English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal Book

I read this book because I absolutely loved Andrea di Robilant's first book, A Venetian Affair, which, like Lucia, was also a non-fiction book based on the letters left behind by one of his ancestors. I agree with some other reviewers who said that the life of Lucia was not as compelling as the torrid, secret, forbidden love affair depicted in the first book. That said, di Robilant is a top-notch writer and I thought this was an excellent book. Di Robilant combines personal and global history effortlessly, and I came away from the book with insights into how world events can change life trajectories. Di Robilant also deftly brought out the complexities of human relationships: he takes contradictory situations -- people are awful to each other and yet love each other deeply -- and helps us understand how that can be so.

I think I also loved the book because I was recently in Vienna and so I learned about many of the emperors and empresses that are mentioned in this book. In general, any European history buff should love to see what life was like during the age of Napoleon. I highly recommend this book.