Everyday Life in the Middle Ages (Writer's Guides to Everyday Life) [Paperback]

Sherrilyn Kenyon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Writer's Guides to Everyday Life | Publication Date: March 2000

Writers will save hours of valuable research time and bring a richness and historical accuracy to their work as they reference the slice-of-life facts depicted for each of these major time periods. Each book contains descriptions of the period's food and clothes; customs and slang; occupations; common religious and political practices; and other historical details.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books; 1 edition (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582970017
• ISBN-13: 978-1582970011
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,274,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In the past two years, New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon has claimed the #1 spot twelve times. This extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre she writes. With more than 23 million copies of her books in print in over 30 countries, her current series include: The Dark-Hunters, The League, Lords of Avalon, BAD Agency and the Chronicles of Nick. Since 2004, she has placed over 50 novels on the New York Times list. The preeminent voice in paranormal fiction, with more than twenty years of publishing credits, Kenyon not only helped to pioneer, but define the current paranormal trend that has captivated the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So-So, April 29, 2000

By 

BME - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The British Isles from 500 to 1500 (Hardcover)

This is truly one of those books that half good, half useless. It should not be used as a sole reference to medieval life. But as a supplement, it can be useful. For example, the chapters about knights, the Church, and food are woefully inadequate. But the chapter about festivals does a good (though not complete) job of listing important holidays and the traditions associated with them. This is not the best medieval reference book I've read, but to be fair, it is only a GUIDE, which I think a few reviewers forget. The author even includes "further reading references" at the ends of the chapters, which is a good thing, since the chapters are sparse. All in all, the book is helpful as a quick reference to find dates of a certain king's reign, or to find what fabrics were used for clothing in 1255. But please don't use this book as a substitute for down-and-dirty research.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stop scavanging for errors, everyone..., July 6, 2004

By 

Banana "Gabby" (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The British Isles from 500 to 1500 (Hardcover)

I think that this book is extremely useful, especially the chapter about food, as it tells you things that is almost impossible to find elsewhere - such as a brief list of what they ate, what they did, when they ate, who served what, how they were seated, etc etc etc.

I've been hearing all this trashing about how horrible the pictures were, but I don't think they're nearly as bad as everyone keeps making them out to be. So what, a person left his glasses on - they weren't depicting a full-size model of someone from the middle ages, he was only modelling certain features. And also, below the picture of the Viking it says "the model wears a Viking CEREMONIAL horned helm with ear flaps." It never stated that that was the everyday helmet of a viking, if anybody bothered to read what was underneath. The robes of the two monks in the picture looked different to me, and it says "the man on the left wears a Benedictine robe; the man on the right wears a Franciscan robe."

Everybody here is looking for a textbook for school, as opposed to a guide book. She even says so in the Introduction - "this book is designed as a mere starting point or as a reference to look up much needed information as quickly as possible."

I think this book is a terrific guide and can't honestly see what all the fumes and steam are about. Some of the vocabulary words and definitions are utterly useless for me, but then most of them are gold. I'm not a professor of Middle Ages, so obviously I'm not picking up the grittiest mistakes, but that doesn't matter - I'm a fantasy writer, I don't need to know the specifics, and after being one of those people who went to the Library to look for information.... half of the books were crap meant for someone who had five years to read and understand a 900-page manual on FOOD that only talked about how they had no information and could not get any information on the food.

And frankly, if you're a fantasy writer, you don't need to get into the nitty-gritty stuff. I really don't care if the peasant-garb existed or not (and yes, it did, because I used to go on the internet on all sorts of sites on the middle ages, and for every typical female peasant garb it looked remarkably like the one in the book.)

This book has to be the clearest and quickest way to get information on the middle ages, and it gives you all the information you need to write an entire scene on something in detail and clarity, without blurring the background and hoping everyone won't notice the lack of detail and knowledge. You all can trash this book or toss it in the flames, but it's going to stay with me for a looooong time.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So inaccurate it's laughable, June 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Everyday Life in the Middle Ages (Writer's Guides to Everyday Life) (Paperback)

I suppose the front cover of this book says it all. It's supposed to cover the British Isles from 500-1500, so why does it show a picture of Queen Elizabeth I who wasn't even born until 1533? The photographs of supposedly authentic costume are risible - especially the Viking and the book is peppered with numerous fallacies and inaccuracies, suggesting that the writer really needs to do more research on her subject. As a prize-winning published author of fiction set in the Medieval period, there is no way that I would recommend this book to authors seeking to increase their knowledge and understanding of the Middle Ages.