Absolutely superb insight into the life of an ordinary Spanish Conquistador
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Over the last couple of years I've been quite interested in the Spanish conquest of South America, and I had heard this book referred to a couple of times, so thought I would pick it up.
Anyone with even just a passing interest in South America history should grab a copy. It's easily one of the most gripping and interesting books I've ever read.
The story is translated from the original Spanish of a soldier who traveled with Hernan Cortes and his small band of soldiers, who eventually overthrew a rich and powerful civilisation.
Bernal Diaz' story starts with his involvement in a couple of early investigations of the Mexican coast, moving onto his expedition with Cortes. He explains the movements and battles in detail, meetings between 2 cultures who didn't really know what to make of each other, building towards the incredible climax of fearsome resistance and house to house fighting in the fall of Tenochtitlan.
A truly amazing book that is a must read for anyone with an interest in history.
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Couldn't put it down. Fact with the grip of fiction.
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The translator, Cohen, has drawn the salient facts from someone who was actually there, Bernal Diaz. Helps you to understand the scale of what was achieved, how it was achieved, and what drove them to achieve. Excellent. Written in a straightforward manner. Read it, then read it to my children who found it gripping.
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Brilliant
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.. it is probably the best historical book i have read. the fact it was written 500 years ago and is still interesting to the average person is rare. diaz writes without bias and dispite being and old book and translated it reads easy. if you are thinking of finding out about the conquest or the Aztecs this is the best book to start with.
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A great book - pity about the edition
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Bernal Diaz's account of the conquest of Tenochtitlan by the Spanish is one of the best documents of that famous event. He is not the world's best writer, but for sheer historical interest his work is fascinating in itself. However, prospective buyers ought to be aware that this edition cuts out significant portions of the text on really quite important sections - for instance, the Tepeaca campaign; the arrival of Panfilo Narvaez; and others - and so it is no subsitute for consulting the full book in its Spanish original in a good library. Still, it is better than nothing.
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Conquest of a Continent
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Bernal Diaz's account of his expirences in New Spain (i.e, Mexico and the Aztec Empire) is one of the key texts associated with the expansion into and colonisation of Central and South America by the Spanish in the Sixteenth Century. His first hand account of the Mexica and the practices of the Aztecs, as well as his description of the events leading up to the eventual defeat of the once mighty Aztec Empire by a small band of Spanish adventurers provides important and interesting information about this period and on South American History. While there are notable inaccuracies and biases in Diaz's account, the editor (J.M. Cohen)provides an excellent interpretation of this primary document and points the reader in the right direction as far as what interpretation to give Diaz's text (written when the former soldier was a very old, and probably bitter, man). However, through no fault of the editor, Diaz suffers from considerable verbal diahorea and much of his account is neither intersting or relevant. Nevertheless, this is one of the most important and complete contemporary documents on the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, and also one of the few to survive.
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