A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age

A "lively and engaging" history of the Middle Ages (Dallas Morning News) from the acclaimed historian William Manchester, author of The Last Lion.

From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose, and with the grace and authority of his extraordinary gift for narrative history, William Manchester leads us from a civilization tottering on the brink of collapse to the grandeur of its rebirth: the dense explosion of energy that spawned some of history's greatest poets, philosophers, painters, adventurers, and reformers, as well as some of its most spectacular villains.

"Manchester provides easy access to a fascinating age when our modern mentality was just being born." --Chicago Tribune

Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Published: 04/01/1992
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.44lbs
Size: 9.34h x 6.26w x 1.05d
ISBN: 9780316545310


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 03/15/1992 pg. 1314
School Library Journal 05/01/1993 pg. 145
Library Journal 04/15/1992
Publishers Weekly 04/27/1992
Library Journal 08/01/1999

About the Author
William Manchester was a hugely successful popular historian and biographer whose books include The Last Lion, Volumes 1 and 2, Goodbye Darkness, A World Lit Only by Fire, The Glory and the Dream, The Arms of Krupp, American Caesar, The Death of the President, and assorted works of journalism.