Not that I ever have time to read, but maybe if I laid off the dog aerobics.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Answers

Margaret George's The Autobiography of Henry VIII with Notes by His Fool, Will Somers. Also Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles . Also Antonia Fraser's Mary Queen of Scots. Also Antonia Fraser's The Wives of Henry VIII. This is, of course, only if you've a passion for Tudor gossip, as I have. Also I must discourage anyone from reading Alison Weir, who's written several Tudor "biographies" in which she used direct quotations from supposed primary sources without page citations, which would've gotten anyone kicked out of high school in my day.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Poop! I read the forum question before I read the web log for the day. So consider me slapped for suggesting Fraser and dissing Weir and also for not closing my italics tag.

I hang my head.

And then I go read some more Fraser.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Yeah, I've heard lots of critiques of Weir's research and citations. But I find her more readable than Fraser (thanks for correcting my spelling, by the way), at least since I made the mistake of reading one of Fraser's mystery novels. I have a fairly high tolerance for badly written mystery novels, but this was unspeakably bad.

I got halfway through Fraser's book about Henry's wives, and couldn't get any further. I raced through Weir's version in about two days. (And then the dog ate the book, so it's a good thing I read it quickly.)

Oh, and I fixed your italics. And I won't slap you, because I like you.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Dava Sobel's "Longitude" about the Harrison Clock and the 100 year search for a method to determine longitude was a great book and made PBS special. Of course, I was a navigator and I collect clocks, but I'm told normal people also enjoy it. She has a booknotes interview about it at booknotes.org.

For American history I'd reccomend "Stars in their Courses" by Shellby Foote or "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen E. Ambrose.

If you are interested in really good historical fiction anything by Mary Renault is bound to be good. For you I'd suggest "The Persian Boy". Amazon.com has a good summary: "Follows the career of Alexander the Great through the eyes of his lover and servant, the slave Bagoas, from Alexander's victory over the Persians to his death."

This book is also available as an outstanding audiobook from recorded books inc.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Vindication, by Frances Sherwood.

Okay, it's not really a biography, it's a ... novography (um, a hybrid novel/biography?) based on the life of Mary Wollstonecraft (author of "A Vindication on the Rights of Woman," published 1792). Sherwood takes the historical data as her starting point, ratchets up the thrill quotient, and gives the characters modern -- nay, post- modern, even -- sensibilities.

Sounds kinda boring, you say? Well, it's full of nudity, Englightenment thought, dirt, feminism, Bedlam, and William Blake. And if that doesn't convince you I don't know what will.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Let me just second the nomination for Elizabeth George's 'Henry VIII, with notes by Will Somers etc..' it was truly an experience.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Oh, and while I'm at it, let me get the author right - it's Margaret George.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

That's right. Elizabeth George writes mystery novels. (They're pretty good; she's on my top five list.)

You just got your queens and princesses confused, that's all.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Well it's not Tudor, but this bio of Sojourner Truth that I read for one of my history classes last year was quite good: Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol by Nell Irvin Painter

I was also repeatedly told in the same class to be wary of all historical biographies because the temptation to stray to far into unsubstantiated conjecture is often too strong and the writer winds up writing a story instead of a history.

Which of course is probably one of the many reasons why I'm not in grad school anymore right now, academic probation aside.

Because y'know half of the draw of history is the story part, as long as it's backed up. But I won't go into my philosophical disagreements with the department and my professors.

Hem.

Anyhoo, I see that Ms. Weir has also "done" this lady, but if you want a slightly different take and one that I enjoyed immensely and wrote a paper on, try Marion Meade's "Eleanor of Aquitaine".

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

If you enjoyed "Longitude" you might also like "Fermat's Enigma" by Simon Singh. It helps if you're into mathematics or related fields.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

For fascinating historical reading, check out anything about the fall of the Romanov dynasty. I've read literally two dozen books on it and every time I'm more fascinated than the last. Particularly good are Nicholas and Alexandra and The Search for Anna Anderson (At least, I think that that's what they were called.) The Lost Treasure of the Czars was good, too.

