#g.j. meyer

[contremineur]

In life [the body of Cesare Borgia] had worn the red hat of a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, made its home in the papal palace in Rome, ridden into proud cities as their conqueror, been joined in marriage to a princess, and had honours heaped upon it by kins of France and Spain. Not once but twice it had held in its hands the power to decide who would be elected pope. For thirty years it had been inhabited by a spirit of such force and originality as to inspire one of the immortal classics of world literature.

G.J. Meyer, from The Borgias (Bantam 2013)

sketch of Cesare Borgia by Leonardo da Vinci

[borgialucrezia]

"Though the years ahead would be heavy with dark events, and though she was quite human enough to be changed by the misfortunes that befell her, Lucrezia would mature and improve rather than harden with the years. If by the end of her life not a great deal would remain of the fun-loving child-bride she had been when first married, neither would she bear the slightest resemblance to the monstrous Lucrezia of legend." — The Borgias: The Hidden History (2013) by G.J. Meyer

[thetudorslovers]

"Beyond all this, and quite aside from the possibility that early in life the two had formed a bond of which we have been left no record, Elizabeth had reason to regard Dudley as a kindred spirit. Although the Duke of Northumberland died professing himself a Catholic, all his offspring embraced evangelical Protestantism. The male Dudleys who had not been executed were still being held in the Tower when Wyatt’s Rebellion led to Elizabeth’s confinement there. The experience, which for Elizabeth and Robert alike included the very real possibility of execution, gave them a profoundly memorable experience in common. Both were ultimately saved by the intercession of Philip after his arrival from Spain, Elizabeth as a safeguard against Mary Stuart, Dudley and his brothers because of their stature among England’s warrior elite and Philip’s wish for influential friends. Both remained deep in the political wilderness, however, as long as Queen Mary remained alive. The properties bestowed on her in her father’s will had made Elizabeth rich, and during Mary’s reign she was an inherently important personage as heir presumptive, but her life was quiet except for those moments of near-terror occasioned by official suspicion that she was involved in plots against the queen. Dudley, his conviction for treason set aside thanks to Philip’s intervention, settled into the peaceful existence of a country gentleman." - The Tudors: The Complete Story of England’s Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer

[redxluna]

“So it is that because writing, to Me, is somewhat tedious and painful; therefore the most part of these businesses I have committed to Our trusty councillor; this bearer to be declared to you by mouth; to which We would have you give credence.”

—Letter from Henry VIII to Cardinal Wolsey 1518

"In one of the many letters he sent her—letters rendered all the more extraordinary by the fact that, throughout his life Henry almost never wrote to anyone else—he confessed to having been ‘struck by the dart of love.’”

—G.J. Meyer, The Tudors

[frankenshane]

also, while i'm only 82% through it, g.j. meyer's the borgias is really compelling! it's focus is on dispelling the legends of the various members of the borgia family and providing context to their political maneuvering which reveals that, at least in comparison to the italian noble families of the time, they were kind of ordinary in that they weren't spending their time planning incestuous orgies or intricate poisonings alongside drawing up battle plans for gaining control of the papal states.

[whovian223]

Book Review - Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria in World War I by Alexander Watson

Book Review - Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria in World War I by Alexander Watson

Lately (in the past couple of years, anyway), I’ve been reading a few World War I books, like The World Remade: America in World War I by G.J. Meyer and The Vanquished by Robert Gerwarth. One thing I haven’t really read much about, however, is how the war was waged from the Central Powers’ point of view (Austria-Hungary and Germany). That changed when I started Ring of Steel: Germany and…

[thisisbookland]

June 17th, 2019

Good morning everyone! I thought I would get some reading done bright and early today. I’m drinking my favorite kind of tea, Lipton black tea with honey, sugar, and milk in it. What��s your favorite kind of tea and how do you drink it? If you don’t drink tea, what do you drink to wake up in the morning?

Hoping to get a dent in to one of my readings, The Borgias: The Hidden History by G.J. Meyer! I’ve been stuck in this book because I keep forgetting that I have it! Hopefully I’ll finish it before the summer ends. 

If you like what I post, consider buying me a coffee :)

[housedraculesti]

reading “The Borgias” by G.J. Meyer and there’s a couple mentions of Vlad Dracula, and it’s pretty damn great.

