The Waning of the Middle Ages

2. "Autumn" is available complete in a new translation, ISBN:0226359948. You can review the text here at amazon.com.

3. Huizinga admits that the word "Autumn" indicates that he may have been influenced by certain biologistic theories about cultural decline. My guess is that he alludes to "Der Untergang des Abendlandes" -- "The Decline of the West", Oswald Spengler's gripping, but far-fetched theory of deterministic cycles in cultural history based on little more than using the seasons as a metaphor.

4. Huizinga himself however was no determinist or believer in the tides of history. His clear-eyed anti-Nazi stance made him a top target of Hitler's thugs after the fall of Holland. The elderly humanist scholar, ejected from his university, was kept under house arrest where he died in 1944.

5. Finally, to extend the metaphor of autumn, Huizinga proposed to study a medieval culture, the Burgundian, over-ripe and lingering on a drying vine. Meanwhile the sun of the Renaissance blazed in Italy and the clouds of the West's first true proliteriat brooded over their water-driven looms in Belgium, the Netherlands, and western Germany.


Interesting and Exquisite.....But is it for real?   July 3, 2002
Daniel Myers (Greenville, SC USA)
29 out of 50 found this review helpful

My problem with this book is the same that has been expressed by a couple other reviewers: to wit, does Huizinga really know what was going through the hearts and minds of the people in the particular era and region with which the book deals, as the author and his proselytes claim? My answer is, in a word,-No. No book can. History is an elusive subject under the best of circumstances.

Let me cut to the chase. Huizinga is really not so much interested in demarking the Middle Ages from the Renaissance. After one gets into the thick of things, it becomes quite obvious that what he's actually about is contrasting the Middle Ages (as he understands or imagines them) from his own historical milieu. I won't belabor the point: one citation will suffice. On page 235, Huizinga asseverates that, "There was no great truth of which the medieval mind was more certain than those words from the Corinthians, 'For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face.' They never forgot that everything would be absurd if it exhausted its meaning in its immediate function and form of manifestation, and that all things extend in an mportant way to the world beyond." How does he know? Did he conduct extensive interviews with illiterate serfs whose life expectancy was a fraction of ours and spent almost all their waking hours trying to put food in their bellies? - No, the worldview Huizinga describes above is one common to mystics and poets of all eras and climes. His very citation of the Corinthians subverts any notion that it was exclusive to the Netherlands in the Middle Ages.

Huizinga was essentially an artistic and poetic writer, and the insights one comes away with from his book are such as one might expect from one so gifted: textured and fascinating portraits of a time now lost. But they are just that, verbal pictures, calling to mind not so much Breughel or any of the other artists whose works are Plated in the middle of the book, but that of the Pre-Raphaelites.

This is an enchanting book and well worth the read. It's just that you may have to hang your critic's hat upon a medieval peg before sitting down to enjoy it. I trust you have one...a medieval peg that is.


out-dated.   November 24, 1999
22 out of 35 found this review helpful

Even though this book is a clasic, the main thesis of Huizinga is rather out-dated. Recent studies have shown that the decadence that Huizinga discribes isn't accurate -- none the less there was, no doubt about it, a crisis. So, I'm giving this book one star not because it's that bad, but because I think its neccesary to pull down the ratings it has; now a days it doesn't deserve them. Intresting reads for anyone intrested in the Middle Ages -- and that are more up-to-date -- are Jacques Heers "The Invention of the Middle Ages" and Jacques Le Goff "La Civilisation de L'Occident Medieval". Although these books can contradict each other in various points, the first one is intresting (although sometimes arbitrary) because it deconstructs the popular image that exists about the Middle Ages. The second one is intresting because it gives a general overview of the historical procceses that take place between the XI and the XIV centuries.


superlative   February 5, 2004
Freston (USA)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

Though this book is absolutely excellent (though the style takes a little getting used to), it shouldn't be the first book you read on the Middle Ages.

I say that not so much because the book is difficult, as because it's elliptical. The book has a lot of discussion about themes prevalent in the art and literature of the later Middle Ages, but it's not a "history": it doesn't tell you what happened.

For example, to make a point about fastidious medieval protocol, Huizinga relates an anecdote about the battle of Crecy. But he never explains what the battle was, who fought in it, or why it was important. He assumes you already know that stuff, so don't come to this book looking for a more straightforward history. This is more a discussion of the major themes and movements of the age, divided by chapter.


classic view of aesthetics and life   June 22, 2001
Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

I first read this book 25 years ago in college. At the time, it was one of those book I just wanted to get through for a grade, but there were details of it I remembered, such as the common practice of sllicing apples into thirds to represent the Trinity.

Well, picking up this book to re-read while living in Europe turned out to be a far greater pleasure than I imagined. Huizinga offers an elegant portrait of an entire era, the Late Middle Ages, in both visual and intellectual detail. You learn about codes of honor, the different ways in which life was perceived, and the practices of love. It is beautifully written and vivid.

There are limitation to the approach, of course. It is not about economics or living standards. It does not function as a survey, and hence the reader must have solid knowledge of medieval history before starting the book. You will have to get these elsewhere. But if you come to this book with the right expectations, it is fascinating and wonderful from cover to cover.

Warmly recommended.