The Crusades - Softcover

Oldenbourg, Zoe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842122231 ISBN 13: 9781842122235

Publisher: Orion Publishing Group, 2001

Synopsis

THE CRUSADES, unlike any other work, clarifies much that has been obscure about this often discussed but still enigmatic movement. Here is an immensely exciting romance, in the highest sense, which has at the same time an unsparingly realistic approach to the Middle Ages. With subtlety and exceptional sensitivity, Zoe Oldenbourg analyzes the complicated currents and ideas which motivated the Crusades. Although she gives due prominence to economic and social factors, she regards them as distinctly secondary. Not unemployment or poverty, but the desperate expression of a warrior cult, the very real possibility of progressively suicidal wars among Western Europeans, let the Pope and leading nobles to seek an outside enemy. The Crusades were not Christian wars, although they aroused deep religious emotions, but the last macabre expression of a pagan death-wish. The nationalism we know today has its roots in this highly ambiguous war.

Zoe Oldenbourg's knowledge of her period is masterly. Her emphasis on the victimization of the poor and the relative safety of the rich, her understanding of the roots of true Christianity, her perceptive comparison of Eastern and Western versions of Christianity, her entire historical approach, give the Crusades a new and relevant dimension. But the story--sheerly as story--is incomparable. This is a book for the thousands who have enjoyed Zoe Oldenbourg's novels and previous historical works. It is a history of the Crusades for all who would understand and relive the past.

About this title

About the Author:

Zoe Oldenbourg was born in St Petersburg in 1916 and was educated at the Lycee Moliere and the Sorbonne in Paris. The author of a number of outstanding historical novels including The Cornerstone which won the Prix Femina in 1953.

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1842122231
• ISBN 13: 9781842122235
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 650