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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1990-02 > 0635444644


From: Kay Allen AG <>
Subject: Re: Eleanor of Aquitaine (by Weir)
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1990 08:24:04 -0800


wrote:
>
> In a message dated 2/17/2000 1:28:54 PM, writes:
>
> << Could someone please tell me how accurate, or otherwise, is the
> biographical data in -Queen Eleanor Independent Spirit of the Medieval
> World- A biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Polly Schover Brooks.
>>
>
> Random House just sent me the new book for review: _Eleanor of Aquitaine_ by
> Alison Weir. It just came out this month, so I have not had a chance to do
> anything but skim it. I can tell you that it is very well-written and has
> copious notes from original source material. I do not doubt that Weir has
> done her homework well on this biography. She also has written _The Life of
> Elizabeth I_.
>
> Despite some panning of her book on _Britain's Royal Families_ here on this
> forum, I think you will find that Weir's work will outlast her critics. She
> is a very important historical writer who has the ability to write for the
> layman. Because of this fact alone, she will have severe critics, as
> professional historians and genealogists like to think that they are the only
> ones whose views are worth listening to. The problem is that many of these
> professionals are dry, musty, dusty, cannot write worth a damn, and cannot
> find an original thought until they trip over it.

I certainly hope that it is better than her Princes in the Tower which
was a re-hash of all the old material. There was nothing original in it
and she certainly didn't answer any of the legitimate reservations that
some people on the other side of the argument have made.

And just because someone can write in an interesting, entertaining
manner, doesn't mean that what is written is worth spending the time to
read.

And, yes, sometimes, you must plow through dry verbiage to find
interesting facts.

And yes, I don't have Alison Wier on my must-buy list. When she becomes
terminally thorough in her research of original materials, not just the
ones that support her thesis, then, and only then will I read her books.


>
> Thanks to dedicated scholars like Weir and John Carmi Parsons, history still
> can come to life for us.]
To put Weir and John Carmi Parsons in the same sentence as dedicated
scholars is pure injustice to John Carmi Parsons.

Kay Allen AG
>
> - Ken
>
> Kenneth Harper Finton
> Editor/ Publisher
> THE PLANTAGENET CONNECTION
>
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>

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