Chronicles of the Crusades

James Wynn · 07 Sep 2003, 01:17 · from urth-v0309.mbox · original

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From: "James Wynn" <crushtv at hotpop.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Chronicles of the Crusades
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2003 20:17:48 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0309-4049 at digest.urth.net>
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> "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.

You might be interested then in Penguin Classics' "Chronicles of the
Crusades" which combines Joinville's "The Life of Saint Louis" and Vilain de
Villehardouin's "Conquest of Constantinople" into a single volume. I picked
up a nice Barnes&Noble edition in the bargain bin at B&N about 5 years ago
and was thrilled, horrified, and amazed.
And I'm not just talking about Barnes&Noble. ;-)
-- Crush


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