Annoying book

[frualeydis]

I am currently reading The myth of absolutism by Nicholas Henshall and it's extremely annoying. I have read 70 pages and I already know everything he is going to say on the subject. He's like a record stuck in his tracks, repeating the same things again and again. He is disputing the whole concept of absolutism and sets out to prove that there was nothing even resembling it in 17th or 18th century France; that the reign of Louis XIV didn't involve anything new, but just continued in the old mediaeval ways. But unfortunately he is so biased in his reasoning that you just end up being annoyed and thoroughly fed up.
The problem is that I have a test of this book and two others next thursday so I really have to read the whole book.

Comments

[therru.livejournal.com]

Absolutism as in not drinking or smoking? Could have been interesting. Too bad. How many more pages of it do you have to read?

I have found that same tendency to repetition in several American books (no offense meant to Americans present). It's as if they get paid per page they produce, so they keep repeating and regurgitating the same ideas over and over, chapter after chapter, just to fill out the pages. The whole thing could have been neatly summarized in the introduction.

[liadethornegge.livejournal.com]

This is a Well Known fact about American text-books or non-fiction works. Everything is repeated at least three times.

[therru.livejournal.com]

Actually, it is discernible in fictional works, too. Especially those ten-volume works that could have made an excellent novel, or perhaps trilogy. Or those building-block sized books that could have made a very nice, slim, graphic novel.

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

But this one is written by a brit. Anyway, not absolutism as in abstaining from alcohol, I'm not sure the word has that meaning in english, but as in absolute state.


Eva