Mont Saint Michel and Chartres is a record not of a literal journey but of a meditative journey across time and space into the medieval imagination. Henry Adams writes so beautifully and this book is a sheer wonder. Adams sets this up as a travel book looking at the main churches from Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres. However, much of the book is concerned with Chartres and its significance in medieval thought. The first half of the book focuses on the architecture and design of the great French churches, but the last part considers the world of medieval France: the poetry, the politics and a detailed consideration of the thought and arguments (literally) of Abelard. Adams looks at the ordinary people, places, and events in the context of the social conventions and systems of thought and belief of the thirteenth century turning the study of history into a kind of theater.
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