Manuel Komroff (1890–1974)

A biography of Charlemagne and the times he lived in, mid 700s to early 800s. This was quite dry, yet managed to hold my interest, perhaps because I have been taught/remember little of Charlemagne other than his name. Always seemed more of a legend to me. Very interesting man, and times.
The story begins when Charles is about 12 and progresses until his death. There is not a lot of action, although campaigns are described briefly. Much time is spent on his accomplishments towards uniting show more Europe under one rule and religion, and bringing civilization to his peoples. Charles is portrayed as compassionate, wise and a caring father, but his shortcomings are brought up as well, so the tale feels even-handed.
Good for a quick review of a period of history. show less

This is the companion volume for The Travels of Marco Polo by the same publisher. Mostly covers the early history of China with brief mentions of Java and Sumatra and countries of S.E. Asia. The accounts left by these travelers are important, not only for their corroboration of Marco Polo's tales of wonder, but because they throw light upon the early history, customs and religion of one of the great peoples of the modern world--the Chinese. In these account we see the roots of Chinese pride, show more patience, endurance and heroism. Through them we learn to understand that the greatness of the Chinese people today is not an accident, but the result, the fruit of an anciently founded and mature culture, a culture that could live side-by-side with the ravishing, destructive, brutal culture of the Mongolian Tartars and even survive the holocaust visited upon them by these barbarians. show less

Well, this was my surprise of today. High in the Westerkerk Bunk hotel in Utrecht I found this edition among two other books. Incredible!

These 181 short Middle Ages stories give easy access to older thinking. Happily we have made some progress!

Another translation, published in 1872, by Hermann Oesterley gives an enormous amount of different content from a collection of manuscripts.

https://archive.org/details/gestaromanorum00oest/page/2/mode/2up

We are currently reading this. On page 20 it mentions raping nuns. So please be aware and do not just hand this over to your child without taking this into consideration. We are doing this as a read aloud gently edited by me.

We are nearing the end of this book. It’s been very interesting and I must say I am not impressed by Charlesmagne.

On page 158 at the end of chapter 16 eunuchs are mentioned. I paraphrased this.

This book has spurred a lot of lively conversations as we marvel over show more decisions made by Charles. show less