The Faithful Executioner by Joel F Harrington
Welcome to the world of Frantz Schmidt: citizen of Nuremberg, executioner of 394 unfortunates, and torturer of many hundreds more.
A surprisingly moving story of brutality and redemption -- Dan Jones * Telegraph *
Opens a window on a gruesome world * Daily Express *
Who can imagine how an executioner feels about his trade? Joel FHarrington has written a considered and fascinating book which helps us hear the voice of one such man, a professional torturer (and healer) who, astonishingly, kept a diary. Exploring both sixteenth-century Nuremberg and the world about the city, he recreates the social context for the flamboyant displays of cruelty which later centuries find so hard to comprehend. Both the executioner and his victims are rescued from our condescension, and restored to their own moral universe: which is not so far from ours as we like to suppose. -- Hilary Mantel
This is a sympathetic, intelligent and surprisingly tender book -- Dan Jones * The Times *
Harrington does an excellent job at recreating the thoughts and fears of a man whose job is one of the most loathed and caricatured -- Ben Wilson * Daily Telegraph *
Opens a window on a gruesome world * Daily Express *
Who can imagine how an executioner feels about his trade? Joel FHarrington has written a considered and fascinating book which helps us hear the voice of one such man, a professional torturer (and healer) who, astonishingly, kept a diary. Exploring both sixteenth-century Nuremberg and the world about the city, he recreates the social context for the flamboyant displays of cruelty which later centuries find so hard to comprehend. Both the executioner and his victims are rescued from our condescension, and restored to their own moral universe: which is not so far from ours as we like to suppose. -- Hilary Mantel
This is a sympathetic, intelligent and surprisingly tender book -- Dan Jones * The Times *
Harrington does an excellent job at recreating the thoughts and fears of a man whose job is one of the most loathed and caricatured -- Ben Wilson * Daily Telegraph *
Following a distinguished academic career teaching and studying the history of Europe, Joel Harrington is currently Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. He specializes in the Reformation and early modern Germany, with a particular interest in social history. Among his previous publications are A Cloud of Witnesses, Reordering Marriage and Society in Reformation Germany and The Unwanted Child, for which he won the 2010 Roland Bainton Prize for History.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781847922120 |
| ISBN 10 | 1847922120 |
| Title | The Faithful Executioner |
| Author | Joel F Harrington |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2013-05-02 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |