lecture or sitting room 
conversation.  Herodotus easily holds his own with any writer past or 
present.  His style, that of recording what people thought of their 
past, calls to mind an excellent book that I'd like to recommend:  
"Deus Lo Volt!  Chronicle of the Crusades" by Evan S. Connell.   He 
also wrote "Son of the Morning Star" about the battle of Little Bighorn 
(a blow by blow account that manages to digress in huge arcs into a 
comprehensive history of the Indian Wars without ever losing sight of 
the main story.  An amazing book.)  Anyway, "Deus Lo Volt!" is 
categorized as historical fiction but what it really is is the 
shoehorning of a gazillion primary sources into a comprehensive 
narrative of the Crusades from the first to the last.  It's narrator is 
Jean de Joinville, a knight of Saint Louis, the last real Crusader.  
All of the conversations and monologues are paraphrases of recorded 
encounters.  It is a beautiful book, well written and engaging, and 
definitely a history in the Herodotian sense, albeit a counterfeit one.

Don

--

---

From: matthew.malthouse <matthew.malthouse at guardian.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2003 10:17:05 +0000

On 07/09/2003 01:22:17 Lisa Schaffer-Doggett wrote:

>"Deus Lo Volt!  Chronicle of the Crusades" by Evan S. Connell. 

> Anyway, "Deus Lo Volt!" is
>encounters.  It is a beautiful book, well written and engaging,

I found "Deus Lo Volt!" deeply irritating.  The faux-chronicle style 
maddening.  The inconclusive narrative frustrating, very far from 
comprehensive.

Particularly nauseating (although possibly not the author's fault) was 
it's publication by an imprint whose principal line is historical work and 
with publicity that downplayed its fictional aspect to the point of 
invisibilty:  go took at Amazon.co.uk which categorizes it as history, 
Europe, Vikings, Dark Ages, Medieval Europe 501-1500.

Matthew

--

---

From: Don Doggett <harlekin at earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2003 03:32:28 +0000

On Tuesday, September 9, 2003, at 03:17 AM, 

> maddening.  The inconclusive narrative frustrating, very far from
We're just on opposite ends here.  I love counterfeit history/religious 
documents.  I want to write one myself someday.  Something with Elvis I 
think.  To each his own though.

> Europe, Vikings, Dark Ages, Medieval Europe 501-1500.

That sounds like Amazon's fault.  It says very clearly on the cover of 
my copy  "A Novel by Evan S. Connell".  Plus I found mine in fiction.  
Oh well, back to Wolfe.

Don

--