Guus Pikkemaat (1929–2018)

Interessant onderwerp, boeiend tijdperk, adembenemende ontwikkelingen & gebeurtenissen. Hoe slaagt de auteur erin, dit toch te verzieken? Gewoon, door saai te schrijven en zich onkritisch, ja idolaat op te stellen tegenover zijn onderwerp. Het lezen van dit boek is te vergelijken met een ritje in een huifkar over de prachtige Drentse heide. Na een kwartiertje val je sufgehobbeld in een diepe slaap. Het is allemaal heel degelijk opgediept, maar fut- en fantasieloos geboekstaafd door een brave schoolmeester. Het boek ging steeds meer op een rijstebrijberg lijken en ik heb het weggelegd. Jammer!… (plus d'informations)

The book was pretty informative. It didn't bring me any new information but that would have been asking much since I've already read so much about Eleanore.

What I didn't like was the fact that the book is without footnotes so you've got no idea which information is based on which source. There is a list of sources, but without footnotes there's no way to check the information that is presented as facts. One of the things I'm particularly interested in is the genealogical relationship between Eleanor and her first husband Louis VII. According to the book, her great-grandmother Audearde was an aunt of Louis VII's mother. However, I have not found this fact mentioned anywhere in historical sources or literature about the genealogy of Eleanore.

There are also some anachronisms, like Eleanora who's glad to be back in her 'beloved France', when she's really going to her own domains (part of the *current* France but not considered so then) and she's never been very fond of the 'France' of that day, the country of her abandoned husband Louis VII.

Towards the end, this book felt more like an assignment than something you do for fun. The style was bombastic to begin with but I found that I got more and more fed up with it. Also, at times it felt more like a biography of Henry II than of Eleonore of Aquitaine. I would advise anyone to read [[Alison Weir]]'s biography [Eleonor of Aquitaine] instead.… (plus d'informations)