The Dream and the Tomb

By Robert Payne

For two centuries men from all walks of life endured bloody conflict, scorching heat and unquenchable thirst in order to win and hold the city of Jerusalem.

Robert Payne brings to life every step of the Crusaders’ thousand-mile journey: the deprivation; the desperate, rapacious, and brutal raids for food and supplies; the epic battles for Antioch, Jerusalem, and Acre; the barbarous treatment of captives; and the quarrelling European princes who vied for power and wealth in the Near East.

An epic tale of the glorious and the base, of unshakeable faith and unspeakable atrocities, The Dream and the Tomb captures not only the events but the very essence of the Crusades.

Robert Payne (1911-1983) was the author of many notable works, including The Rise and Fall of Stalin, The Life and Death of Lenin and The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. Born in England, he was a constant world traveller, a keen observer, but always the biographer, historian, novelist, poet and translator.