- Paperback
- Publisher: Vintage (1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679772693
- ISBN-13: 978-0679772699
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 2.5 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #348,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
MOST HUMAN OF EMPIRES,
This review is from: A Short History of Byzantium (Hardcover)
Living, quite literally, only a few miles from the Alamo, reading about the Siege of Constantinople was particularly poignant. What an Empire. It's name, Byzantine, has become a description for all that is seethingly, insidously, complicated. Byzantium represented the best and worst of being human: incredible art, touching piety, hypocrisy unparallelled, heroism unmatched, murderous Emperors, jaw dropping architecture, and political intrigue. All leading up to that day in May when it all fell forever. Lord Norwich brings it all back. Will have to get the three volumes now!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bravo...Byzantium,
By D C (SF, Ca) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Short History of Byzantium (Hardcover)
Accolades to Lord Norwich for his interesting account of the "Eastern Empire". The author does a fantastic job of blending strong historical research with interesting snippets of Byzantine folk lore. This is a must read for anyone who cherishes history and good writing.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Gibbon of Constantinople,
By jwalzer (Greenville, Delaware United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Short History of Byzantium (Hardcover)
Norwich's "Short History of Byzantium" is a distillation of his three-volume history of the Byzantine Empire. I've read the larger work, and can say that this abbreviated volume captures, for the most part, the essence of Norwich's trilogy: the color, adventure, and insight are all here, along with a tremendous sense of style, leavened with wit. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the empire that emerged from the eastern half of the old Roman Empire, centered at Constantinople, this is the perfect introductory volume. Best of all, the author, like Gibbon, is a wonderful story-teller: a faithful adherence to a fabulous tale of power and empire, punctuated by the most unlikely incidents, narrated in a skilled and, where warranted, jaundiced style -- what more could one ask? Reading the history of this thousand-year-old empire - an empire that produced unparalleled works of artistic beauty - an empire that protected Western Christendom from the impending Turkish onslaught for centuries - wincing as it's flaws overtook it and, stabbed in the back by the West in 1204, left it prostrate - this is the stuff of tragedy. No writer of fiction could ever have created the drama of the Byzantine Empire. I highly recommend this volume, as both history, and literature; and if it whets your appetite, Norwich's three-volume version awaits you: enjoy!
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