[ducavalentinos]

“we know from other sources…” doesn’t say who these sources are. 👍👍

why are historians like this?! it’s so annoying.

[rhartdepartment]

Book jacket for Bantam  |  Art Director and designer: Marietta Anastassatos  |  Published 2017

[borgialucrezia]

99.9% of the show's fandom hated the script because cesare x lucrezia weren't endgame!

i never denied that there are history nerds around but it was nowhere near the reason why people hated the script because the historical accuracy in the show had already been butchered since the first season, so it wasn't exactly the issue here. (historical fiction can still be great without the accuracy)

read my post again! neil was kind enough to offer us the borgia apocalypse because the fans were upset after the show's cancelation and they needed any content. it was a first draft and it wasn't even cooked yet.

neil would never trash his own show and the characters for petty reasons! if he had any vendetta it would be against the network and not his project! that doesn't make sense.

"cesare's character progression would not have led him to murder innocents." cesare had been enjoying torture and poisoning since the very beginning of the show! here's mr. françois arnaud himself who took machiavelli's 'the prince' (a book that describes cesare borgia as cruel, ruthless leader who solves his issues with violence) as his bible to portray his character:

i have been a fan of the show for 11 years now so i don't see the point of assuming that i'm new? that being said, even new fans are allowed to like the script because neil didn't stray away from the characterization he had planned for cesare. it's a road from an innocent man with genuine intentions to an ambitious megalomaniac man consumed by the need for power.

i appreciate the book recommendation! but i fear i've already read g.j meyer's 'the borgias, the hidden history'. still, it doesn't change the fact that the show is entirely different than real history. and i wasn't even discussing history in my post. just the script and why do i find it good.

hot take but the borgia apocalypse script was actually pretty good, and the characterizations were spot on. it's mindboggling how some fans hated on it solely because they expected a sunshine and rainbows ending between cesare and lucrezia. the truth is, they were never meant to be a pure fairytale couple. the most compelling aspect of their relationship is their intense toxic codependency and destructive dynamic. their obsession with each other consumed the energy, love, affection, and innocence of those around them, leading to tragic outcomes for anyone who got close to them. neil jordan stayed true to the plot with the apocalypse script, unlike what we saw in the s3 finale. despite cesare proclaiming his devotion to lucrezia and claiming to prioritize her happiness, he hurt her by killing alfonso and betraying her, alongside rodrigo, while keeping her in the dark about their plan. cesare ultimately turned out to be just like his father—his mirror image, his favorite chess piece, and a future king and pope. it was captivating to watch both rodrigo and cesare spiral into ambition and murder, becoming sociopaths. personally, i'm fascinated with the idea of cesare and lucrezia's relationship growing darker and cesare prioritizing his political gain, which terrifies lucrezia. this is the direction cesare's character would have headed if the show hadn't been canceled and if showtime had allowed neil jordan to film the script. 'world of wonders' should have been the episode that made the audience realize cesare was a manipulative, self-contradicting psychopath but alas! anyway, in the apocalypse script, he reaches the last stage of becoming a complete monster (for example, *spoilers* when he cuts off catrina's lips and poisons naples' water, killing half the city). this transformation occurs as he loses the remaining traces of humanity that were present in the first three seasons. valid criticism of the rushed nature of the script is understandable. jordan didn't have time to edit it and only released it to console devastated fans. i'm confident that his final draft would have been 100% better than what we have. in short, there's no way someone as genius as him would ruin the show he created with a disappointing ending or ooc moments. so if there's an opportunity for him to adapt it for the screen, it would be a serve as i enjoyed the overall conclusion of the story

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Hi! I was curious, since I'm writing my own alternative WW1 industrial-city fantasy story and you've done so spectacular with writing for your WW1 vampire AU, if you had any resources/recommendations for researching about the war? You put so many details into your pieces that I wouldn't have even thought of, like slang and certain terms, and the atmosphere of certain scenes, I figured I'd ask. But only if you didn't mind sharing of course!

OKAY, World War I Anon, here are some references and research sources I've been using as I work through the Vampire Chris story! Some of these are more tangentially related than anything, but it all helps to add context.

