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Best Middle Ages Books
The best books that are about, set in, or written in the Middle Ages time period. (The 5th century to the 15th century)
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
1 |
The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)
by
Ken Follett (Goodreads Author)
4.35 avg rating — 814,951 ratings
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2 |
The Name of the Rose
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4.14 avg rating — 389,659 ratings
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3 |
The Canterbury Tales
by
3.52 avg rating — 235,470 ratings
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4 |
World Without End (Kingsbridge, #2)
by
Ken Follett (Goodreads Author)
4.32 avg rating — 270,892 ratings
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5 |
Beowulf
by
3.50 avg rating — 339,999 ratings
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6 |
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
by
4.05 avg rating — 43,465 ratings
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7 |
The Sunne in Splendour
by
4.41 avg rating — 22,558 ratings
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8 |
The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-5)
by
4.07 avg rating — 116,820 ratings
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9 |
Inferno
by
4.03 avg rating — 201,983 ratings
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10 |
Macbeth
by
3.89 avg rating — 998,974 ratings
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11 |
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories, #1)
by
Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
4.27 avg rating — 109,929 ratings
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12 |
Ivanhoe
by
3.76 avg rating — 98,265 ratings
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13 |
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
by
3.76 avg rating — 75,664 ratings
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14 |
Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
by
3.92 avg rating — 39,117 ratings
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15 |
The Decameron
by
3.88 avg rating — 42,942 ratings
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16 |
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
by
4.08 avg rating — 168,568 ratings
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17 |
Here Be Dragons (Welsh Princes, #1)
by
4.29 avg rating — 24,832 ratings
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18 |
Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1)
by
4.03 avg rating — 63,831 ratings
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19 |
Katherine
by
4.21 avg rating — 35,296 ratings
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20 |
Hamlet
by
4.03 avg rating — 1,026,969 ratings
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21 |
When Christ and His Saints Slept (Plantagenets #1; Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, #1)
by
4.26 avg rating — 17,275 ratings
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22 |
The Song of Roland
by
3.50 avg rating — 18,845 ratings
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23 |
Mistress of the Art of Death (Mistress of the Art of Death, #1)
by
3.93 avg rating — 40,674 ratings
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24 |
Falls the Shadow (Welsh Princes, #2)
by
4.40 avg rating — 10,584 ratings
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25 |
The Mists of Avalon (Avalon, #1)
by
4.13 avg rating — 211,702 ratings
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26 |
The Reckoning (Welsh Princes, #3)
by
4.45 avg rating — 9,665 ratings
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27 |
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
by
Ian Mortimer (Goodreads Author)
4.01 avg rating — 26,079 ratings
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28 |
La catedral del mar (La catedral del mar, #1)
by
4.17 avg rating — 62,751 ratings
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29 |
How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe
by
3.81 avg rating — 46,517 ratings
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30 |
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
by
4.02 avg rating — 214,712 ratings
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31 |
Catherine, Called Birdy
by
Karen Cushman (Goodreads Author)
3.74 avg rating — 43,119 ratings
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32 |
Baudolino
by
3.80 avg rating — 25,031 ratings
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33 |
Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life
by
3.93 avg rating — 16,595 ratings
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34 |
Timeline
by
3.87 avg rating — 215,016 ratings
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35 |
Time and Chance (Plantagenets #2; Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine #2)
by
4.30 avg rating — 9,325 ratings
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36 |
The Physician (Cole Family Trilogy, #1)
by
4.41 avg rating — 59,185 ratings
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37 |
The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology
by
4.16 avg rating — 15,479 ratings
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38 |
Agincourt
by
Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
4.16 avg rating — 31,482 ratings
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39 |
The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories, #2)
by
Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
4.31 avg rating — 60,572 ratings
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40 |
Foucault’s Pendulum
by
3.91 avg rating — 74,035 ratings
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41 |
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
by
3.78 avg rating — 107,111 ratings
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42 |
The Mabinogion
by
3.93 avg rating — 8,474 ratings
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43 |
A Morbid Taste for Bones (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #1)
by
3.96 avg rating — 43,814 ratings
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44 |
The Midwife's Apprentice
by
Karen Cushman (Goodreads Author)
3.73 avg rating — 43,279 ratings
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45 |
The History of the Kings of Britain
by
3.71 avg rating — 6,816 ratings
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46 |
A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age
by
3.83 avg rating — 12,744 ratings
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47 |
The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse
by
3.68 avg rating — 5,620 ratings
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48 |
Ecclesiastical History of the English People
by
3.83 avg rating — 4,817 ratings
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49 |
The Nibelungenlied
by
3.82 avg rating — 8,758 ratings
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50 |
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
by
3.52 avg rating — 14,475 ratings
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51 |
The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)
by
3.90 avg rating — 37,629 ratings
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52 |
A Queen's Spy (Mercenary For Hire #1)
by
Samantha Burnell (Goodreads Author)
4.02 avg rating — 1,232 ratings
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53 |
Lords of the North (The Saxon Stories, #3)
by
Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
4.36 avg rating — 51,873 ratings
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54 |
Company of Liars
by
Karen Maitland (Goodreads Author)
3.86 avg rating — 16,420 ratings
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55 |
Devil's Brood (Plantagenets #3; Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine, #3)
by
4.38 avg rating — 8,113 ratings
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56 |
The Greatest Knight (William Marshal, #2)
by
Elizabeth Chadwick (Goodreads Author)
4.14 avg rating — 9,743 ratings
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57 |
Cathedral: By the Author of The Way Things Work
by
4.26 avg rating — 2,404 ratings
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58 |
Les Rois maudits
by
4.54 avg rating — 2,804 ratings
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59 |
The Waning of the Middle Ages
by
4.03 avg rating — 4,279 ratings
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60 |
Richard III
by
3.91 avg rating — 57,535 ratings
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61 |
The White Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #2)
by
Philippa Gregory (Goodreads Author)
3.96 avg rating — 181,237 ratings
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62 |
The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, An Englishman's World
by
3.87 avg rating — 5,837 ratings
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63 |
The Scarlet Lion (William Marshal, #3)
by
Elizabeth Chadwick (Goodreads Author)
4.33 avg rating — 6,467 ratings
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64 |
The Archer's Tale (The Grail Quest, #1)
by
Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
4.15 avg rating — 33,219 ratings
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65 |
One Corpse Too Many (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #2)
by
4.07 avg rating — 17,654 ratings
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66 |
The Lady of the Rivers (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #1)
by
Philippa Gregory (Goodreads Author)
4.05 avg rating — 91,462 ratings
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67 |
The Serpent's Tale (Mistress of the Art of Death, #2)
by
3.96 avg rating — 13,693 ratings
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68 |
In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages
by
4.09 avg rating — 2,629 ratings
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69 |
Arthurian Romances
by
3.95 avg rating — 9,064 ratings
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70 |
Lionheart (Plantagenets #4; Richard the Lionheart #1)
by
4.11 avg rating — 7,757 ratings
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71 |
Njal's Saga
by
3.94 avg rating — 5,397 ratings
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72 |
Castle
by
4.22 avg rating — 4,179 ratings
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73 |
Sword Song (The Saxon Stories, #4)
by
Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
4.32 avg rating — 44,662 ratings
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74 |
The Winter King (The Warlord Chronicles, #1)
by
Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
4.26 avg rating — 53,855 ratings
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75 |
Pope Joan
by
Donna Woolfolk Cross (Goodreads Author)
4.10 avg rating — 74,109 ratings
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76 |
The Civilization of the Middle Ages
by
3.96 avg rating — 2,714 ratings
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77 |
The Red Queen (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #3)
by
Philippa Gregory (Goodreads Author)
3.82 avg rating — 77,231 ratings
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78 |
The Lais of Marie de France
by
3.83 avg rating — 9,730 ratings
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79 |
The Travels
by
3.58 avg rating — 7,975 ratings
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80 |
1066: The Year of the Conquest
by
4.06 avg rating — 4,542 ratings
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81 |
The Saga of the Volsungs
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 6,891 ratings
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82 |
Excalibur (The Warlord Chronicles, #3)
by
Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
4.44 avg rating — 30,438 ratings
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83 |
King Lear
by
3.91 avg rating — 233,889 ratings
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84 |
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
by
4.07 avg rating — 66,475 ratings
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85 |
Eaters of the Dead
by
3.71 avg rating — 45,920 ratings
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86 |
Vagabond (The Grail Quest, #2)
by
Bernard Cornwell (Goodreads Author)
4.14 avg rating — 20,548 ratings
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87 |
The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
by
4.28 avg rating — 3,206 ratings
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88 |
Egil's Saga
by
4.01 avg rating — 3,208 ratings
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89 |
Inventing the Middle Ages
by
3.76 avg rating — 493 ratings
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90 |
Between Two Fires (Queen Branwen, #1)
by
Mark Noce (Goodreads Author)
3.59 avg rating — 403 ratings
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91 |
The Long Ships
by
4.27 avg rating — 12,307 ratings
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92 |
Troilus and Criseyde
by
3.75 avg rating — 7,083 ratings
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93 |
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made
by
3.41 avg rating — 5,403 ratings
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94 |
The Last Plantagenets (The Plantagenets, #4)
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4.14 avg rating — 1,283 ratings
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95 |
The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes
by
4.26 avg rating — 11,775 ratings
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96 |
Life in a Medieval City
by
3.84 avg rating — 3,850 ratings
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97 |
Piers Plowman
by
3.44 avg rating — 3,095 ratings
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98 |
The Return of Martin Guerre
by
3.76 avg rating — 5,182 ratings
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99 |
The History of the Franks
by
3.87 avg rating — 1,567 ratings
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99 |
The Book of Margery Kempe
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3.30 avg rating — 4,830 ratings
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1,219 books ·
1,679 voters ·
list created July 16th, 2008
by Steven Harbin (votes) .
Steven
4280 books
2495 friends
2495 friends
Laura
13040 books
316 friends
316 friends
Dave
799 books
62 friends
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Gina
2 books
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Roberta
1548 books
154 friends
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Susanna - Censored by GoodReads
3384 books
853 friends
853 friends
Wealhtheow
4761 books
693 friends
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Karen
2648 books
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Comments Showing 1-19 of 19 (19 new)
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message 1:
by
Brett
(new)
Jul 02, 2009 01:57PM

