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HF about the Cathars

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Carine
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HF about the Cathars

Post by Carine » Tue January 27th, 2009, 7:25 am

I would like to read a good HF on the Cathars, so here's my question to you all : What do you guys think is the best HF book on the Cathars ?

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Amanda
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Post by Amanda » Tue January 27th, 2009, 8:50 am

The only one I have read is The Treasure of Montsegur by Sophy Burnham. Not sure about the historical accuracy, but LT shows I rated it 3.5 stars.

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diamondlil
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Post by diamondlil » Tue January 27th, 2009, 10:30 am

The only one I can recall reading is Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. I know that book has its detractors though.
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Madeleine
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Post by Madeleine » Tue January 27th, 2009, 11:26 am

I thought of Labyrinth too. I also read one of Alys Clare's Hawkenlye novels where some people who were Cathars and were on the run from persecution took shelter at the abbey, I think it was called "Whiter than the Lily", but it's not really about the Cathars as such, although it does give a bit of background story to their plight.

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lindymc
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Post by lindymc » Tue January 27th, 2009, 12:23 pm

I don't know if one could say that Daughters of the Grail by Elizabeth Chadwick is necessarily about the Cathars, but the Cathars play a big role in the book, and as we all know HF by EC is going to be GOOD historical fiction.

Actually that book more or less introduced me to Cathars - who, what, where, when -
She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. (1873) -- Louisa May Alcott

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Ariadne
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Post by Ariadne » Tue January 27th, 2009, 2:36 pm

I found Charmaine Craig's The Good Men very enjoyable. (author's website here)

It followed closely on material I'd read in a nonfiction work about the Cathars, Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie's Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error (assigned reading for a college course I took on medieval Europe).

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue January 27th, 2009, 2:54 pm

I only one I've come across is EC's Daughters of the Grail. Although it's NF, Zoe Oldenbourg wrote Massacre at Montsegur: A History of the Albiegensian Crusade. I had it out from the library once and was reading it at the gym until it was due back, interesting.

**edited**

It appears Zoe did write at least one based on the Cathars.
Last edited by Misfit on Tue January 27th, 2009, 2:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

annis
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Post by annis » Tue January 27th, 2009, 4:55 pm

I found Zoe Oldenbourg's Cathar novel, "Destiny of Fire" very clunky and nowhere near as interesting as her NF book.

I enjoyed Glen Craney's novel "The Fire and the Light" , about Esclarmonde de Foix, and Elizabeth Chadwick's Daughters of the Grail'.
Pip Vaughan-Hughes "Brother Petroc" trilogy has an on-going Cathar theme which becomes stronger on the last book, "Painted in Blood", which features the siege at Montségur.

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Tue January 27th, 2009, 5:16 pm

I tried Oldenbourg's World is not enough and bailed around 100 pages. Dry as dirt, although I think they were originally written in French and could possibly be a translation issue? I found that to be the case with Dumas when I had a bad translation of The Queen's Necklace.

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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Tue January 27th, 2009, 5:17 pm

A Wheel of Stars by ummm... Laura Gilmore Bennet? It's a timeslip.
All things are Lights by Robert Shea
http://www.amazon.com/All-Things-Lights ... 0345329031
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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