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Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (Penguin Classics) Paperback – June 3, 1986

by Henry Adams (Author), Ray Carney (Introduction)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 46 ratings
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Mont Saint Michel and Chartres is a record not of a literal jouney but of a meditative journey across time and space into the medieval imagination. Using the architecture, sculpture, and stained glass of the two locales as a starting point, Adams breathes life into what others might see merely as monuments of a past civilization. With daring and inventive conceits, Adams looks at the ordinary people, places, and events in the context of the social conventions and systems of thought and belief of the thirteenth century turning the study of history into a kind of theater.

As Raymond Carney discusses in his introduction, Adams' freeedom from the European traditions of study lends an exuberance—and puckish wit—to his writings.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. 

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    448 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Classics
  4. Publication date
    June 3, 1986
  5. Dimensions
    5.1 x 0.98 x 7.69 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0140390545
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0140390544
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in 1838 into one of the oldest and most distinguished families in Boston, a family which had produced two American presidents, Henry Adams had the opportunity to pursue a wide-ranging variety of intellectual interests during the course of his life. Functioning both in the world of practical men and afffairs (as a journalist and an assistant to his father, who was an American diplomat in Washinton and London), and in the world of ideas (as a prolific writer, the editor of the prestigious North American Review, and a professor of medieval, european, and American history at Harvard), Adams was one of the few men of his era who attempted to understand art, thought, culture, and history as one complex force field of interacting energies. His two masterworks in this dazzling effort are Mont Saint Michel and Chartres and The Education of Henry Adams, published one after the other in 1904 and 1907. Taken together they may be read as Adams' spiritual autobiography—two monumental volumes in which he attempts to bring together into a vast synthesis all of his knowledge of politics, economics, psychology, science, philosophy, art, and literature in order to attempt to understand the individual's place in history and society. They constitute one of the greatest historical and philosophical meditations on the human condition in all of literature.

Raymond Carney is well known for his writing on the relationships between American art, thought, and culture. He has been a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, served as an artistic consultant to the Whitney Museum of American Art, and written extensively on American and British poetry, ficiton, drama, dance, painting, and film. His two most recent books are American Dreaming (University of California Press) and Figures of Desire (Cambridge University Press). He teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (June 3, 1986)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140390545
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140390544
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.98 x 7.69 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 46 ratings

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
46 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

James E. Egolf
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book about a Great Civilization during the Middle Ages
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2005
Verified Purchase
Henry Adams' MONT SAINT MICHEL AND CHARTRES (MSMC) is simply a great book. Adams' lucid writing style and his insights are impressive, and this book should be read by every supposedly "educated" individual. Adams deals with complex topics such as Gothic Architecture, Medieval poetry and mysticsim, and Scholastic Philosophy with clarity and ease.

The early sections of MSMC compare the church of Mont Saint Michel with the Catholic view of St. Michel who was militant and was the perfect example of the Medieval hero defending the Catholic Church against all enemies. The comparison with this church with that of Chartres which was the examplar of God's mercy via St. Mary is insighful and facinating reading.

Such embellishment of St. Mary or Notre Dame(Our Lady)is further investigated in Adams book by Adams' careful treatment of Medieval Poetry. Adams's translations of Medieval French and Latin are good and give those who are not familiar with these languages a better understanding of both the poetry and the Medieval devotion to St. Mary.

Much of this peotry was mystical, and Adams demonstrates the attempt of St. Francis and the Franciscans to use such mystical thought in their missionary efforts to help the very poor. St. Francis' mysticism is revealed in Adams' translation of St. Francis' poem titled BROTHER SUN AND SISTER MOON.

Henry Adams then compares and contrasts Medieveal mysticism, which bordered on Pantheism, with Scholastic Philosophy. Adams gives the reader an insight to scholastic debate when he summarizes the debate between William of Champaux and Peter Abelard(1079-1142). Here Adams demonstrates his understanding of how students and masters argued and learned. He also shows the careful balence the Catholic authorities tried to impose between reasoned debate and heresy.

