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Most people who take up this book will have heard that the plot centres round a mysterious medieval manuscript, a group of four college buddies, and a great deal of murder and mayhem. There is code-breaking, symbolism, conspiracy and betrayal. Of course there are shades of Dan Brown, with more than a cursory nod to that populariser of the historical mystery, Umberto Eco, and his ur-text, "The Name of the Rose." But what may be less well known is that "The Rule of Four," is also a novel about the nature of friendship and the process of coming of age. It's a campus novel with (I bet) some autobiographical touches thrown in. Along with the influences mentioned above, I… Read more
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I am a huge fan of Robert K. Massie, and have enjoyed all of his books ("Nicholas and Alexandria" and "Dreadnought" were my favourites). This book shows all of the virtues of this very fine popular historian: fluent prose, well drawn individual portraits, absorbing anecdotes and skilful expositions of complex historical events. I particularly enjoyed his account of the naval campaign at Gallipoli, and his description of the Battle of Jutland ranks in my opinion (along with John Keegan's Jutland piece from "The Price of Admiralty) as the best short account of Jutland ever written. However, readers who are new to Massie should know what to expect: the book is… Read more
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Ron Chernow is a very fine biographer (I really enjoyed his books on the Morgans and John D. Rockefeller), and I am happy to say that I also enjoyed this latest work on one of the most enigmatic of the founders. Good writing, extensive research and the ability to connect the complicated dots of an often secretive and complicated life into a coherent narrative make for an absorbing read. Other authors (such as Richard Brookhiser)have already made the case for re-assessing Hamilton as one of the most influential of the founders, but Chernow's story is more fully fleshed out and both broader (in terms of the historical context) as well as narrower (in terms of the man's personal life) in… Read more
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