Download Doomsday Book eBook

by Connie Willis

Connie Willis Ancient and Medieval Literature English

ISBN:

0553351672

Author:

Connie Willis

Category:

Ancient & Medieval Literature

Language:

English

Publisher:

Spectra (June 1, 1992)

Pages:

445 pages

EPUB book:

1444 kb

FB2 book:

1734 kb

DJVU:

1186 kb

Other formats

mobi azw doc lit

Rating:

4.1

Votes:

374

Download EPUB Download FB2

More...

Doomsday Book is a 1992 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and was shortlisted for other awards

Doomsday Book is a 1992 science fiction novel by American author Connie Willis. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and was shortlisted for other awards. The title of the book refers to the Domesday Book of 1086; Kivrin Engle, the main character, says that her recording is "a record of life in the Middle Ages, which is what William the Conqueror's survey turned out to b.

Doomsday Book, republished as part of the SF Masterworks series by the American author Connie Willis is an amazing, unique, captivating 600-page novel taking place in two times concurrently: near-future Oxford, England and a 14th Century medieval English village. Historian and Great Courses lecturer Teofilo Ruiz recommended this work to me and I’m glad he did – Doomsday Book is a terrific read.

Bantam Books by Connie Willis. Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words Bantam Books and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in . Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada, Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis DEDICATION To Laura and Cordelia - my TS My special thanks to Head Librarian Jamie LaRue and the rest of the staff of the Greeley Public Library for their endless and invaluable assistance. And my undying gratitude to Sheila and Kelly and Frazier and Cee, and especially to Marta - the friends I love.

Due to an accident with the time travel device, Kivrin arrives in time to witness firsthand the plague near Oxford, recording her observations as she tries to survive. While husbands philandered with impunity, wives were expected to remain chaste and faithful and, when they failed, they easily became scapegoats for social misfortunes. These domestic elements are what make Willis’s writing particularly compelling.

I read this book out of the need to experience Nebula Award winner Connie Willis more than anything. Willis weaves the two stories together with a loose thread, but the connections are very palpable and hold true

I read this book out of the need to experience Nebula Award winner Connie Willis more than anything. I'd not heard of Willis until recently, and can say that she is a fine, above the fold writer, who can tell a captivating story. Willis weaves the two stories together with a loose thread, but the connections are very palpable and hold true. Read Dooms Day Book with a willingness to experience the failings and hopefulness of the human condition, then go out and do something fun. Скачать (pdf, 852 Kb) Читать. Epub FB2 mobi txt RTF.

To Laura and Cordelia - my Kivrins. BOOK I. "What a ringer needs most is not strength but the ability to keep tim. ou must bring these two things together in your mind and let them rest there forever - bells and time, bells and time. Ronald Blythe, Akenfield.

Поиск книг BookFi BookSee - Download books for free. Willis, Connie - Doomsday Book. 1993 - Tie - Vernor Vinge and Connie Willis.

This new book by Hugo- and author Connie Willis (Lincoln's Dreams) is an intelligent and satisfying blend of classic science fiction and historical reconstruction

This new book by Hugo- and author Connie Willis (Lincoln's Dreams) is an intelligent and satisfying blend of classic science fiction and historical reconstruction. Kivrin, a history student at Oxford in 2048, travels back in time to a 14th-century English village, despite a host of misgivings on the part of her unofficial tutor.

Journeying back in time to the year 1320, twenty-first century Oxford woman Kivrin arrives in the past during the outbreak of a deadly epidemic

Welen

It’s 2045, and historians are exploring the past with a new methodology: time travel. Oxford tutor Mr. Dunworthy is worrying about his student Kivrin, who is about to go back to 1320 Oxfordshire despite his grave misgivings about the dangers she might encounter. They do the “drop,” but something goes wrong. Is Kivrin really in 1320? Can she find the rendez-vous spot in time to go back to 2045? Can Mr. Dunworthy overcome political and bureaucratic obstacles in time to bring her home? Meanwhile, both of them find themselves in the middle of community crises where outside help is sought but never comes through and people have to count on one another.

