Discovering the Cathars, English Edition by Lucien Bely

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I bought this book as a souvenir while traveling for I wanted more information about why the Aude department of France brands itself to tourists as Cathar Country. The Cathars were condemned by the Catholic Church as heretics. In the early 13th century, a Crusade was called against these people and the Catholics who protected and tolerated them. Battles and sieges took place at these pog-topped fortifications. The author states, "When History is silent, myth takes over. And myths, are also an art form of the collective memory." The myth that wants retold draws its conflict between the ideals of Faith and Liberty.

The photographs by Jacques Jolfre are well-woth my tourist Euros. I could not visit all of the forty-seven sites, and now I have photographs of them. The text fell short of my expectations, and I don't know if the fault is with the author, Lucien Bely, or the translator, Angela Caldwell. I recommend, The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of Medieval Cathars by Stephen O'Shea for readers of English for a more academic approach to this subject, but that book has none of these photographs to capture your imagination.

I recommend this book to armchair travelers, vacation planners and keepers of souvenirs.



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