HF about the Cathars

Carine · 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 ?

Amanda · 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.

diamondlil · 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.

Madeleine · 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.

lindymc · 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 -

Ariadne · 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).

Misfit · 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.

annis · 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.

Misfit · 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.

EC2 · 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