Maybe I’m just hearing what I need to hear right now, but this book was about having faith in our fellow human beings. And about the importance of living up to the faith others put in us. About caring and community and refusing to give up on one another.

I loved the details in this story, especially the bells that tie together the past and the present/future and communicate the rhythms, peaks, and valleys of human experience. I also related to the main characters. The middle portion of the story dragged quite a bit as Kivrin and Mr. Dunworthy both struggle to solve their respective problems and are repeatedly thwarted, but I felt thoroughly rewarded for my patience in the end.

Zan

In “Doomsday Book”, Connie Willis writes about Kivrin, an historian who travels to 1348 from the year 2054 in order to observe the culture of fourteenth century rural England. Due to an accident with the time travel device, Kivrin arrives in time to witness firsthand the plague near Oxford, recording her observations as she tries to survive.
Kivrin stays in the manor of Guillaume D’Iverie with his mother, wife, and daughters who have fled the plague. D’Iverie betrothed his eldest daughter, Rosemund, to a local knight, Sir Bloet. When Kivrin discovers the details of Rosemund’s engagement, she reflects on her research, “Girls in the 1300s had frequently been betrothed before they were of age, sometimes even at birth” and these betrothals “had been a business arrangement, a way to join lands and enhance social standing,” though “girls weren’t usually married till they were fourteen or fifteen, certainly not before they started exhibiting signs of maturation” (pg. 254). Rosemund’s betrothal to Sir Bloet benefits D’Iverie’s family due to Bloet’s extreme wealth, as evidenced by his bride gifts of a golden brooch inset with rubies and various brass and silver trinkets. In this system, “the carrying on of the line was the all-important concern” and “the younger the woman, the better her chance of producing enough heirs that one at least would survive to adulthood, even if its mother didn’t” (pg. 309). After the plague kills Bloet and his entourage, Kivrin remarks on Rosemund’s fate, “Rosemund would be sold off to some nobleman the king owed a debt to or whose alliegance he was trying to buy, one of the troublesome supporters of the Black Prince, perhaps, and taken God knew where to God knew what situation. There were worse things than a leering old man and a shrewish sister-in-law. Baron Garnier had kept his wife in chains for twenty years. The Count of Anjou had burned his alive” (pg. 500). Kivrin’s observations recall Boccaccio’s contemporary portrayal of marriage in “The Decameron” as a business transaction in which the wife became the property of the husband. Furthermore, Kivrin witnesses what happens when a wife fails to conform to the expectations of her when Kivrin discovers that D’Iverie’s servant Gawyn is “obviously in love with his lord’s wife,” Eliwys (pg. 204). D’Iverie’s mother knows of Eliwys and Gawyn’s feelings and, when plague strikes, she accuses them of bringing it, saying, “The Lord punishes adulterers and all their house…as he now punishes you. It is your sin that has brought the plague here” (pg. 426). While husbands philandered with impunity, wives were expected to remain chaste and faithful and, when they failed, they easily became scapegoats for social misfortunes.
These domestic elements are what make Willis’s writing particularly compelling. If one is willing to suspend disbelief about time travel, Willis recreates the day-to-day lives of people from the past in a manner that feels authentic without being too analytical or too vague. Further, Kivrin’s initial disorientation helps the reader as Willis reveals the world to us in pieces, allowing the reader to adapt just as Kivrin does. This is a fun, clever time-travel story that will encourage readers to do some research into the history after they finish the fiction.

Beabandis

It's been my intention to read Doomsday Book for many years now. Having finally done so, I regret the wait. As others have pointed out over the years, this is a unique take on the concept of time travel. The details of the process are handled deftly without bogging the story down with loads of exposition on imaginary science. They can send historians back in time and there are limits and risks. The characters running the show speak in familiar terms of "fixes" and "slippage," and the context makes the meaning clear. On with the story which is equal parts commentary on human behavior in a crisis, with some characters slipping into near mindless defensive postures while others rise to the occasion. At its heart it's something of a coming of age story, in which a naive and enthusiastic young historian learns a very hard lesson. This isn't always an easy story to read, but given the period of time to which the historian travels, there's no way it could be a light tale, not if the story is to be told honestly. Very well done! I won't be waiting years to read another novel by the author.