Over the centuries, biographers of Thomas More have always praised him and made him an example for their own times. He was a man for all seasons. This Tudor prelate and Lord Chancellor of England shared human qualities identifiable in all ages--pride, love, ambition, generosity, hypocrisy, and greed. He was less than common because he was witty and a great storyteller--the best between Chaucer and Shakespeare. Truly, he was a Renaissance man with the contradictions such praise imposes on a towering figure. In Richard Marius's authoritative and engaging portrait, Sir Thomas More, the martyr and brilliant public figure, is a lesson for our season.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Annoying:
It seems that many of the other reviews on this book are based on personal religious preferences, or sympathy towards the person of More himself, rather than being based on the merits of the book. Although the life of More always interested me, I found this book annoyingly digressing. Chronologically reciting life events for a biography is a dry business, and it is understandable for a biographer to insert occasional digressions and speculations about the character's psychology, the times in which he... more info
A worthy biography of Sir Thomas More:
This is a detailed, well-researched and thouroughly conventional biography of the life of Thomas More, Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII, Catholic apologist and saint, man of letters, London lawyer and model father.
In painting More's portrait, Richard Marius not only describes all aspects of his busy life, including his family life, but also strives to make us acquainted with some of the prominent figures of the time. Erasmus receives special attention and both his works and the correspondence between him... more info
Excellent, complex bio of an excellent, complex man.:
Among the several recent More biographers, Marius is the best qualified, having served as an editor of the Yale Complete Works of Saint Thomas More. More was an exceedingly complex person whose personality is very, very difficult to capture. Of the three serious biographies of More written in the last 20 years (by Alistair Fox, Marius, and Peter Ackroyd) I found Marius's biography the most rewarding. More remains a controversial figure: to Catholics he is a Saint, the patron saint of politicians and... more info
Biography as novel:
This is biography of Thomas More lacks scholarship, and contains a surprising number of passages in which Marius shows his lack of depth as an objective scholar with a broad range of learning in this field.
Do yourself a favor and read Peter Ackroyd's book.
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