A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait… (1992)

Hm...Martha in Victorians loved this book passionately, and its a good topic. Something to keep in the back of my mind.

It’s fun sometimes to see a noted historian pushed out of his comfort zone – and sometimes it’s not.

William Manchester was a famous writer about the 20th century having given us books about Douglas MacArthur, Winston Churchill and a fascinating (though flawed) retelling of the death of President Kennedy.

So when a friend asked him for a preface for a book about Magellan, Manchester suddenly decided to immerse himself in “the Calamitious 14th century” – Martin Luther and Pope Leo and the Borgias and all the rest.

The result was [A World Lit Only By Fire] and while it’s readable and fun, it ain't very good history. In a lot of places it’s lazy and in other places just plain wrong.

Manchester has a lot to say about the times and the people and his skill as a writer has not deserted him.

He has a lot of fun sticking up for the famous poisoner Lucretia Borgia seeing her as a nice Italian girl who liked sex and didn’t like being told what to do by her brothers. (He retells the wonderful story of how Lucretia, then eight months pregnant, was solemnly pronounced "Virgo Intacto" by the College of Cardinals so she could legally remarry)

He loves to tell the stories about Luther’s scatological obsessions and all of this is more or less in the writings. But he loses his way trying to find a theme to the work, and he commits a few real howlers due to careless reading or liking a good story more than the truthful one.

Good writing but bad scholarship . . . a pity

And don't get me started on the Pied Piper of Hamlin

This book accomplished what it set out to do; it made me stop and think about what it would be like to live with no concept of time, to suspect all change, to have no identifiable last name, or to live in a tiny hamlet that also had no name. An easy, thought provoking and entertaining read. Plus now I know that Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. ( )

The short version of the review at http://agoldoffish.wordpress.com: my blog - -

A little research shows that some of what Manchester presents in this book with utmost certainty isn't at all certain. His brief discussion of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is only one of several explanations for the origins of the legend, and the most tabloid-worthy; apparently the tales of Francis I's sexual exploits are a bit shaky. A review on Amazon says A World Lit Only by Fire is "known among medievalists merely as 'that book'"; there's a wide divergence of opinion on it, with both five-star and one-star reviews rather passionately defended. I value what I learned from it - especially about Magellan, which was straight-forward and clear, and more than I remember ever learning before, thank you very much grades 1-10 history ... but overall I'm a little relieved to be finished with it at last. It's not a textbook on the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, but I believe it did what it set out to do: it made me think. ( )

Manchester says at the beginning that this isn't an academic book, and he's not kidding. There are no references at all, so there's no telling which bits of information are supported by evidence and which are just pure speculation. Oddly, there are occasional direct quotes, but unattributed. It's an interesting idea, and a great title, but I found reading this to be mostly frustrating. ( )