The last section of the book deals with the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Adams careful treatment of Aquinas' thought is worth the price of the book. Adams gives the Angelic Doctor high praise for both his clear thinking and liberality. Adams also effectively deals with the liberality of the Medieval Catholic authorities who canonized so many men whose views were apparently contradcitory.

Henry Adams' MONT SAINT MICHEL AND CHARTRES is intellectual history at its best. The book deals with complex ideas and views in an attractive literary style which holds the readers' interest. This reviewer has read this book numerous times since he first read it in 1968 and has never found the book to be boring. Readers should also read Thomas Woods HOW THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILT WESTERN CIVILIZATION and compare Woods sections on the High Middle Ages with Adams' book.
66 people found this helpful
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Tom Randall
5.0 out of 5 stars Great, profound, and elegant. Funny in parts as well.
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2016
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To fully appreciate Adams's book the reader is required to know the general parameters of the author's life. While Adams's autobiography, "The Education of Henry Adams" , was written after this volume it is nevertheless necessary to read it first and to also acquaint oneself with the details of
Adams's marriage to Clover Hooper and her suicide which are not mentioned at all in the book. "Mont Saint Michel and Chartres" is personalized history. If you want a more objective history look elsewhere. Some people are put off by its subjectivity. But in my view that subjectivity is exactly what makes the book so great. It's about the tremulous, perilous striving of an age, of religion, of faith, and finally of one's personal life. It's about the stress between unity and multiplicity. The book is profound in its exploration of these themes. It's learned, it's funny, it's ironic, and, in the end, profoundly moving. Reading these two books will provide any reader wiling to put in the effort with some of the wisest and most trenchant observations in all literature all put forth in some of the most elegant prose ever written.
16 people found this helpful
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Roger W. Berg
3.0 out of 5 stars Bit of a surprise
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2010
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Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres is not a "fun" read as advertised. (The Education of Henry Adams was.) I used my imagination as suggested in the intro but still, Chartres reads more like a very intense, detailed short course in architecture, history, philosophy, and religion. Good if that is what the reader is looking for.
4 people found this helpful
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Samyel F
5.0 out of 5 stars a classic.
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2013
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I read this book in college and after and then lost it, so after watching the tour de france this year [one of the stages ended there] and viewing mt st Michel from on high, I had to buy another one. it's an adventure deep into two magnificent and fascinating structures. i'm buying another for a gift.
4 people found this helpful
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M. F. Meister
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Buy This Edition
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2020
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This book is a classic, and I hate to write a bad review, but this edition features print that is so small it's virtually unreadable and you'll end up sending it back as I did. Buy a different edition. The return was a snap.
3 people found this helpful
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Christopher Barker
5.0 out of 5 stars The best
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2011
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As a history major in college with an emphasis on the Medieval period I was blessedly introduced to Henry Adams. It's been forty some years since I first read Mont Saint Michel and Chartres and this is still the best. It is a spiritual journey into the heart of the Middle Ages, both secular and sacred. Simply put: It's a classic.
4 people found this helpful
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Barry W Hubbard
5.0 out of 5 stars Lofty Architecture...and Writing
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2016
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Should have read it in college (almost 60 years ago), but suspect I have a better appreciation of it now. A thoughtful man's very personal and illuminating take on what Medieval France was all about. It's not just the architecture that soars.
4 people found this helpful
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Seymoore Reader
1.0 out of 5 stars Review of Kindle edition
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2021
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I would avoid the kindle version of the Penguin Classics edition of this book. It has a lot of typos, most annoyingly when it splices texts together in a jumble. Get a physical book instead.
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Top reviews from other countries

Vince H
4.0 out of 5 stars Different slant / approach to writing about Norman history and architecture - from the early 1900's
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 20, 2019
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Adam's shows his huge wealth of knowledge of Norman & Gothic religious architecture - set against French history of the early 2nd millennium.
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