Above all, there is the heroine, viewed clear-sightedly in all her intoxicating and imperious irresistibility. Her account parades a sequence of extraordinary characters: the saintly abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, who as an adolescent leapt into a freezing pond until his erection subsided Eleanor's first husband, Louis VII of France, haunted by the screams of burning victims after his assault on a village in Champagne her lover, Raymond of Poitiers, who could bend an iron bar with his bare hands and her second husband, Henry II of England, her princely mirror in energy, intelligence and sexuality. In approaching as complex a subject as feudalism, Weir wears her learning lightly and has a pleasant habit of anticipating all the questions of a curious reader.

O poder da rainha aumentou consideravelmente após a morte de Henrique II6, quando passou a auxiliar seus filhos no governo da Inglaterra. 7 seus territórios e dominar seus maridos5. She paints a Brueghelesque picture of England, where wolves roamed the forests and people made skates in winter out of animal bones. Nova Iorque: Ballantine Books, 2008, E-Book Kindle, Cap 1 (Tradução Nossa). Weir conveys a deep empathy for the relaxed south of France where Eleanor was raised, a natural home for the gospel of courtly love. And from the start, her auburn-haired subject, a live wire in a restrictive society, muse of poets and crusaders, seduces the reader. The author exhibits a breathtaking grasp of the physical and cultural context of Queen Eleanor's life, presenting a fuller, more holistic appreciation of a dazzling world whose charms can easily be anesthetized by dull narrative. It is the sixth best-selling historical biography of all time in the U.K. It was the winner of the Good Book Guide award for the best biography of 1999, as voted for by readers in 100 countries. As delicately textured as a 12th-century tapestry, royal biographer Weir's (The Life of Elizabeth I, etc.) newest book is exhilarating in its color, ambition and human warmth. The author of six previous books about English history, Alison Weir tackles familiar territory with Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor of Aquitaine is my best-selling book to date.

Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir