This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 27, 2018.

Life on a Mediaeval Barony: A Picture of a Typical Feudal Community in the Thirteenth Century

By William Stearns Davis – Harper & Brothers – 1923

Review by Robin Marx

Although published in 1923, this book is an engaging and eminently readable survey of various aspects of life in medieval France. Davis handles the text like a cinematographer wields his camera, panning over expansive scenery before zooming in closely to various scenes of interest.

While the barony and its inhabitants described are fictional, serving as a sort of amalgamation of typical elements from the time period, numerous footnotes compare and contrast aspects with specific named holdings and personages from history. The result is an entertaining and enlightening presentation of the “gist” of life in this era, rather than a potentially dry summation of events and lineages and so forth.

Highly recommended to both history students and fans of fantasy fiction hoping to learn a bit more about how things were in the real world.

★★★★☆

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