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Article: AUTHOR TAKES ON THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE AND EMERGES VICTORIOUS.(Lifestyle)(Review)
- Article from:
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- Article date:
- March 26, 1997
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This strange and fascinating book, filled with drollery and horror, exhibits the outer limits of historical condensation. John Julius Norwich (Lord Norwich) two years ago published the third volume in his 1,200-page magnum opus, ``Byzantium,'' a history of the Byzantine Empire.
Telling more than 1,100 years of history in three volumes was an impressive achievement; to take those three and refashion them into one is to prove that the age of miracles has not ended, even if the result is not entirely satisfying. Norwich himself writes, ``If anyone thinks me foolhardy to have attempted to cover it in a single volume, I can only say that I agree.'' He calls it an ...