Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England

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I finally finished The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England.  It's the book I took with me to Kansas.  I was especially glad to have it when my plane home was delayed.....  Such a nice *fat* book; I knew there was plenty of it to keep me entertained for a large number of unexpectedly unoccupied hours.




Ian Mortimer is a historian.  The book is dense and scholarly, while presenting the info in a guidebook format.  What will you see?  What will you wear?  What will you eat?  Where will you shop?  What sorts of entertainment are available? 

What are the political/religious/social issues?  What sorts of health and safety problems might you encounter?  How does Elizabethan health care arise directly from their theory of the origin of disease?

(The book also includes info I've not seen addressed in guidebooks to places here and now -- how do the answers to many of the questions above vary with your socioeconomic status?)


I've been interested in Tudor England ever since my high-school history teacher introduced us to Henry and, especially, Elizabeth.  (Thank you, Mr. MacDonald!)   I found it very informative to be exposed to the mise en scene for the stage on which which all of those politics and personalities interacted. 

I did wish this book had pictures!  I suppose, at 325 pages and no pictures, it might have been quite impossibly long with them.  But I'd like to have seen the buildings, bridges, and other constructions which still exist in more or less their late sixteenth-century form.  I'd like to have seen the various sorts of garb various people would have worn.  I'd like to have seen maps of London and of the Known World during that time.  He talks about elaborate edible confections built of sugar -- are there no pics of such things, recreated now?  Pictures would have added richness and nuance to the book.


In any case -- the bottom line is ... Recommended.



One last set of thoughts -- I would definitely rather read about Elizabethan England than go there!  Even if I had all my shots first, and had enough language training to understand what I was told!  I feel the same way about visiting the depths of the jungle -- someone else can go there.  I'll be happy to watch the video, while sparing myself the snake bites and poisonous insect bites/stings (in the case of the jungle) and the cut-purses and the slave traders and the horrible ways women (and animals!) were treated as a matter of course (in the case of the sixteenth century), not to mention the water-borne diseases, and/or missing the pleasure and comfort of modern plumbing, and modern medical care! in either place/time....................  No.  Exposing my essential shallowness yet again -- I'll stay right here in the nice, clean, civilized, developed-20th-century world, thankyouverymuch.  (Though I did see an intriguing river-boat trip in an ad from SmithsonianMag recently.  For me, the idea of personally visiting the Amazon is much MUCH more enticing from a tour boat than from a less ... modern and controlled environment!)

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4 comments:

Jeanie said...

This is one I need to add to the collection. Like you, I have been fascinated with all things England since Miss Ludwig's English Lit class in high school -- which as much history as literature. I think I'd love this book, although I agree, photos or illustrations are always nice! Thanks for the recommendation.

And thanks also for my birthday wishes on The Marmelade Gypsy! Counting down to retirement! Perhaps sometime in late fall we can meet in Ann Arbor for coffee?!

I need orange said...

Love my library -- I can read all this stuff without any $$ investment.....

:-)

I would love to meet for coffee to celebrate your retirement. Zingerman's?

:-)

Joyce said...

I read the Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England a couple of years ago. It, too, was great fun while also being informative. I've just put a hold on "Elizabethan England" at the Seattle library.

I need orange said...

The info with Elizabethan England mentions, from time to time, how it was different from earlier times, and mentions Medieval England.

I've reserved that one. :-) Moving backwards through time............ :-)