Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres


By Henry Adams

Mont Saint Michel and Chartres is a record not of a literal jouney but of a meditative journey across time and space into the medieval imagination. Using the architecture, sculpture, and stained glass of the two locales as a starting point, Adams breathes life into what others might see merely as monuments of a past civilization. With daring and inventive conceits, 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. The deepest value of Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, its importance as a revelation of the eternal glory of mediaeval art and the elements that brought it into being is not lightly to be expressed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781300346876

Henry Adams

Henry Adams (1838-1918) was an American historian and memoirist. Born in Boston, Adams was the grandson of statesman and lawyer John Quincy Adams on his father’s side. Through his mother, he was related to the Brooks family of wealthy merchants. Adams graduated from Harvard University in 1858 before traveling through Europe on a grand tour. Upon returning in 1860, he attempted to pursue a career in law but soon found himself working as a journalist, first in Boston and then in London, where he was an anonymous correspondent for The New York Times while his father served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Lincoln. In 1868, Adams settled in Washington, DC, where he earned a reputation as a journalist against political corruption. By 1870, he embarked on a brief career as a professor of medieval history at Harvard, a position from which he would retire in 1877 to devote himself to his writing. In addition to his lauded nine-volume History of the United States of America (1801-1817) (1889-1891), Adams wrote the novels Democracy: An American Novel (1880) and Esther (1884). In 1907, his memoir The Education of Henry Adams appeared in print in a small, private edition. A decade later, just after his death at the age of 80, it found wider publication and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Recognized as an astute observer of cultural and historical change, Adams remains a controversial figure for his antisemitic views.

Reviews for Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres


[harrod_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A sweet volume

[jbarringer-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a history of France in the 11th through the 13th Centuries, as told through architecture, and was very interesting.

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mr. Adams was a descendant of the Adamses of Massachusetts and could afford the travel necessary to write this description of two medieval masterpieces for the American public. Both studies have since been replaced by modern analyses of the their functions, but the initial work has charms. The style is literate, and not condescending. He is a keen observer of the sites, and meditates on them with a sensibility formed by the popular attitudes of the later nineteenth century, the mindset that created the arthuriana of Howard Pyle and many faux-medieval country houses. Restful to read as an artefact.

[aulsmith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Set up as an architectural tour of the early Gothic cathedrals of northern France, this is in actuality a meditation on the medieval mind, ranging through the politics, the literature, the architecture and the theological disputes of the 11th through the 13th centuries. Anyone interested in the history of medieval France or England, in Gothic architecture, in medieval romances, in courtly love, or in medieval Catholicism will find much food for thought here.While Adams displays a deep Romanticism about the middle ages, he is also very much a modern (dare I say, neo-pagan) person who made me feel grateful that I live when I live.In addition, he is a wonderful writer: humorous, eclectic, and understanding when enough is enough. I found this book a joy to read and look forward to rereading sections from time to time as the mood strikes me.A couple of caveats: The pictures in the original 1904 text are next to useless. I had to buy an entirely separate book on French cathedrals to admire all the detail Adams described. (Not that the word pictures aren't sufficient to get the points that he is making, but he does make you want to see it for yourself.)Second, the windows of Chartres have been cleaned since Adams writing and the building historians found out that all the 19th century nattering about the blues in the stained glass were a result of 19th century people looking at the glass covered by centuries of air pollution and had nothing to do with the original artist's conceptions.Bottom line: I should have read this ages ago. If you're interested in the Middle Ages, do not delay. Read it now!

[pickwick817 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Although I love cathedrals and own several books on cathedrals, I chose this book for its literary value. The book was quite well written, but it really didn't do much for me. The first half of the book described the architecture of Mont Saint Michel and Chartres. The second half began to explain why the cathedrals were build, but surprisingly for me, it was from a religious point of view. Adams would say - this part of the cathedral was designed in this way because that was how Mary wanted it. That section didn't really work for me. The latter quarter of the book got into the philisophy of some of the Church leaders at the time the cathedrals were build. That became a little more interesting, but again, not really what I was expecting fromt he book.