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Vincent T Lombardo
Mar 31, 2016Vincent T Lombardo rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
"A Man for All Seasons", which is about Sir Thomas More's refusal to support King Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church, is my favorite movie, but I knew very little about More, who was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935. (The movie is based on a play.) The play and movie depict More as a saint, but this book is much more truthful, and you see the real More, warts and all. However, I often found this book just maddening! Ackroyd's style is sometimes ponderous, and he often dwells on minutia. He quotes from original sources using the original Old English, but does not translate into current vernacular, which often left me confused! However, I learned a lot, and even though the play and the movie are sometimes inaccurate, both essentially capture the man. A good book, but, as the cliche goes, "a heavy lift".