Chasing the Heretics: A Modern Journey Through the Medieval Languedoc

By Rion Klawinski

Book Overview

Klawinski tracks the Cathars, a 13th century sect, and the Albigensian Crusade against them, across southern France, uncovering an almost forgotten history of a group of doomed believers who lived at... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1886913382
• ISBN13: 9781886913387
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Ruminator Books
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent reading!

The reader above ("A Customer") apparently expected a history of the cathars, which this book is not. It is an excellent travelogue or travel memoir, using the cathars and their history as a background. There are vignetes throughout the book, referring to the placed that the author visit, which help the reader understand the catahr phenomenon. It is an excellent book!

Really, quite good

The reader from Los Angeles is, I think, a little too strident. This is not a definitive history of the Cathars. It is not meant to be. It is an ambling and amiable personal tour to some of the sites associated with the Albigensian Crusade and is really quite good. Read in conjunction with Zoe Oldenbourg's Massacre at Montsegur.

For armchair travelers and history buffs alike

Rion Klawinski blends history and travel in the south of France in writing Chasing The Heretics: A Modern Journey Through The Medieval Languedoc. This remarkably articulate and thoroughly engaging work is part history and part travelogue as Klawinski begins his journey in search of the facts surrounding a murder that happened in 1209, traces the steps of the pacifist Cathars (a 13th century religious sect); and the anti-Cathar Albigensian Crusade. Klawinski uncovers an almost forgotten history of a group of doomed Christians whose influence is still felt in the picturesque Languedoc region to this very day. The reader is treated to a sense of daily life as it was lived almost eight hundred years ago, as well as the ruggedly beauty country side, vibrant cities, and picturesque villages of the present. Chasing The Heretics is enthusiastically recommended reading for armchair travelers and history buffs alike!