Have Read / Am Reading Now:

The Last of the Doughboys by Richard Rubin is my current WWI read, on hold at the moment (I'm on a break to read some fiction and poetry right now). In 2003, Rubin realized that we were rapidly losing the last of those American soldiers who had fought in WWI, located remaining survivors, and made it his goal and his mission to interview as many as possible, to allow them to tell their own stories. I have found this book invaluable because of the way it speaks about the enduring legacy of traumatic memory. Some of the men he speaks to will only barely touch on the rougher aspects of the war. Some of the men speak on it with vivid detail. Family members and descendants talk about what their relative would say and what he wouldn't say. It mirrored my own grandfather, who fought in WWII, in my mind - he served in the Pacific theater and i have absolutely on idea where he was or what he did, because he wouldn't talk to any of us about it at all. He kept the war locked up within himself, except that he would talk to my uncle about it, who was also sworn to secrecy.

So I found a lot of value in seeing these men who had "gone home and gotten back on with the business of living", despite the horrors they had tried as hard as they could to lock up within themselves.

Just a really excellent book, and Rubin is an engaging and fun writer.

All Quiet on the Western Front and The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque are novels, but they were written by a man who directly experienced WWI and are widely considered the greatest novels ever written about the experience. In fact, the honesty in the books was so intense that the Nazi Party banned them during the Third Reich because it was felt they would lessen enthusiasm for war... by showing people what war was actually like, and the toll it took on the men and boys forced to fight it, even after they returned home.

Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror by W. Scott Poole is more about the rise of German, French, British, American etc horror cinema and how the experience of WWI affected even those who didn't directly fight, and how the expression of art and creation of artworks, including cinema, was affected and changed in the aftermath. This is more of a contextual work rather than something direct, but I found that it gave me a lot of good information on how culture and society might be affected by such a war experience.

They Called It Shell Shock by Stefanie Linden is a little dry and academic (it's an academic book, after all) but it also has a wealth of information on shellshock, how it differed from our modern understanding of PTSD, the ways in which they are similar and the ways in which they are not, and tons and tons of firsthand accounts thanks to Linden gaining access to a wealth of patient information at a British and German hospital that primarily worked with the men suffering from this new and little-understood ailment. If you wanted me to recommend just one nonfiction book to get a sense of the actual mental state of the war, it'd be this one.

A World Undone by G.J. Meyer is the most readable while also being thorough overall histories of the war I've read, and I highly recommend it. It sets up the circumstances that made the war inevitable once the snowball started rolling down the hill, how the avalanche could have been avoided at so many turns but in the end, became a force of nature no one could quite resist.

This is the best book I've read as far as walking you through it month by month, year by year. TONS of really really great information here! Probably my second recommendation after They Called It Shell Shock.

The Great War in America: WWI and Its Aftermath by Garrett Peck is ONLY about the American experience. The leadup to our entry into WWI, our months spent fighting, and then the aftermath of the war and how its legacy affected the United States. I found this a necessity trying to understand what Chris would have experienced, how he would have understood the war. Americans had a different viewpoint, so far across the sea, and were largely isolationist right up until we just weren't any longer. Then the war machine swung into gear, and propaganda made us see ourselves as the necessary saviors of a Europe on the brink of total annihilation. It also walks you through how Woodrow Wilson's grand ambitions to create a League of Nations both succeeded and failed, but set up the concept of the United Nations. And if you want to understand postwar Germany and the rise of Nazis, I feel like reading up on the armistice and what happened during the negotiations that ended the war is very important.

But, yeah. This book is focused almost entirely on the American experience and legacy of WWI.

The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell is a little like Wasteland, but it focuses on the work of writers, primarily, who memorialized WWI in fiction and nonfiction. This book was originally a study published in 1970, so there are some dated phrasings and terminology, but go with it and it's a really, really valuable read with a wealth of information on how a generation had to contend with a horror beyond their prior imaginings and fit it into the modern world as they understood it.

Fussell's scholarship involves a lot of firsthand accounts (diaries, poetry, etc) some of which is easy to find, but some of which very much isn't. Oh gosh. It was such a good, useful book for me to get into the headspace of those who had survived the war, afterward, in how they constructed it in their memories.

The First World War by John Keegan is a full historical account, like A World Undone. Of the two, I'd recommend A World Undone, which I found more readable and easier to follow with. But it's still an excellent historical account from start to finish.

