Books 2010: so much the worse for them
Jan. 12th, 2010 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbBooks 2010: 4
non-fiction
4. Mark Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603-1714, Penguin, London, 1996.
A history of the Stuart dynasty in England. Cogent, readable, and fascinating.
Of course, I'm even less inclined to like any of the Stuarts or the major players of the English Revolution now than I was before (the nationalist propaganda of my childhood actually rather downplayed, if anything, the effects and atrocities of the religious and political conflicts of England upon Ireland, I am shocked to discover) but at least I'm disliking them from a position of greater information.
Points to note: it doesn't treat of developments in Ireland or Scotland except in how they affected the English centre, and it is a rather court-centred history. On the other hand, considering the ins and outs of Stuart politics, any attempt to discuss Stuart England without first seriously grounding oneself in the machinations of the court is probably doomed to failure, so I account it a good book.
Yesterday, I made it as far as the train station, burst into tears, and went home to bed. (A seriously depressing day, yesterday, and all due to the weather.) But today I'm typing at you from the heart of TCD library, and I shall do work and thus justify my existence. I hope.
non-fiction
4. Mark Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603-1714, Penguin, London, 1996.
A history of the Stuart dynasty in England. Cogent, readable, and fascinating.
Of course, I'm even less inclined to like any of the Stuarts or the major players of the English Revolution now than I was before (the nationalist propaganda of my childhood actually rather downplayed, if anything, the effects and atrocities of the religious and political conflicts of England upon Ireland, I am shocked to discover) but at least I'm disliking them from a position of greater information.
Points to note: it doesn't treat of developments in Ireland or Scotland except in how they affected the English centre, and it is a rather court-centred history. On the other hand, considering the ins and outs of Stuart politics, any attempt to discuss Stuart England without first seriously grounding oneself in the machinations of the court is probably doomed to failure, so I account it a good book.
Yesterday, I made it as far as the train station, burst into tears, and went home to bed. (A seriously depressing day, yesterday, and all due to the weather.) But today I'm typing at you from the heart of TCD library, and I shall do work and thus justify my existence. I hope.