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Which particular titles of Bernard Cornwell 's would you suggest? I've never read any of his works, but I've had friends suggest him.
Also, you know you can add books to the list and vote for them, right?

I'm of a like mind, I only voted (initially) for secondary works and historical novels but I could see a case for including works from the MA as well...but you're correct than in that case the list title probably should be slightly changed...

I couldn't agree more! I clicked on this list expecting to see loads of bernard cornwell! He is really an awesome writer. I really think his books define the genre.
Steve,
I would suggest Vagabond, The Archer's Tale, and Heretic. I believe these three books comprise The Grail Quest series?? They are so amazing! Well, I am being a bit partial with these suggestions; they are the only Cornwell I've read. I'm sure there are other great titles as well..
...o yea and IWB...you're a dipshit. This is a list ok, "books that are about, set in, or written in the Middle Ages," therefore the list should include books FROM the Middle Ages..moron..





Andrew wrote: "Foucault's Pendulum seems like a stretch to me. The novel is set in the 20th century, and though the characters spend a lot of time discussing the Templars, the book is still not medieval."
I've read the book and agree, which is why I haven't voted for it.
Beatriz wrote: "I agree insted the name of the rose should be right in the middle age". The Name of the Rose (#484) is indeed set in the Middle Ages.
IWB wrote: "The list is ABOUT the Middle Ages (i.e., secondary sources), not books FROM the middle-Ages (i.e., primary sources).
Seems the description of the Listopia has been adapted since your comment, as it now also includes "written in the Middle Ages time period" (which is why I voted for some written during that period).



Does The Last Battle (#597) count?
It is too long ago since I've read it but I seem to remember Foucault's Pendulum (#38) was set outside the Middle Ages as well. But like I said, it's too long ago to be sure (see also my earlier message).
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