#Doomsday book series

Unfortunately, his untimely death meant that we cannot be sure that it was ever used for the purpose he had in mind. It caused comment and great resentment at the time, but such was the power and prestige of William that it was done. It was a fantastic effort for an 11th-century government to undertake. There is no agreement about the purpose of this quite unprecedented act of government. In particular the second volume, the so-called Little Domesday, looks like the fair copy sent in from East Anglia that arrived late and was never incorporated into the main volume as were the rest of the counties. The existing volumes show signs of work under great pressure suddenly relaxed. It is unlikely that this was quite finished when William died late in 1087. A fair copy of these reports was sent to the treasury at Winchester where the information was further digested, and the Domesday Book as we have it was the result. The information was then arranged county by county and barony by barony. They probably sat in the county courts and received the reports of local juries, who would be mostly English, and probably also statements from the baronage, who would be mostly French. They were assigned to parts of the country where they did not themselves hold land. The relationship between this inquiry and the finished product has been and still is controversial, but the outlines of the making of the Domesday Book are clear enough.Įngland was divided into circuits, except for the devastated north, and commissioners, many of them bishops and all of them trusted advisers of the king, were sent to conduct the inquiry. The results of this inquiry are the two great volumes preserved in the Public Record Office in London and known as the Domesday Book. Revisit the novel that became an instant science fiction classic in this grand new edition.At Christmas of 1085, King william i the con queror held 'deep speech' with his great men at Gloucester 'about this land and how it was peopled and with what sort of men,' as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports. Nearly 30 years ago, Connie Willis published Doomsday Book, the gripping, moving first novel featuring her now-beloved time-traveling Oxford historians , which went on to win the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. Meanwhile in 2054, an influenza pandemic hits Oxford, complicating efforts to bring Kivrin home and providing eerie parallels to her circumstances in the past. Stranded in what she slowly realizes is the Black Death pandemic, she rises to the occasion as a loving caretaker for the small community she is in. She’s also not quite when she expected to be. What Kivrin discovers is that her training has hardly prepared her for the reality she finds. But Kivrin convinces a colleague to let her go anyway…

Problem is the Middle Ages have always been deemed too dangerous for direct study by Oxford’s history department, which uses a machine that will send people back only to times and places unlikely to create paradoxes. Kivrin Engle is a promising young historian in 2054 determined to visit her chosen period of expertise: the 14th century. We will also be publishing Connie's To Say Nothing of the Dog and Lincoln's Dreams. Our edition will be printed in two colors throughout, with a full-color wraparound dust jacket, full-color endpapers, and a chapter head illustration by Jon Foster.

#Doomsday book series

We’re pleased to present a signed limited edition of Connie Willis’ seminal Doomsday Book, the first novel in her linked series of Oxford Time Travel stories. We strongly suggest you choose to ship via Priority Mail or UPS. Note Two: W e cannot be responsible for copies of Doomsday Book shipped via media mail. Note One: There is a limit of one copy per edition per person/household. Dust jacket, endsheets, and chapter head illustration by Jon Foster