A World Lit Only by Fire
The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age
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Narrated by:
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Barrett Whitener
About this listen
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The profoundly inspiring and fully documented saga of Joan of Arc, the young peasant girl whose "voices" moved her to rally the French nation and a reluctant king against British invaders in 1428, has fascinated artistic figures as diverse as William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire, George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, Carl Dreyer, and Robert Bresson. Was she a divinely inspired saint? A schizophrenic? A demonically possessed heretic, as her persecutors and captors tried to prove?
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Where Biography and Legend Collide
- By Troy on 12-23-14
By: Kathryn Harrison
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Bloody Mary
- By: Carolly Erickson
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 23 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the tragic, stormy life of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Her story is a chronicle of courage and faith, betrayal and treachery - set amidst the splendor, pageantry, squalor, and intrigue of 16th-century Europe. The history of Mary Tudor is an improbable blend of triumph, humiliation, heartbreak, and devotion - and Ms. Erickson recounts it all against the turbulent background of European politics, war, and religious strife of the mid-1500s.
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A good history
- By A. Barrios on 05-21-15
By: Carolly Erickson
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The Friar of Carcassonne
- Revolt Against the Inquisition in the Last Days of the Cathars
- By: Stephen O'Shea
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
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In 1300, the French region of Languedoc had been cowed under the authority of both Rome and France since Pope Innocent III 's Albigensian Crusade nearly a century earlier. That crusade almost wiped out the Cathars, a group of heretical Christians whose beliefs threatened the authority of the Catholic Church. But decades of harrowing repression - enforced by the ruthless Pope Boniface VIII; the Machiavellian French King Philip the Fair, of France; and the pitiless grand inquisitor of Toulouse; Bernard Gui (the villain in The Name of the Rose) - had bred resentment.
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Fascinating
- By P on 08-04-15
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Defenders of the Faith
- Charles V, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Battle for Europe, 1520-1536
- By: James Reston Jr.
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
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In the best-selling Warriors of God and Dogs of God, James Reston Jr. limned two epochal conflicts between Islam and Christendom. Here he examines the ultimate battle in that centuries-long war, which found Europe at its most vulnerable and Islam on the attack. This drama was propelled by two astonishing young sovereigns: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Turkish sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Though they represented two colliding worlds, they were remarkably similar.
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Good account of interesting period of history
- By ItalCali on 03-11-22
By: James Reston Jr.
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The Forge of Christendom
- The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: James A. Gillies
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
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At the approach of the first millennium, the Christians of Europe did not seem likely candidates for future greatness. They saw no future beyond the widely anticipated Second Coming of Christ. But when the world did not end, the peoples of Western Europe suddenly found themselves with no choice but to begin the heroic task of building a Jerusalem on Earth. In The Forge of Christendom, Tom Holland masterfully describes this remarkable new age, a time of caliphs and Viking sea kings, the spread of castles, and the invention of knighthood.
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A Worthy Expansion to the Dark Ages
- By William Ratkus on 12-11-18
By: Tom Holland
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The Medici
- Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance
- By: Paul Strathern
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
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Against the background of an age that saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning, Paul Strathern explores the intensely dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence as well as the Italian Renaissance, which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Interwoven into the narrative are the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola.
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Fun Story Bad History
- By Elizabeth Barrett on 05-09-16
By: Paul Strathern
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What listeners say about A World Lit Only by Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Murasaki
- 05-13-10
Weak for Mancheste
But what makes me give this interesting book only three stars is the reader. He might be OK at popular novels, but he has no refinement (lie-berry for library, etc.), mangles French words and names... What a poor choice! He's American, too, which is not appropriate.
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall
- James
- 11-19-10
My Favorite After 20 Years
A World Lit Only By Fire was the first audio book I listened to way back in the ninties, and it is still my favorite. I think I've read many of the best books, "Two Years Before The Mast", "Brothers Karamozov", the Sharp novels. This book is different. It makes one ask, how hungry could I get? Do I have any bravery? Have I ever really sinned? If I had the power to force people to do one thing, I would make them read the Magellan section of this book. They would be amazed at the power of human character.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Paul
- 05-08-17
Engaging narrative of an unknown world
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, there's much we can learn about contemporary times by studying history.
What was one of the most memorable moments of A World Lit Only by Fire?
The gross abuses of the Church.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Too much for one setting. Vast scope and lengthy. Can't wait to return to another chapter each day. I listen as I walk or exercise.
Any additional comments?
I'm in the midst of listening right now. Manchester writes popular history, not scholarly. He makes some broad generalizations. And, he covers a vast amount of territory, time, and personalities to weave together a narrative that keeps my interest, touches on items of significance to Europe and the Ottoman Empire, and is not afraid to point out the gross sins of The Church (as the Catholic Church then was called). Manchester's writing is stirring my interest in going deeper. This time period fascinates me.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Eliyahu Parker
- 09-28-21
Great book
one of the better 'included' titles I've listened to. May be the first one I've actually finished.
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- Faycal Ikhouane
- 11-06-23
Title isn't accurate
The book focuses on the 15th and 16th centuries, the period spanning between the 5th and 14th centuries briefly mentionned in chapter 1. This isn't a schoraly book, it doesn't have a clear structure, and it is not clear what the aim of the book is. A large part of the text is dedicate to Magellan's voyage leaving out many other important events. This author provides freely his opinion about events and people instead of trying to provide an objective account. This said, the book is not boring in the sense that it provides a glimpse into the daily life of some characters that lived during the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age.
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Overall
- Doug
- 09-28-07
You will want more...
Manchester does an excellent job of whetting one's appetite for more on the late middle ages and the early renaissance with this interesting tour through several centuries that were both more violent, more immoral, more exciting in the sum than one might think. Heroes, real heroes, abound, along with villains that make today's villains look untutored. The rotten Catholic church birthed the reformation and forced honest thinkers into heroism and martyrdom....the lives of most people were nasty, brutish, and short, but still out of that mass of misery came fabulous individuals who changed the world so that today our lives are only nasty and brutish, but not nearly as bad as those of the past.
Manchester gives you the highlights of art, the church, exploration, political chicanery, and science, and you will finish this book intending to learn more about the age that birthed our own.
My only regret is that the book is not four times as long with this masterful storyteller entertaining me more.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael
- 07-12-09
Outstanding...a must read
Tightly written book. Plugs all those holes in the development of Western Europe from a backwater following the collapse of the Roman Empire to the debauchery of the medieval papacy, to the Reformation, Renaissance and Revival.
I'd highly recommend this work to anyone trying to grapple with the period ending antiquity and starting modernity.
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7 people found this helpful
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- John A. Beckman
- 02-13-16
Not inspiring
The book's structure was disjointed at best, and the history generic. Magellan was the most interesting part.
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1 person found this helpful
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- nonessentialnamefield
- 01-04-21
A great introduction to the subject
I really enjoyed this audiobook. Manchester's books are all wonderful. While not comprehensive it tells fascinating almost unreal stories giving good insight into the age and the mindset of a people leading up to the Renaissance.
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- Reader Book
- 12-20-18
Grim Times
I learned a lot. These were grim times, and we think things have gotten worse! No way!
I got tired of all the Catholic Popes escapades.
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