The mix of you-are-there history in the text is so highly integrated with the abundant period illustrations that it is easier to read it online in e-book form at <https://issuu.com/douglasbullis/docs/remembrances_of_things_to_come_douglas_bullis_isb>
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These pages open a door to a long-ago world. Step through. And bring your senses.
We all love to read history, but what was it like to live it? What did it mean to live an everyday life like you, me, or anyone we see during the day if we walked with them a hundred years ago? Three hundred years ago? Six hundred? What did people wear, what were their jobs, what did they eat, what did they smell and hear, what did they think and love and fear? What were their physical aches and pains and their mental joys and delights? How did they live without words like ‘Renaissance,’ ‘Enlightenment,’ ‘vehicle,’ ‘suburb,' or ‘electronic’ in their lives? On these pages, walk alongside a member of the Lefief clan as they proceed through a single day in the years 1003, 1193, 1260, 1346, 1399, 1460, 1483, 1518, 1539, 1669, 1788, 1889, and 1905. Years of historical research using paintings, architecture, maps, and ancient manuscripts, plus the author's personal travels and experiences, take us where we cannot go ourselves. The text is an entertaining read, but also a scholarly resource. The 185 color images embedded in the text were acquired from medieval to Enlightment-era codexes in seldom-visited libraries all over Europe.
Douglas Bullis is not a medievalist. If he were, we’d know how and where he uncovered every piece of the LeFief Family puzzle. Remembrances of Things to Come would begin with baptism records retrieved from long-forgotten chapels. It would progress through land grants, letters, and diaries. Notes in the margins of books, inscriptions on gravestones, church registers; medievalists use these sources to walk back in time. They’re the hallmarks of well-founded research where speculation fades, and every assertion stands as sturdy as a barrel vault.
In Remembrances of Things to Come, Bullis tries something much more readable. He promises to transport readers to a lost world. Stories of domesticity, celebration, and despair emerge without strings of citations and sources. Instead of a scholar recording LeFief origins via medieval documents, Bullis is a tour guide conducting readers through the landscape. In 1003 CE, a land grant is given by a local lord to a family without a surname. “When the family was later confirmed in the church by the lord’s bishop, the lord attended the observance but would not yield to them permission to adopt his name. They therefore took unto themselves the name of the fief itself, to last as long as the family should live.” (Remembrances of Things to Come, D. Bullis. pg.4) We don’t read it from the church annals. It’s not drawn from the inscription on the first LeFief’s tomb. It wasn’t uncovered in a 1000-year-old ledger. It simply happened. The rest of the book follows the family up to modern times, recreating one day for one LeFief across successive centuries.
Remembrances uses art for its reference points. High-quality reproductions taken from period manuscripts illustrate the scenes of daily life in Bullis’ narrative. The art inspires him to recall the sounds, smells, colors, and customs familiar to the LeFiefs as they navigate nine centuries in the Loire Valley. He invites readers into the kitchen, the field, the country lane. These flights of imagination dispel the illusion of distance between the LeFiefs and us. Bullis reminds us that French baguette smells the same today (and is made in much the same way) as it did a millennium ago; in a thousand years, unless bread is no longer baked, it will be as fragrant. It’s a touchpoint, a memory we can share of the past, present, and far future.
Reviewed by
Jennifer Frost lives in Woodland Hills, CA with her husband & 6-year-old son. With a degree in English Literature from the University of Iowa, Jennifer has spent her life as a devoted reader & secret writer. You can find her stories in Esoterica, East of the Web, and Deracine.
We all love to read history, but what was it like to live it? What did it mean to live an everyday life like you, me, or anyone we see during the day if we walked with them a hundred years ago? Three hundred years ago? Six hundred? What did people wear, what were their jobs, what did they eat, what did they smell and hear, what did they think and love and fear? What were their physical aches and pains and their mental joys and delights? How did they live without words like ‘Renaissance,’ ‘Enlightenment,’ ‘vehicle,’ ‘suburb,' or ‘electronic’ in their lives? On these pages, walk alongside a member of the Lefief clan as they proceed through a single day in the years 1003, 1193, 1260, 1346, 1399, 1460, 1483, 1518, 1539, 1669, 1788, 1889, and 1905. Years of historical research using paintings, architecture, maps, and ancient manuscripts, plus the author's personal travels and experiences, take us where we cannot go ourselves. The text is an entertaining read, but also a scholarly resource. The 185 color images embedded in the text were acquired from medieval to Enlightment-era codexes in seldom-visited libraries all over Europe.
About the author
I've been publishing books since 1981 and presently have 23 listed under my name on amazon.com and another 24 on my website https://issuu.com/douglasbullis. I live in South Africa and write about cultural history and the art that lies hidden within the complexities of astrophysics. view profile
Published on February 01, 2022
Published by Atelier Books LLC, South Africa
50000 words
Genre: History
Reviewed by
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