As this is my first entry, I shall do a bit of background information.
I suppose I should start from the beginning, or at least as close to the beginning as I am able. -- For as long as I can remember, I have had a fascination with history, namely, European history: the royal families, the royal courts, the society and the all-around general way of life of the different classes has always amused me. I had spent hours upon hours pondering what it would have been like to be one of those people, from whichever class or caste. I began to read, and fell in love with, the Royal Diaries series. My favourites are the "diaries" of Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots: A Queen without a Country by Kathryn Lasky), Elizabeth I (Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor by Kathryn Lasky), Marie Antoinette (Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles by Kathryn Lasky), Eleanor of Aquitaine (Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine by Kristina Gregory), Kristina of Sweden (Kristina: The Girl King by Carolyn Meyer), Elisabeth (Elisabeth: The Princess Bride by Barry Denenberg), Catherine (the Great) of Russia (Catherine: The Great Journey by Kristina Gregory) and Isabel of Castile (Isabel: Jewel of Castilla by Carolyn Meyer). They were my first "history" books, my windows into what it may have been like to have lived like these great and beautiful women before they became as the "Modernized" world knows them.
As I grew older, I read Historical Fiction novels, such as The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory; and Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George, before I switched to simply reading topic-based history books on the likes of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Marie Antoinette just to name a select few. They continue to fascinate me the more I read about them, and I hunger and thirst for more and more information, perhaps even more than is available now.
Sadly, down the years, as I have grown older and more observant of the peoples, environments, and the world around me, it seems as though these great historical people are fading into nothingness, back into the abyss, the foggy backdrop that history is becoming in today's day and age. It saddens me and only drives me to search ever-more thoroughly for further information on these enigmatic personas, these seemingly-mythical immortals of people.
In later posts, I shall do reviews on the many fictional and non-fictional books I have read concerning these topics and people, as well as descriptions and "justifications", if you will, of my views of today's Modernized society and what (I believe) people can do to change, fix, and reverse what their lifestyles have done to our world.
I suppose I should start from the beginning, or at least as close to the beginning as I am able. -- For as long as I can remember, I have had a fascination with history, namely, European history: the royal families, the royal courts, the society and the all-around general way of life of the different classes has always amused me. I had spent hours upon hours pondering what it would have been like to be one of those people, from whichever class or caste. I began to read, and fell in love with, the Royal Diaries series. My favourites are the "diaries" of Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots: A Queen without a Country by Kathryn Lasky), Elizabeth I (Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor by Kathryn Lasky), Marie Antoinette (Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles by Kathryn Lasky), Eleanor of Aquitaine (Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine by Kristina Gregory), Kristina of Sweden (Kristina: The Girl King by Carolyn Meyer), Elisabeth (Elisabeth: The Princess Bride by Barry Denenberg), Catherine (the Great) of Russia (Catherine: The Great Journey by Kristina Gregory) and Isabel of Castile (Isabel: Jewel of Castilla by Carolyn Meyer). They were my first "history" books, my windows into what it may have been like to have lived like these great and beautiful women before they became as the "Modernized" world knows them.
As I grew older, I read Historical Fiction novels, such as The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory; and Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George, before I switched to simply reading topic-based history books on the likes of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Marie Antoinette just to name a select few. They continue to fascinate me the more I read about them, and I hunger and thirst for more and more information, perhaps even more than is available now.
Sadly, down the years, as I have grown older and more observant of the peoples, environments, and the world around me, it seems as though these great historical people are fading into nothingness, back into the abyss, the foggy backdrop that history is becoming in today's day and age. It saddens me and only drives me to search ever-more thoroughly for further information on these enigmatic personas, these seemingly-mythical immortals of people.
In later posts, I shall do reviews on the many fictional and non-fictional books I have read concerning these topics and people, as well as descriptions and "justifications", if you will, of my views of today's Modernized society and what (I believe) people can do to change, fix, and reverse what their lifestyles have done to our world.
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