Dublin : The Epic Novel

Great!

I liked the broad sweep of history that pervaded the plot. It never became bogged down in too much tedious detail. The book could appeal to those, like me, who prefer their study of history to be sweetened by a good story. My rating reflects what I trust was an academically sound account of Irishness.

Another superbly written book from an author who relates the story of an area and it's people with the scope of a historian who sees the societal forces that shape change over generations, and can hold up for the reader characters who are often a little dysfunctional but very very human.

Great book...Unfortunately, as I started reading it, things started getting a little...familiar. I went to my bookshelf and found my copy of The Princes of Ireland, and whaddya know: same book. Apparently, it was published under a different title in Ireland. Well, my copy of Princes is a rather well-thumbed trade paperback, so I'm happy to replace it with a nice, sturdy, attractive hardcover. Actually, if you order Princes of Ireland rather than this one, you'd probably get it much quicker; it took weeks to arrive, and the postage was stamped "Royal Mail", so it really made a journey to get to New York.Under whichever title, it's a great read. Between this and the sequel, Rebels of Ireland, one gets a very vivid picture of how the Irish people, culture and history grew and changed over the centuries. I know the first couple of times I read them, I remember thinking, No wonder they were always so pissed off at the English! So, now that I have a new, unread copy of the first book--I may as well enjoy them again!

A great story of the very early days of Ireland, full of information about the early religions and customs. This interwoven with the families who lived in the area makes a great read. The story skips several generations at a time, but continues the flow from one generation to the next, with great skill. I found this a fascinating and informative novel.

Where James Michener fell short was in his long, long explanations of the geologic provenance that covered his first two or three chapters. (His explanation? "I wanted to get rid of my 'non-readers' "). Rutherford, on the other hand writes in a pleasing manner that creates the mood for his story line.

I have read all of Rutherford books so won't give a review for each and everyone I've read. But If you love long ago history, like I do, these books will bring you closer to each and every time in history, and learn about how people actually lived, what they ate, wore and how they survived, some of the worst times in history.

Every Rutherfund book has been great. He is another James Mitchner in telling history though stories of persons of that era or place. I would highly remind reading his books

著者の作品はロンドンを読んで以来、思い出すと新しい作品を購入して愛読していたが、日本語訳が出ないため原語で読む必要がある上に、ページ数が多いため読み通すのは大変だ。本書は購入してから5年以上放置していたが、意を決して挑戦することにした。日本人にとってアイルランドはさほど馴染みはないが、自分にはIRAのテロを始めとしてイングランドとの間で、血生臭い抗争を繰り広げて来た歴史のイメージがある国だ。本書がカバーしている時代は、紀元前の伝説の時代から1500年代までであり、その後の時代はは別の作品でカバーされているようだ。スタイルは著者の他の作品と同様で、いくつかの家系の人々が、アイルランドの様々な歴史的な出来事に関与する様子が、1話100頁ぐらいのショートストーリーに描かれており、各々をつなげて読み終えるとアイルランドの歴史が何となく頭に入るという構成になっている。本書は、著者のロンドンやSarum, Russkaに比べるとやや劣るかもしれないが、それでも十分楽しく読むことができた。

An excellent book once again unravelling the mystery of a city's history in his inimical and realistic style.Now to read the sequel. The research that goes into the writing on his books is of the highest degree.

ho letto tutti i libri di quest'autore e li sto rileggendo in lingua originale. Dopo Sarum e La Foresta lo ritengo il migliore. Adoro i libri storici e la verosimiglianza con cui vengono raccontati gli eventi rende la storia appassionante.

This book is a must for anybody who loves history and did not grow up in Ireland. The Irish in Ireland appear to know their history quite well. Rutherford puts facts, fiction and Irish mentality into a great story. I read the book in hardcover 10 years ago, but going to Ireland on a cycling trip for three weeks, I reread it in kindle format on the trip and realized that I had not understood half of it before. I did not know that Newgrange, described in Chapter 1, is older than the pyramids. I only went there because of the book. It makes you think what people could achieve 6000 years ago.I had not really understood the part of Brian Boru, first emperor of Ireland more than a thousand years ago. And then there is the book of Kells, which I went to see in Trinity college and promptly downloaded on my Ipad.Now I nave to learn the script they used. I can read and understand Latin but not the letters they used at that time.

This is another of Edward Rutherfurd's magnificent historical sagas; his way of writing of historical events, interwoven with a number of fictional families, which he uses to relate the historical facts, by making the fictional characters experience/be an active part of the historical events, truly is amazing! For anyone who is, possibly, not as well-informed on historical events as they might wish to be, Rutherfurd's very detailed, excellent historical novels would be a perfect way of acquiring a lot of historical knowledge, via a very enjoyable read, which could well then inspire the reader to read some scholarly history books on the various periods of Irish history described so vividly in Rutherfurd's excellent series.I've read the second of Rutherfurd's Irish saga (Ireland Awakening; but that was not bought from Amazon); it, too, is an excellent,very informative and very enjoyable read.