Lotharingia

(Rewritten March 2022) Not nearly as enjoyable as the first two books in this series. These earlier books ('Germania' and 'Danubia') were enjoyable mishmashes of travelogue, personal reminiscence and history, though history told in a gossipy rather than academic way. Both books got their knuckles rapped by serious historians, who rightly pointed out that there's no evidence for what some 1386 prince was actually thinking, or whether two women in a painting were actually smoldering for one another behind the King's back. In Lotharingia, it seems that perhaps Winder listened to these criticisms, and consequently produced the third volume in a straightforward, entirely readable but much less fun fashion.<br /><br />While I mostly read him for entertainment, even his serious thoughts have merit:<blockquote>In some moods I really think that these Cisterian abbeys should lie at the centre of all teaching of European history and that they are far more significant and interesting than most, merely ephemeral political events. We are so used to thinking of the Middle Ages in terms of men covered in sheets of metal clopping about on horses and hitting one another, whereas the true image of the period should be a monk writing. Many suits of armour are still around today because they are made from a relatively non-reactive metal, but the work of the monks has survived in everything we think, know and believe.</blockquote> Or this is nice:<blockquote>The searing text of a song from the Third Crusade has somehow come down to us -- a woman lamenting:<br /> <blockquote>I will sing to comfort my heart<br /> For I do not want to die or go mad...<br /> ...He sent<br /> me the shirt that he was wearing<br /> that I might hold it in my arms. At<br /> night when my love for him torments<br /> me, I take it into bed and hold it<br /> close to my naked body to sooth my suffering</blockquote></blockquote>But of course, this being Winder, he can't help letting some impishness creep in:<blockquote>She wrote fascinatingly about medicine, and has become a heroine of the New Age healing...her cure for jaundice by carefully tying a stunned bat to your loins and waiting for it to die seems beyond improvement.</blockquote>Or this little piece of art criticism:<blockquote>How startling it would be to find an elaborate sculpture of a nymph <i>on her way</i> to the bath, with a sensible gown on and a little basket for her shampoo, rather than being 'surprised' in the bath in a skittish naked pose. These statues make it a mystery as to how nymphs spend their time when they are <i>not</i> bathing or being abducted....Topped off by a marble Joan of Arc at the stake, arching her back in fear of the flames and her dress partly unbuttoned to let her breathe more freely...Should the whole lot be gathered in a huge net, picked up by a helicopter and dumped off the Florida Keys to create the fabulous basis for a new reef, for example? It might be even more pervy to see Joan with brittle-stars clambering over her breasts, but it would at least be an exciting Green initiative.</blockquote>

<b>PEARL RULED</b> (p76)<br /><br />"The Cistercians" did it. <br /><blockquote>...it was always part of Cistercian practice to battle with the commitment to a near-inhuman level of asceticism and to sometimes fail. But these great institutions were for centuries the motor for Europe's spiritual, cultural and economic hopes, places of pilgrimage, guardians of the past and guarantors of the future. Even the most sybaritic lay magnate understood that mere castles, towns and palaces were minor spin-offs. Indeed, it could be that the once-haughty crusading rulers of Berg would be thrilled to know that they have wound up abused as mere platforms for a Christmas crib.</blockquote><br />A lot of that's context-free for y'all, but the lack of series commas (called Oxford commas among the Anglophilic) in this incredibly rapid-fire sequence is what tipped me over the edge. (I, with context, found the Berg reference inelegantly phrased.) It is not an affectation to put a comma after a dependent clause or a list item. It is a means of explaining a thought or delineating items on a list as discrete. "Cultural and economic" sound like one thing, one parcel of meaning; they are not meant to. "...cultural, and economic..." makes the two items separate, understood as different concepts in a list of several.<br /><br />Anyway. Five hundred or so pages without series commas in a non-fictional work of dense information content would reduce me to a gibbering heap of misery and headaches. So no more. Dammit all, I was really, really interested in this book! The topic is very interesting to me. But I am not going to flinch twenty-three thousand times while this affront to clarity is perpetrated before my appalled eyes.

Quite interesting look at the patchwork of countries and states that made up what is now the bit where France meets Germany. Written in a self-consciously quirky way with personal bits and fun facts and amusing remarks etc, which readers may find fun or annoying. Mostly a useful reminder of how Europe was entirely and continually at brutal war with itself more or less non-stop till the latter half of the 20th century. but sure, what did the EU ever do for us.

De boeken van Simon Winder..Soms word je er gek van (wat is de rode draad?) en dan smul je weer van de meest prachtige anekdotes over Doornik, gekke Duitse vorsten en Franse tombes. Kan ik nog zo’n boek aan van hem? Maar gaat weer mee op vakanties om in iedere stad anekdotes terug te zoeken, net als bij Danubia en Germania

The twin counterweights of Europe have always been France and Germany but way back in time, even before the Normans Invaded us, the three grandsons of the great emperor Charlemagne met at Verdun. They were there to settle a long running feud over who would inherit the lands. They finally decided to split the land three ways. One grandson inherited the land that we now know as France, the second grandson was granted the land that was to become Germany and the third grandson received the land that split these two.<br /><br />It was called Lotharingia.<br /><br />It stretched from the mouth of the Rhine to the alps, and as a place, it doesn’t exist now; unless you know where to look. In this book, Simon Winder will take us back to the beginning when it was handed to the third grandson and bring us an irreverent and personal history of the towns, cities and new countries that we know it by today.<br /><br />It is a wide-ranging book and sometimes I felt there was too much emphasis on the history of the region. I had hoped for more travel, especially as it was shortlisted for a travel writing prize and whilst there is some in here it very much plays second fiddle to the history.<br /><br />I didn’t love it, but I did like the book. There were some amusing parts and thankfully he is quite an engaging writer, however, he does indulge himself in researching these places and people that shaped this part of Europe. He does say many times throughout the book that he could have written much more about particular subjects or people, but I felt it should have had a much stricter editor who could have made the prose tighter and shorter. I also felt that it lacked a cohesive thread, but then I suppose that reflects the mess that the place was until recently. If you have read any of his other books in the trilogy, Germania and Danubia then this is probably worth reading too.

A history book, but of a very personal (to the author) kind with elements of travel writing (I have added a few places to my bucket list) and art history. I felt it got badly bogged down in the middle, which I found confusing, but the first and last 150 pages or so are excellent. I occasionally found the writing a bit over elaborate, needing a few references to a dictionary, but generally I enjoyed the book a lot. I even laughed out loud a few times. I have added to two earlier books in this trilogy to my to read list, but I would stress that this book is fine to read without knowledge of the others.

detailed book in continued series looking at different parts of Europe this book looks at Lotharingia the lost part which had been split into different places over the years but has keep Europe in check. the book itself can make history seem funny and good but felt the author had done a good job in so much information to deal with.

The title suggests this is a “personal history”. That is fine, but I would call this more a combination of two genres - history and travel book. I am not sure what the standard for this would be, but Simon Winder’s book would certainly be a good place to start.<br /><br />History that makes inroads on popular attention these days seems to start with current circumstances and conditions and write about the past in ways that help readers better understand the present. There is some of that in Winder’s book, of course, but it is also different. The starting point is to go back to 800 AD and the formation of Charlemagne’s realm and then note how the Holy Roman Empire splintered into three major parts not long after his death. One became what we have come to know as Germany. Another become what we know as France. ...and then there is that stretch of Europe from Northern Italy, through Eastern France and South Western Germany (near Switzerland) and extending north into Northeast France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Sometimes it was called Burgundy. The name Winder uses comes from an early recipient of this territory after Charlemagne. This is the in between land that have been the focus of wars, dynastic marriages, political intrigues, and religious disputes on a nearly continuous basis since Charlemagne. The Western Front in WW1 ran through this area from Ypres in Belgium south and east down to Alsace and Lorraine and the Swiss border.<br /><br />This is the focus of the book and the story ties together a huge array of events, stories, and traditions that otherwise present such chaos that it will drive people away from learning more about any European history. Mr. Winder is a marvelous writer and this book will pay for itself in its ability to serve up interesting facts that a reader might not know and also tie together story lines that do not seem related. If anyone reading this is into travel, the book will be essential as preliminary homework in advance to new trips to Europe.<br /><br />It is a fun and fairly quick read and I highly recommend it.<br /><br />

Have Wikipedia at the ready. The thinking man’s Bill Bryson.

Had some doubts about this one going in, which proved to be more or less correct. In a nutshell, this is the book the author wanted to write where the information meant more to him than I suspect the general reader. Disappointing after liking <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/17910055.Danubia_A_Personal_History_of_Habsburg_Europe" title="Danubia A Personal History of Habsburg Europe by Simon Winder" rel="noopener">Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe</a> and <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/7364946.Germania_In_Wayward_Pursuit_of_the_Germans_and_Their_History" title="Germania In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History by Simon Winder" rel="noopener">Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History</a>. Read those first, and then this one... keeping expectations low.<br /><br />Different audio narrator for this one, where I could see how the new guy is a good fit in terms of pronouncing names and places in foreign languages well, but his speech pattern came off almost like vocal fry to me (best way I can put it).<br />