Quoting Lewis Carroll, Nelson opens her biography of Charlemagne with the solemn advice of the King of Hearts, “Begin at the beginning…, and go on until you come to the end: then stop” (7). This is no literary affectation: Over the course of the next several hundred pages, Nelson tells the story of the Frankish king and Emperor Charles the Great in precisely this fashion. It is a measure of both the relative profusion of the sources and Nelson’s profound command of them that a biography of a single early medieval figure can indeed proceed for several hundred pages, beginning with Charles’ early life, continuing with his accession to sole rule of the Franks, his wars and conquests, his attempts to reform Frankish letters and manners, his court and family life, and finally his death and burial. Prominent throughout the book are contemporary and near-contemporary sources, often given in lengthy...

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