mostly OT: Herodotus

matthew.malthouse · 09 Sep 2003, 10:17 · from urth-v0309.mbox · original

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From: matthew.malthouse at guardian.co.uk
Subject: Re: (urth) mostly OT: Herodotus
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2003 11:17:05 +0100
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On 07/09/2003 01:22:17 Lisa Schaffer-Doggett wrote:

>past, calls to mind an excellent book that I'd like to recommend:
>"Deus Lo Volt!  Chronicle of the Crusades" by Evan S. Connell.=20

> 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,

I found "Deus Lo Volt!" deeply irritating.  The faux-chronicle style=20
maddening.  The inconclusive narrative frustrating, very far from=20
comprehensive.

Particularly nauseating (although possibly not the author's fault) was=20
it's publication by an imprint whose principal line is historical work and=20
with publicity that downplayed its fictional aspect to the point of=20
invisibilty:  go took at Amazon.co.uk which categorizes it as history,=20
Europe, Vikings, Dark Ages, Medieval Europe 501-1500.

Matthew

--=20

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