Listening to Learn History

Homeschool Review Crew

Learning history can often be tedious and boring, but listening to learn history with Heirloom Audio proves never boring!  Recently we received their newest release St. Bartholomew’s Eve to review and it has not disappointed!  We received a physical copy of this CD set.

About the Product

We’ve reviewed several of the titles from Heirloom Audio before and have found each and every one of them captivating.  This title to help us with listening to learn history focuses on the French Huguenots (French Protestants) and one of their important historical facts known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.  Thus the title of St. Bartholomew’s Eve. 

This new title in their ever growing series of G. A. Henty masterpieces contains the voice talents of Brian Blessed, Elizabeth Counsell, David Shaw-Parker, Brian Deacon, Andy Harrison, and Hugo Docking.  While like the others it’s designed for ages 6-16 we love listening to these as a family.  Our favorite way to listen is on car rides to help pass the time.  Definitely makes the drive nicer for me without the constant “are we there yet” or “I need to go potty” demands being made! 

Over two plus hours of entertainment is held on two discs in this series.  That’s over two hours of listening to learn history but really so much more as it also teaches strong moral values throughout the story.

The Story

The story behind St. Bartholomew’s Eve was a tragic bit of French Huguenot history.  Instead of just telling the story of the day of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre the dramatic audio telling captivates you with a personal story of Philip.  Philip travels to be with his uncle and cousin in France to help them with the persecution they’re experiencing.  This is 16th century France, so 1500’s, where religious freedom was really unheard of.

This story is based upon one of the wonderful works of GA Henty.  A masterful story teller, especially involving events of history, his works are classics in our house.  

Our main character Philip is actually an Englishman.  Well, I guess you could say he’s been raised an Englishman while his mother is French father English.  Keep in mind that throughout the years France and England have never been the best of friends.  Though their royalty is of course related they did not want to have their crowns over taken by the others.  So I find it interesting how a young Englishman travels to France to help aid his uncle and cousin Francois.  Though Philip is young he’s also eager.  He quickly joins in the French Protestant fight and proves himself an able soldier not just with a fire arm but also a sword.  Through his abilities he receives promotions and praise.  

The massacre was carefully planned and pulled off killing over 2000 men, women, and children.  Survivors fought and then fled for their lives.  Throughout the story we meet lots of characters, some real to the story and some that are purely fictional for the pleasure of the story. 

Our Thoughts

We have always loved listening to learn history when it involves these wonderful audio dramatizations from Heirloom Audio.  I also love that they’re using such wonderful books by GA Henty to bring to life moments in history.  My kids love listening and find all the voices engaging.  

All the battles!  Because GA Henty is known for his history and especially that history including battles you’ll find tons of battles within this story.  But you’ll also find a brave young man who learns what it truly means to become a man and warrior of God.  He must make lots of difficult decisions whether to obey what God says or the king. Also friendships are formed and losses are felt.

Though I know some who would not appreciate the amount of battles and blood and gore(must say it’s not as bad as watching any modern day war movie) that comes with them, my children are no strangers to talk of wars and death.  With reenacting both the Civil War and WWII since before any of our children were born they have been raised around history and watching history come alive.  Having this additional knowledge they can even more enjoy listening to learn history of different periods.  My boys of course really enjoy the war elements of the story while my girls are more drawn to the behind the scenes activities and day to day life of the people in the story.

I normally try to find a copy of the original book to read along with listening to the story.  This time I wasn’t able to find this particular Henty book but I’m hopeful in time I can still find it.  We did gather several resources on the French Huguenots and their history to help us delve deeper into what was going on during this time period.  And since we’re close to Thanksgiving we talked a lot about religious freedom and what an important role this particular concept has played throughout history in general.

Learn More

Learn more about this new release from Heirloom Audio by visiting the Main Blog post over on the Homeschool Review Crew blog where all reviews are linked up.  You can also visit them on facebook, twitter, google +, and instagram.   

You can also check out some of the other Heirloom Audio stories that we’ve reviewed including:

• Beric the Briton
• The Dragon and the Raven
• Wulf the Saxon
• With Lee in Virginia
• Captain Bayley’s Heir
• The Cat of Bubastes