It's very dry, and could be difficult if you're a casual reader. Hell, it was difficult for me and I was explicitly looking for academic work. But it's still got a lot of really valuable information in it!

World War I: A Definitive Visual History by the Smithsonian is a huge coffee-table style book but it is absolutely jam-packed with information, both on the war and also on context. I found so much information on uniforms, and trench warfare, the Spanish flu and its effect on the soldiers fighting, the Armistice... all of it heavy with visual references, photographs, diagrams, maps, just anything you could want to see to better ground yourself in that place and time. Highly recommended. HIGHLY.

Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark is a specifically in-depth look at the step-by-step slow-motion disaster that took us from a man's assassination to a catastrophic world war whose scars are still visible in the battlefields of France. You can get a really good look at how individuals and governments both could have stopped it, but also couldn't, hamstrung by tradition and stubborn intransigence... and in the end, millions died because of it.

Really great book, highly recommend.

Dead Wake by Erik Larson, about the sinking of the Lusitania by the Germans in 1915, is nonfiction that reads like a novel. In effect, Germany decided nearly a year into the war to change the rules of the game. Prior to this, while cargo ships had been subjected to attack, ships carrying passengers were largely left alone, because the rules of war stated civilians should be left alone. While there had been a ramping-up of tensions, Germany's attack on the Lusitania, and the loss of 1,200 souls, was considered an atrocity beyond anything else done to civilians that far into the war.

It also, indirectly, is the reason that the United States would end up involving itself more directly in the war, and eventually fighting as well.

It's a really good book, lots of research, and while I don't recommend it to help you with historical details, you'll get a really good feel for the tension of war and the way people had to keep on living in the middle of one.

This site and this one both have lists of poetry written during and after the war by those who experienced it that I found really, really invaluable. Absolutely lovely and horrible and terribly sad and angry and bitter. Just. Please take some time to read it, even if you're not a poetry person.

Books I Haven't Read But They're On My List:

The First Code Talkers: Native American Communicators in World War I by William C. Meadows. I had no idea that tribal languages were used for encryption in WWI and I'm really interested to dig into this one when I finish my current run of reading mostly poetry.

The Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger is essentially a direct account lifted from the diaries of a man who started out a young, idealistic German soldier and became a battle-hardened officer. This is considered one of the best firsthand accounts of the war, but I have yet to read it. I'm told you should try to find the reprint of the original 1929 translation to English if possible (if you need it in English).

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman used to be considered THE definitive account of the war, but it's dated and there are some questions about its accuracy and Tuchman's conclusions at this point. But I'm told there is still a hugely valuable wealth of information in the book and intend to add it to my research library. There is also a famous story about how JFK cited this book as part of the reason he resisted the call of his generals to fire during the 1962 missile crisis.

No Man's Land by Wendy Moore, about two women who started a battlefield hospital in France during a time when female doctors were allowed only to treat other women or children. This is definitely on my list! And I imagine will contain a really great amount of detail on how these hospitals operated and the difficulties they faced.

Other Resources: Visual and Audio

Also, when writing Barrage, I listened to this youtube video of what an artillery barrage would have sounded like, at a volume just below active physical discomfort. This video was also helpful for that!

This youtube compilation of a series of songs from WWI was a really good writing soundtrack, too.

This video includes colorized video and images of soldiers during WWI and oh man, sometimes you realize just how young some of those poor men were, and it hits you all over again watching them do what they could to find some fun and joy in such a hellscape.

This video of shellshocked war survivors, with tremors, terror responses, and more is sobering and really good viewing for a sense of what shellshock LOOKED like, because modern combat PTSD tends to present significantly differently (likely due primarily to the difference in artillery barrages vs. modern warfare)

This look at WWI's reconstructive surgery (which frankly was a huge, HUGE leap forward from surgery prior to the war) and how it took wounded men and attempted to reconstruct their faces so they could live comfortably out in the world is just amazing. Here's another set of photographs I recommend looking at as well as information on how plastic surgery was more or less invented because of WWI. It also gives you a good visual for the absolute atrocity of the war.

This site has incredible photographic evidence, but be warned that it is DEEPLY graphic and does not spare you the reality of what those "broken faces" looked like. Borders on gore.

