A Booke of Days: A Novel of the Crusades

by Stephen J. Rivele

Book Overview

A soaring epic of the Holy Land and the human heart, A Booke of Days is the captivating story of young French nobleman, Roger, Duke of Lunel, who departs his home in Provence in the 11th century to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786703482
• ISBN13: 9780786703487
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 436 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Historical Fiction at Its Best

The Booke of Days is the story of a minor lord from Southern France who joins the first Crusade. His name is Roger of Lunel. Roger joins the Crusade because the Pope has promised absolution for any who fight, and kill, for Christianity. The irony of this is not lost on Roger who keeps a diary of his journey. At first Roger examines the ideas of the crusade even as he compares them to the reality. Knights who ravish women in southern France, wear body parts cut off from their enemies, and murder other Christians who don't follow the proper pope. These are the people who will save Christianity? With this start, I was concerned that his book might become an anti-Christian or anti-West book. It is not. It is a realistic look at the Crusades which describes the good and ill, of all sides. A Booke of Days also describes the people, the customs, and the times, better then any book about this period I have encountered. Some of the twists of the personal story seem stretched, but I liked the story so much I will was willing to believe. In the end, rather then being a book about the Crusades, it is a book about Roger of Lunel, set in the Crusades.I liked Roger, so I loved this book. I also loved the hundreds of small touches which show the effort and the artistry of the author. If this book really isn't true, it could be. And anyone who has even a passing interest in History or Romance should read it.

Booke of Days

Considering Americans excel in the creation of historical fiction - particularly in motion pictures - I find it astounding that they should complain of the book's inaccuracies.It's fiction. It's a novel. But, by God, it's beautifully written. Rivele writes so keenly and convincingly the story was quite easy to visualise and I loved the journal format, being a journal writer myself as well as being a keen reader of history. I was immediately grasped by the power of his characters (how Roger wrote of his love for his wife and his faith), bound by the path of his story and was so upset when I finished that I promptly began it again.If you're a historian looking for a gripe, then no doubt you'll hate it. However, if it's words, language and storytelling you truly love then this book is surely The Holy Grail.

The devastating effects of war on an honorable man.

This powerful novel of a young officer's maturation in the crucible of war is most notable for the conflict it describes. Not a war most Americans might otherwise be familiar with - the American Revolution, or the Civil War, or Second World War, or Viet Nam - but rather that exercise in barbarism, treachery and brutality commenced in the name of God in the Year of Our Lord 1096 - the First Crusade.Roger, Duke of Lunel, is a minor French noble in the army of his overlord, Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse. Roger's "Booke", a diary, is a record of events as he follows Raymond across Europe, to Constantinople, and into the Middle East. Along the way, he participates in various battles and slaughters of the overt enemy, the Moslem Turks and Egyptians - most notably at Antioch and Jerusalem respectively - and witnesses and survives the treachery of Raymond's supposed Greek and European allies. Enduring the most profound hardships, Roger discovers "himself", faith, honor, love, disillusionment and, finally, loss. After four years, he returns to France in the same state as he found the Holy Sepulcher - empty.Despite the unhappy ending, this is a truly wonderful and instructive book, especially for anybody who is generally interested in the general subject of the Crusades, but seeks a more specific knowledge. As near as I can tell, the author has recounted with reasonable accuracy the events of the First Crusade. While some license has undoubtedly been taken with the major historical characters - Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond of Taranto, Godfrey of Bouillon, Bishop Adhémar of Puy, Pope Urban II, Baldwin of Boulogne, Robert of Normandy, Peter the Hermit, Emperor Alexius I - it does not, I think, distort the major brushstrokes of history.More than anything, this novel describes the emptiness left in a man's soul after all of life's efforts are focused and expended on one goal, worthwhile or not, to the exclusion of all others. It is an eloquent argument for a Balanced Perspective.

So there is no confusion...

Contrary to the beliefs of my fellow reviewer of Rivelle's A Booke of Days, this is not an actual journal translation. It is a work of historical fiction with a clever preface designed to set up the reader. It seems to have worked. Nevertheless, it is an excellent book, and it probably conveys more truth about the Crusades than any actual participant could have managed. It is a wonderful ironic-age version of the quest, decked out with beautiful parti-colored loose ends. I strongly recommend it.

Masterfully told yarn of days of old and Knights of Yore.

A remarkable recapitulation of times long gone. The raison d'etre is the story and the telling of it. Whether it is fact. fiction or faction is immaterial. For a first novel this is a masterfullly related yarn dealing with a fascinarting era. Stand by for the movie with Sean Connery reprising First Knight...they aged fast in pre-William the Conquerer days!!