So anything on that.

Also, Witches' Rings by Kerstin Ekman is a very descriptive account of life in a small Swedish town in at the turn of the century. It's really interesting because it's told through the eyes of the women.

Just my two cents.

Meghan

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Anything by Christopher Hibbert - I've just finished his George III which is wonderfully sympathetic to a profoundly misunderstood character of history and paints a very clear picture of the dullness and servitude of his daughter's lives. One of the best books I have ever read in this vein is his bio of Lord Nelson, after whom I once named a dog but now bitterly regret doing so - the man was a complete prick. Example: when Lady Nelson wrote a very affecting and sad letter about the breakdown of their marriage (Lord N was living it up in the Mediterranean with the enormously fat Lady Hamilton) he sent it back to her, having written on it "Opened by Lord Nelson but not read". You've gotta love those sorts of details. The Wellington bio is less interesting (Wellingon lived a much less dramatic sexual life) but worthwhile.

And I'm a Weir fan too.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Another vote for "Longitude".

-- Anonymous, November 11, 1999

Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884 - 1933 (Volume I) by Blanche Wiesen Cook

An amazing read. I wanted to quit my job and read it straight through.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 1999

I did some research on Joan of Arc when I was an undergrad, and read a lot of really good, obscure books on the subject. One I found very interesting was Marina Warner's Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism. She also wrote a book about the myths surrounding Mary (as in the mother of Jesus) titled Alone of All Her Sex which was a fascinating read also. I definitely suggest checking out the Joan of Arc book, though. Warner goes into some depth discussing the scant existing evidence from her trial that I found fascinating.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 1999

Thank you all for the recommendations. I'm going to buy Longitude for Jeremy for Christmas, I think. He told me to find out if any of you who've read it also read The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco. According to him (I haven't read it), the Umberto Eco book is a fictional account of the same events. Comparisons?

-- Anonymous, November 12, 1999

I've been asked to add this caveat: Jeremy is not actually recommending that anyone read The Island of the Day Before. He doesn't want to be responsible for any brain aneurysms. He suggests Foucault's Pendulum instead.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 1999

About a year ago, I read this novel based on the life of Joan of Arc: An Army of Angels: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Pamela Marcantel. Some of the comments on Amazon mark it down for historical inaccuracy, but you did say you were interested in legend.

It was a good read, in any case.

So, not quite a historical biography. But a novelization of a historical figure's life.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 1999

Beth,

It's not a biography, but it's good -- most of my "Joan" knowledge comes from Shaw's "Saint Joan," which was required reading for the "Literature and Psychology" class needed to finish off my lit major as an undergrad (it was an awful class, by the way).

"Saint Joan" is, as you may know, a play. I'm not big on reading plays...but this one had me hooked. Excellent dialogue and visualization. Shaw is the man.

Check it out. There's a fairly inexpensive Penguin edition available, plus some additional bonus commentary (from other scholars, an intro, etc.).

I still want to see the movie...bad reviews or not. --Sei

-- Anonymous, November 12, 1999

I missed the web log item this pertains to, I think. Do you keep them around somewhere?

I know I read a good historic biography recently but can't remember what it was...will post later.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 1999

Yes, Lizzie -- In the directory in the left frame, there is a link called "links archive." It's available from there. Or at the bottom of the front page there is a link for previous logs.

If you're reading this right now inside my frames, click here to get to last week's log. Of course, if you aren't reading this in my frames, that link will cause a navigational nightmare, so use it at your own risk!

-- Anonymous, November 15, 1999

"The Island of the Day Before" was pretty good - especially that section that deals with the search for a means of determining longitude (although as a dog owner you might not like that part). I didn't think it was as good as "The Name of the Rose", which I can't recommend highly ehough, but it was worth the six bucks.

--Mike

-- Anonymous, November 15, 1999

Thanks Beth - as soon as I posted that, of course I looked over and saw your link. I'm still getting used to this newfangled weblog thingy.

It's not a historical biography, but I just finished Cold Mountain and it was the best thing I've read all year.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 1999