Great Eulogies Throughout History
Edited by James Daley
This book feels a bit weird to review. It's really just a compilation of eulogies, both spoken and written throughout history, with a heavy slant towards Americans. There is just a short two or three sentence blurb before each begins explaining who the deceased is, and who was giving the eulogy. I suppose my main disappointment in this volume was not having more background given, or any reasons at all given about why this particular eulogy was chosen for the collection; what made it "great". The whole thing just came off as a bunch of perfectly fine eulogies for "great" people, not the other way around.
Many of the speeches and articles displayed here were written/spoken in a time period very removed from our vernacular. I understood them just fine, but for some reason that style of writing can't hold my attention very well and I often found my mind wandering. It didn't help that I didn't personally have much connection with many of the people spoken of, or the context of a lot of the references made (see my complaints about not having more in depth information about why each one was chosen).
I obviously did not enjoy this book, but I think that was more an issue of my expectations vs reality which is why I am leaving my rating at 4 stars. I think this book delivers on what it says it will, I was just looking for something a bit more thoughtful and in-depth. That's my problem, not the books.
Copy courtesy of Dover Publications, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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