Curated with immense skill and eye for intriguing juxtapositions by Simon Sebag Montefiore, the one hundred plus letters contained within Written in History provide a fascinating window into the private and public lives of history's greatest figures. From Rameses to Trump, all human life is here.
Written in History celebrates the great letters of world history, creative culture and personal life.
Acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore selects over one hundred letters from ancient times to the twenty-first century: some are noble and inspiring, some despicable and unsettling; some are exquisite works of literature, others brutal, coarse and frankly outrageous; many are erotic, others heartbreaking.
The writers vary from Elizabeth I, Rameses the Great and Leonard Cohen to Emmeline Pankhurst, Mandela, Stalin, Michelangelo, Suleiman the Magnificent and unknown people in extraordinary circumstances - from love letters to calls for liberation, declarations of war to reflections on death.
In the colourful, accessible style of a master storyteller, Montefiore shows why these letters are essential reading: how they enlighten our past, enrich the way we live now - and illuminate tomorrow.
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
ISBN: 9781474609197
Number of pages: 304
Weight: 273 g
Dimensions: 196 x 128 x 26 mm
Spicy, horrifying, passionate, shocking...and very moving. Fascinating! If you loved Ernst Gombrich's A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE WORLD and are in the mood for another global history from a different angle, this collection of historically significant letters through the ages compiled by Simon Sebag Montefiore might well hit the spot...he has distilled a few millennia of world history into 240 extremely un-boring pages - THE TIMES
Entertaining and enlightening . . . Some [letters] are truly revolutionary and visionary . . . Others are very personal . . . but all are fascinating, as are the compiler's comments on each letter, little gems of history in their own right - DAILY MAIL, History Books of the Year
WRITTEN IN HISTORY is a search through the millennia, the result an astonishing array: all human life is here encapsulated, in just a few paragraphs or even just a sentence; all are surprising, and mostly unfamiliar...Everything here is a revelatory marvel, whether a hideous rant from the Marquis de Sade (1783), or the impassioned logic of religious tolerance from Babur to his son Hamayun (1529). Truly the spectrum of human belief and behaviour is revealed in this selection - THE ARTS DESK
What sets this book apart from others about great historical correspondence is the author. The esteemed historian's selections, written in settings as far-flung as Ancient Egypt, Renaissance Italy and Stalin's Russia, go some way to illustrate how adaptable the medium of letter writing can be, and his commentary reveals just why they are still important today - HISTORY REVEALED
Lip-smackingly sexy ... Written in History is a cornucopia of emotion. Not all the letters changed the world for everyone. But they all changed the world for someone. - Josephine Fenton, IRISH EXAMINER
A fascinating anthology of letters written by and to famous figures throughout history, with correspondence dating from antiquity to the present day. Organised into themes from love and family to war and power with... More
Another great - literary-themed - Xmas gift for the budget conscious of you out there. This is like having a curated history lesson but you get to choose which genre interests you the most so need to read in any... More
This is a really interesting collection of correspondence between famous figures from history that opens up whole new ways of thinking about great moments and events from the past. Compiled with real care and... More
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