Acquired (0)
Read (6)
BOTM: P.M. Kendall, The Universal Spider
M. Bulgakov, A Country doctor's notebook
Nowell-Smith, The legend of the master
A. Trollope, The Prime Minister
M. Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian
D. Zindell, Neverness
Louis XI has always been my favourite Louis, so it was a delight to read Paul Murray Kendall's excellent, lively and enjoyable biography this month, especially when a lot else was unmemorable. It's often hard to write a really good biography of a major political figure. Kings are better than prime ministers as they stay in power for longer. But the fascinating thing about this biography was the detail on the long period of waiting for Louis - his establishment in the Dauphine and his exile amongst the Burgundians - and the importance of that experience in shaping both him and his policy. Lest this give the wrong impression, this is a book free from psychobabble and instead focused on history at it's best. The only criticism is teleological. Had Louis died a decade earlier, then his reign would have been considerably less triumphant. Like other monarchs, at least part of his gift was to outlast some of his major enemies. But this was not inevitable. Reading this book, sometimes you feel the author thinks it was.
No comments:
Post a Comment