Customer Reviews

Chasing the Heretics: A Modern Journey Through the Medieval Languedoc

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4 star:		(1)
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Rion Klawinski blends history and travel in the south of France in writing Chasing The Heretics: A Modern Journey Through The Medieval Languedoc. This remarkably articulate and thoroughly engaging work is part history and part travelogue as Klawinski begins his journey in search of the facts surrounding a murder that happened in 1209, traces the steps of the pacifist Cathars (a 13th century religious sect); and the anti-Cathar Albigensian Crusade. Klawinski uncovers an almost forgotten history of a group of doomed Christians whose influence is still felt in the picturesque Languedoc region to this very day. The reader is treated to a sense of daily life as it was lived almost eight hundred years ago, as well as the ruggedly beauty country side, vibrant cities, and picturesque villages of the present. Chasing The Heretics is enthusiastically recommended reading for armchair travelers and history buffs alike!

I HAVE VISITED THE AREA, AND WANTED TO READ MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY. THE REVIEW WAS PROMISING, BUT THE BOOK DID NOT DELIVER A BALANCED OR INSIGHTFUL APPROACH TO THE SUBJECT MATTER. HE ADMITS HE DID NOT RESEARCH THE MATTER WELL (REFERS TO A ILL WRITTEN BOOK AS ONE OF HIS GUIDES), ONLY VISITS THE AREAS NORTH OF THE CANAL DU MIDI (EXCEPT FOR ONE BRIEF EXCURSION TO MONTSEGUR, SPENDS MOST OF HIS TIME DEALING WITH HIS FALLING OUT WITH CATHOLICISM RATHER THAN THE COMPLEX MATTER OF WHAT THE CATHARS WERE REALLY ABOUT. THERE ARE EXCELLENT BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT (RENE NELLI...UNFORTUNATELY ONLY AVAILABLE IN FRENCH)..THE LAMBERT BOOK IS A MUCH BETTER INVESTMENT. THERE ARE MANY BOOKS THAT WOULD HAVE ENLARGED AND ENHANCED HIS UNDERSTANDING, HAD HE BOTHERED TO LOOK AND READ. FOR SOMEONE GENUINELY INTERESTED IN THE SUBJECT, CHECK OUT WEBSITES FOR OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS. THE INFO (AND BOOKS) ARE THERE, AND WELL WORTH THE TIME.

The reader above ("A Customer") apparently expected a history of the cathars, which this book is not. It is an excellent travelogue or travel memoir, using the cathars and their history as a background. There are vignetes throughout the book, referring to the placed that the author visit, which help the reader understand the catahr phenomenon. It is an excellent book!

The reader from Los Angeles is, I think, a little too strident. This is not a definitive history of the Cathars. It is not meant to be. It is an ambling and amiable personal tour to some of the sites associated with the Albigensian Crusade and is really quite good.
Read in conjunction with Zoe Oldenbourg's Massacre at Montsegur.