Book Review

[kenjari]

Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours
by Frederic L. Cheyette

This is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. It took me a very long time to read it (I've been reading it in parallel with fiction over the last several months), but it was worth every minute. I got so into it, I even read all the endnotes.
The book is not so much a biography of Ermengard herself as it is a detailed and exacting portrait of the political and social world of 12th century Occitania (southwestern France) and its ultimate destruction at the hands of the Albigensian Crusade, with Ermengard as a focal point. Cheyette does an extremely good job of bringing that distant time and place back to life for the reader. The way he organizes the material is also very effective: the order and development of topics is put together such that concepts build on and relate to each other in ways that help the reader understand everything. I certainly feel as if his book has given me a much fuller understanding of this particular piece of the middle ages. In fact, because of this book, when I was watching Kingdom of Heaven (whose events occur towards the end of the period that Ermengard covers), I found myself interpreting the scene where Sybilla escorts Balian to Baudouin in completely political, rather than romantic, terms.
I would particularly recommend this book to ladybird97 and woodwindy. And anyone else with an interest in the middle ages.

Comments

[woodwindy.livejournal.com]

I've just put in an order for a copy -- thanks for the recommendation!

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I may get to meet the author at some point - he's a friend of my sister's boyfriend's family.