WANT!

[msmcknittington]

I really want this book: Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe by Richard W. Kaeuper.

The only problem is that it's $150. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS! For a single book? At least the shipping is free!

Oh, wait. That's the hardcover. The paperback is only $60. That's more reasonable. According to the paperback page, 76-percent of customers go on to buy the hardcover edition. Uh-huh. I totally believe that.

Anybody want to buy it for me? I can offer you . . . three rutabagas, grown by yours truly with lots of love. They are all the size of softballs. And they were grown with love.

You can read a lot of it on Google Books. I scrolled all the way down to page 80 without hitting a break. It's a very pleasant read, too.

ETA: OMG! Brainstorm! In reading the above Google book, I was reminded that knights didn't have to be from different countries to wage war. What if in my NaNo novel, instead of having it set against the Welsh wars, I just have it be about two families duking it out? I would lose a plotline I was thinking about -- how to communicate when you don't speak the other's language? -- but I think I can deal with it. Hmmm.

Comments

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I was planning on setting it in the 13th century, during the reign of Edward I. Mostly because my initial plot was set during the Welsh wars, but if I cut out the Welsh angle, then I can really set it Anytime Medieval. But I really need to do research on . . . everything.

I've been watching your discussions on this topic - I'd LOVE to be able to read a book in Medieval England which shows the minutiae of life!

I know! It's my prime motivation in writing this. I picked up one of the medieval romances I own today, and read the first chapter, and I had to put it down. The Norman knight in it, outfitted for war and presumably covered from head to foot in chainmail, is like leaping on and off his horse and running around like an Olympic sprinter. At one point, he picks up one of his men, who has fallen headfirst into a moat, by the ankle, and "with a flick of his wrist" flings him one-handed back onto land.

Oh, it hurt me to read that. Who is this guy? The Incredible Hulk?

Have you read the Catherine Levendeur novels by Sharan Newman? They're mysteries set in 12th-century France, and they are so good. Catherine is a student at Heloise's . . . um, thingy. Brain is not working right now. Anyway, the series has Heloise and Abelard, and their impossibly named son Astrolabe, and the books appear to be about medieval people in a medieval setting.

Sharan Newman is an actual medieval scholar, with degrees in it. She wrote "The Real History Behind the Da Vinci Code" which was sort of a godsend amongst all that hoopla.

[myladyswardrobe.livejournal.com]

Ooo - haven't read those books, so will add them to my Christmas wishlist which definitely seems to be VERY book based this year!

edmndclotworthy got SO annoyed with the whole "Da Vinci" thing. Mostly as he is half Italian he got very het up with the title. "Da Vinci" means "From (or) Of Vinci". It wasn't Leonardo's surname at all! And then E read the book as he is a closet cryptographer (in WWII - he would have been one of the boffins cracking codes, or in Queen Elizabeth's time, working for Francis Walsingham!). However, he said a child could have cracked all the so called "puzzles" and "Codes" in the Vinci Code book!

And anyway, the book was trying to copy a much earlier one which was far better a story.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

She even has an errata page for the first book. And a cool fallacies about the Middle Ages page. She loves the history so much!

My absolute favorite scene in the Catherine Levendeur books is in the second or third book, when a character's husband watches her strain the spices out of her ale with the sleeve of her dress, and he's thinking, "So gauche! But I love her anyway." It's just a little touch that's human and authentic and that went click! when I read it.

The Da Vinci Code made me angry because a really poorly written book, to the point where I couldn't read it. I never even got to any of the codes, because I only made it to page 30.