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Original Title:	A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
ISBN:	0345349571 (ISBN13: 9780345349576)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	France
Literary Awards:	National Book Award for History (Paperback) (1980), ASJA Outstanding Book Award (1980), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for General Nonfiction (1978)

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What an extraordinary read it is when one book is as action packed as thirty riveting novels. And if it also contains rich and erudite disquisitions and is narrated in a language as clear and flowing as water from a spring, then the volume must be given a preferential place in one’s library.

I am not too keen of including quotes in my reviews. But given the amount of material that marshals in front of one’s eyes, as colorful as overwhelming pageants and breathtaking jousts, and as dense as the tightly woven wefts and warps of a tapestry, there is no way I could attempt to give a glimpse with my own words of what Barbara Tuchman has achieved with this book.






But before I present the quote, I would like to draw attention to how shrewd Tuchman has been in the choice of her subject. As she explains in her early pages, she set herself to follow one particular character as he lived during a period in history when the actors were on the count of hundreds, and thereby keep one's focus and walk through the maze and the turmoil without getting lost.





Enguerrand de Coucy VII was a member of the French nobility at a time when ‘French’ could also mean ‘English’. Enguerrand in fact acted as both French and English as he had acquired double allegiance: to his own King and to the King and father of his wife. And this he did when the two Kingdoms were at war; a war that would last for over one hundred years. Opportunely Enguerrrand is well documented by one of the most striking chroniclers of the time, Jean Froissart. As nothing had been written about him in English before Tuchman, she had found a gold vein for her research and pen to exploit.





Here stops my explanation. It is time now for the quote. This passage is better than an the Index to offer a glimpse to that Distant Mirror that Tuchman has approached to us for our close examination.

Since he (Enguerrad de Coucy) had first marched at fifteen against the English, and at eighteen hunted down the Jacquerie, the range of Coucy’s experience had extended over an extraordinary variety of combat, diplomacy, government, and social and political relationships. As son-in-law of Edward III, holding double allegiance to two kings at war, his position had been unique. He had seen war as captain or one of the to command in eleven campaigns—in Piedmont, Lombardy, Switzerland, Normandy, Languedoc, Tuscany, northern France, Flanders, Guelders, Tunisia, Genoa; he had commanded mercenaries, and fought as ally or antagonist of the Count of Savoy, Gregory XI, Hawkwood, the Visconti, the Hapsburgs, the Swiss, Navarrese, Gascons, English, Berbers, the Republic of Florence, and nobles of Genoa. As diplomat he had negotiated with Pope Clement VII, the Duke of Brittany, the Count of Flanders, the Queen of Aragon, with the English at peace parleys, and the rebels of Paris. He had had one temperamental and extravagant wife eight years his senior, and a second approximately thirty years his junior. He had served as adviser and agent of the two royal Dukes, Anjou and Orléans, as Lieutenant–General of Picardy and later of Guienne, as member of the Royal Council, as Grand Bouteiller of France, and had wtice been the preferred choice for a Constable. He had known and dealt with every kind of character from the ultra-wicked Charles of Navarre to the ultra-saintly Pierre de Luxemburg.

If to the above adventures, narrated ever so smoothly, one is to add the excellent studies of various chapters of Material Life in late Medieval Europe, that help us to shorten the Distance of the Mirror and make reflections become what is reflected, then one can begin to imagine the sheer pleasure that this book offers to whoever decides to open up its pages and read it.






As it is often claimed, Tuchman may not be a historian of the academic breed, but in this account she has demonstrated her excellent narrative abilities that many historians and novelists would just love to command as well as she.


Brilliant.

Mention Out Of Books A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Title	:	A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
Author	:	Barbara W. Tuchman
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 677 pages
Published	:	July 12th 1987 by Random House Trade (first published September 21st 1978)
Categories	:	History. Nonfiction. Historical. Medieval. European History. Medieval History

Rating Out Of Books A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Ratings: 4.08 From 29760 Users | 1283 Reviews

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The Calamitous 14th Century: a time of war, class struggle, taxation, endless litigation, ravaging disease, religious intolerance, Christian versus Moslem, feckless leaders, plenty of lust, torture, self-interest -- 'a distant mirror' indeed. We are not so different. Look back or just look around.And that is the point, I think, of this wonderful work of history and literature. Tuchman's wit and erudition are on full display.Sometimes the reading went very slow, but only because it all seemed so

"If the [century] seemed full of brilliance and adventure to a few at the top, to most they were a succession of wayward dangers; of the three galloping evils: pillage, plague, and taxes; of fierce and tragic conflicts, bizarre fates, capricious money, sorcery, betrayals, insurrections, murder, madness, and the downfall of princes; of dwindling labor for the fields, of cleared land reverting to waste; and always the recurring black shadow of pestilence carrying its message of guilt and sin and

Just started. Looks interesting ...Well, it IS interesting, but kind of dry, as at least one other reviewer has noted. It's going to take a while!Continuing to enjoy this book as the author is doing a fine job of combining the informative with reading pleasure. So far it's a bit like reading a sci-fi account of a far-away alien planet and it's weird but familiar culture! Jack Vance-like indeed ...The Black Plague - why can't we have one of those, only more virulent and untreatable? Steve King

"If the [century] seemed full of brilliance and adventure to a few at the top, to most they were a succession of wayward dangers; of the three galloping evils: pillage, plague, and taxes; of fierce and tragic conflicts, bizarre fates, capricious money, sorcery, betrayals, insurrections, murder, madness, and the downfall of princes; of dwindling labor for the fields, of cleared land reverting to waste; and always the recurring black shadow of pestilence carrying its message of guilt and sin and

My interest in medieval times is not incredibly strong; it is, in fact, relegated mostly to the hope of someday going to a Medieval Times restaurant. Ive read Ken Folletts two Kingsbridge novels, and Ive been to a few Renaissance Fairs in my time (and eaten more than my share of child-sized turkey legs), but beyond that, Ive never cared much about the Middle Ages. I read Barbara Tuchmans A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century not for its subject matter, but because Tuchman wrote it. The

This is the second time I have 'read' this on audio. The first time was on tape, so, a long time ago.I had to downgrade my opinion of this book on a second reading. Based on an attempt to read The Proud Tower, I realized that Barbara Tuchman could barely grasp the inner motives of 19th C. people, which made it less likely that she really understood 14th C. people. Although she doesn't make clear ever why she regarded the 14th C. as 'a distant mirror,' I am inclined to guess that she thought the

The Hundred Years War, the Papal Schism, the Black Death, peasant uprisings, the death of chivalry, crusades, assassinations, tournaments, all these things and more Tuchman explores through an examination of the life of one man, Enguerrand de Coucy. Scion of perhaps the most powerful and wealthiest baronial family in France, Coucy lead a fairly amazing life. He fought wars in his homeland of France, Italy, North Africa, Switzerland and Bulgaria, lead important diplomatic missions, twice turned