Europe in the Age of Louis XIV

Another reviewer somewhere around here accuses this book of “deadly prose”. I think he/she nails it nicely. In order to squeeze the enormous scope of this subject into just 211 reading pages, of which considerable acreage is taken up by illustrations, Professor Hatton (whose authority and immense knowledge cannot be questioned) hurls bare facts at us like a hailstorm. The section on the War of the Spanish Succession might be the single most stultifying account of anything I've ever read! It was a real chew. But nevertheless, as a handy reference this book has its place, and the illustrations are comprehensive and, er, illuminating.