The Knight, the Lady and the Priest : The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France

Rating:
Summary: AND EVERYONE THINKS THE FRENCH ARE OH SO ROMANTIC?!
Review: First of all, this is a scholarly book. However, just because it is academic does not mean it is dull. Far from it. Georges Duby was one of the leading historians/social theorists of the 20th century. Most of his career was spent in the south of France but when he was finally lured to Paris, his lectures were so popular that people waited in line to obtain tickets to hear the good professor. Professor Duby's was a long a fruitful career. His concerns were with the economics of the early Middle Ages and the records of the Counts of Guise in northern France. From the patterns of marriage of these ambitious men, Duby found the beginnings of the marriage practices of today. Duby shows how these ambitious men manipulated pedigrees and married and discarded wives in order to increase their wealth and power. Love had nothing to do with it. Like many French histories, this one is not burdened with footnotes. It originated in a series of lectures that Duby gave in this country, which probably accounts for the streamlined presentation of material. I think it is an important book for legal historians, but its value would not be lost on feminists or Francophiles and people who love the Middle Ages.

Rating:
Summary: AND EVERYONE THINKS THE FRENCH ARE OH SO ROMANTIC?!
Review: First of all, this is a scholarly book. However, just because it is academic does not mean it is dull. Far from it. Georges Duby was one of the leading historians/social theorists of the 20th century. Most of his career was spent in the south of France but when he was finally lured to Paris, his lectures were so popular that people waited in line to obtain tickets to hear the good professor. Professor Duby's was a long a fruitful career. His concerns were with the economics of the early Middle Ages and the records of the Counts of Guise in northern France. From the patterns of marriage of these ambitious men, Duby found the beginnings of the marriage practices of today. Duby shows how these ambitious men manipulated pedigrees and married and discarded wives in order to increase their wealth and power. Love had nothing to do with it. Like many French histories, this one is not burdened with footnotes. It originated in a series of lectures that Duby gave in this country, which probably accounts for the streamlined presentation of material. I think it is an important book for legal historians, but its value would not be lost on feminists or Francophiles and people who love the Middle Ages.

Rating:
Summary: It tells the male side of the story better than the female!
Review: This book is a classic in the field and certainly brings out a lot of issues into the arena of discussion. Duby had a blind spot, however, in that he frequently saw women simply as objects of exchange among men rather than as active participants in and shapers of the concepts of marriage and family that he's describing. Still a fascinating read and probably still essentially correct.

Rating:
Summary: It tells the male side of the story better than the female!
Review: This book is a classic in the field and certainly brings out a lot of issues into the arena of discussion. Duby had a blind spot, however, in that he frequently saw women simply as objects of exchange among men rather than as active participants in and shapers of the concepts of marriage and family that he's describing. Still a fascinating read and probably still essentially correct.