2010-11-10

spooky_miss: (Default)
2010-11-10 03:15 pm
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Book Ninety Eight

day 14 → a non-fictional book

This will be combined with:

Book Ninety Eight - Read my Heart by Jane Dunn

This book tells the true story of Dorothy Osbourne and William Temple, who fell in love and married in the 17th Century. The story is told through their letters to each other, and through Willam's essays and writings. What is interesting about the story from the beginning is that before they married they were apart for some years, and their marriage was frowned upon by both of their families. It must have been incredibly hard for them in a time without the modern instant communications that we have now, but their love survived and stayed strong throughout their marriage. The book also illustrates the life they lived and the world they lived in through writings from other people about the time, for example Pepys (which reminds me I really want to either read his diaries or read a book about him!), and by relating their story to the historical events of the time, which William was involved with in a few ways due to him being the the representative of the King in Brussels for a while. I found this book good as I didn't really know much about the 17th century generally, although I know the main events such as Cromwell's rule, the Great Fire of London, the Plague etc, and the book gave a more general idea of the life people lived. I did think it was bit too long though, and some of the quotes used were simplified a bit too much - like, in some of them you needed a few words added to make sense of the meaning in modern language, but I think this was overused. Overall though, the book was good for one which I bought from the Poundshop!! :) 6 / 10

the rest of the days )