Van Loon's Lives,: Being a true and faithful account of a number of highly interesting meetings with certain historical personages, from Confucius and ... to us as our dinner guests in a bygone year
by Hendrik Willem Van Loon
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hendrik Willem Van LoonEdition: Unknown Binding
Audio: English (Published)
Published: 1942
ISBN: N/A
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Book Reviews of Van Loon's Lives,: Being a true and faithful account of a number of highly interesting meetings with certain historical personages, from Confucius and ... to us as our dinner guests in a bygone year
Book Review: Charming fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read Van Loon's Lives as a teenager and have re-read it multiple times as an adult. Set just before World War II, Van Loon and his dear friend Frits invite historical persons to Saturday night dinner in the charming little Dutch town of Veere by placing a slip of paper under the lions guarding the town hall. Their guests range from Erasmus (who takes a Sabbatical in Veere) to Emily Dickinson, Confucius to Leonardo da Vinci, Dante to Mozart, Ben Franklin to Cervantes. In the interests of "fairness", they also invite some less-appealing characters: Robespierre, Napoleon, Torquemada, Peter the Great, and the Bishops of Bithynia and Cyrenacia. Each chapter includes short, chatty biographies of the guests, a discussion of the food and wine served, and an account of the dinner. The book is engaging and makes history fun. But it is a serious work nonetheless: Van Loon warns urgently against the emerging threat of Nazi Germany and encourages us to value and protect the integrity of the human spirit.
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