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Charlemagne
Written by Johannes Fried
Narrated by James Cameron Stewart
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Start ListeningDescription
When the legendary Frankish king and emperor Charlemagne died in 814 he left behind a dominion and a legacy unlike anything seen in Western Europe since the fall of Rome. Johannes Fried paints a compelling portrait of a devout ruler, a violent time, and a unified kingdom that deepens our understanding of the man often called the father of Europe.
Book Actions
Start ListeningBook Information
Charlemagne
Written by Johannes Fried
Narrated by James Cameron Stewart
Description
When the legendary Frankish king and emperor Charlemagne died in 814 he left behind a dominion and a legacy unlike anything seen in Western Europe since the fall of Rome. Johannes Fried paints a compelling portrait of a devout ruler, a violent time, and a unified kingdom that deepens our understanding of the man often called the father of Europe.
About the author
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Reviews
2014 marked the 1200th anniversary of one of Europe's most famous, Charlemagne who died on 28th January 814 in Aachen after a tumultuous life. This huge biography carries the subtitle "Gewalt und Glaube" (Power/Violence and Faith). The emphasis of the book is on the second part. Charlemagne as a man of the church who created institutions and started Europe on the way to recovery from the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the Dark Ages. Apart from this churchy approach, the book suffers from its length. A good editor could easily have cut out two-hundred pages.
Rating: 4Good book. Great narrator. Not sure it's only 30 hours but the content that it gets into it was well worth the time.
Rating: 5This is a dense, heavily researched biography of a figure for whom little is known, thus Fried's work is, in many respects, much more of an exploration into 8th and 9th century Europe than it is into the life of one man.
Rating: 5