A World Lit Only By Fire Essay

Imagine an age of soldiers in armor riding into battle on horseback to fight for freedoms from extreme monarchies. Envision towns with roads made of stone and buildings and homes made of mud and clay with thatched roofs-- towns filled with an abundance of people making their way around to shop at the markets or traveling to distant lands to learn new languages and arts. Picture kings and queens living in castles larger than life, dressed in elaborate outfits crafted of the finest silks and materials, adorned with the most beautiful gold and jewels that the world can offer. When I think of the term medieval, I visualize the preceding images and I think back to a time when the people of the world, mostly Europeans, were just beginning to discover themselves and diversify their ways …show more content…
Manchester’s book was my first authentic exposure to what life was like in medieval times. Before reading A World Lit Only By Fire, I had only been able to envision what the Middle Ages were like based on movies or shows on television I had watched, which most of the time were fictional or loosely based on a true story. Manchester’s book highlights the more morose happenings of the Middle Ages such as the massive loss of life due to unkempt living conditions, leading to the spread of sicknesses, the general unhappiness of a large section of the population due to the harsh feudal system and the tight grip of the Church of England, causing oppression of those experimenting with different faiths. Moreover, Manchester’s work not only opened my eyes to different points of view from medieval times, but it also gave me a more realistic view of the conditions of life and allowed me to know the difference between events from the era that were fictional and events that truly took