Also I recommend following @hiddenwwi, a tumblr account that posts photos of the ruins left over from the war, including the underground ‘cities’, scars in the landscape, and other incredible visuals. 

Hope this is a helpful list of resources, Anon!

[kathrynhoward]

Even if King Edward had not been dying, the wedding [of Jane Grey and Guilford Dudley] would have been a coup for the Dudleys. Quite apart from her royal blood, Jane as the eldest daughter of a sonless duke was a great dynastic prize. At one time she had been considered a possible bride for the king himself; probably they would have been a good match, being not only of almost exactly the same age but physically attractive, superbly educated, and devotedly evangelical. [...] 

Poor Edward, who could only listen from his deathbed as news was brought of the nuptials of the young woman who under other circumstances might one day have become his bride, was by June in a desperately bad state, weak and racked by fits of coughing, needing stimulants to remain focused. He knew that no scribbled statement of his desire to bypass his sisters in favor of Jane could be depended upon to alter the succession. Something more formal, more official, was needed

-The Tudors, G.J. Meyer

[phantom-of-notre-dame]

Books Read in 2022

I had success last year I thought I'd make a list again!

The Iliad by Homer (Dec. 4, 2021- Jan. 23, 2022)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (Jan. 23- Feb. 19)

The Man Who Laughs [Volume 1] by Victor Hugo (Feb. 19- Mar. 22)

The Man Who Laughs [Volume 2] by Victor Hugo (Mar. 22- May 4)

The Borgias: The Hidden History by G. J. Meyer (May 4- June 1)

The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer (June 1- July 5)

Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (July 5- Sept. 28)

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (Sept. 28- Sept. 30)

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (Sept. 30- Oct. 10)

Northmen by John Haywood (Oct. 10- Oct. 29)

The Vikings: A New History by Neil Oliver (Oct. 29- Nov. 13)

Wolfpack by Abby Wambach (Nov. 13- Nov. 14)

The Stranger by Albert Camus (Nov. 14- Nov. 15)

Mythology by Edith Hamilton (Nov. 15- Dec. 19)

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (Dec. 19- Dec. 27)

[wern]

Are there any good books or documentaries on WWI you recommend?

yes!! my favourite ww1 book is A World Undone by g.j. meyer. it's a great, easy to follow overview that frequently brings in relevent art/culture/poetry to personalize the war and give you a jumping off point if you want to check out art from that time yourself. and i think it makes a good attempt at a balanced, nuanced portrayal of historical opinions.

i also LOVE that every second chapter in it is a "background info" chapter about a particular topic (e.g. the serbs, the hapsbergs, jews in germany, lawrence of arabia, etc.) so you can skip it if you just want to focus on the action. or come back later, or whatever.

ive read a few books about specific aspects of the war, mostly bc they were free on audible. A Storm in Flanders by winston groom (about the ypres salient) was good but not super memorable for me.

if you're interested in the outbreak of war, The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman is great, though i prefer to read about the fighting itself. and my favourite ww1 literature is All Quiet on the Western Front.

although not strictly about ww1, Dead Wake, about the sinking of the british passenger ship Lusitania (carrying many american civilians) by a german u-boat in 1915, is one of my all-time favourite books

i don't think ive watched any documentaries about ww1 tbh. there are way more documentaries about ww2 because, of course, there's footage of it. "greatest events of ww2 in colour" is one i return to, as is "hitler's circle of evil" (which doesn't use real footage but has great casting and writing). they're both on netflix.

hope this helps!

[dancingchopines]

Too much discussion about the Borgias and their immense evil has focused on the incest rumors (likely untrue) and murdering of their enemies (yes they did but no more than any of their contemporaries) but by our modern standards the most enduring and TRULY, DISGUSTINGLY evil thing they did that we’re still influenced by today is that fact that it was Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI, who in his papal bull divvied up the “New World” for imperialism between Spain and Portugal, “Inter Caetera of May 4, 1493, granted to the kingdom of Castile all discoveries more than one hundred leagues west of the Atlantic’s Cape Verde Islands. Everything east of that point went to the Portuguese.”1

My source(though of course you can find the info about the treaty in a variety of places): 

1. G.J. Meyer, The Borgias: The Hidden History (NY: Bantam Books, 2013), 368.