The Sun King

Rating:
Summary: Witty and personable, good introduction to the subject.
Review: Here's "Lifestyles of the Obscenely Wealthy and Powerful"! I admit I'd never read much about this period of history (I'm fond of joking that my in-depth knowledge of politics and history more or less ends with Elizabeth I's death), but the bit I read at the bookstore made this book irresistible. I passed up an Alison Weir for this, but I don't regret the choice at all. It is both charming and knowledgable, with a witty, personable, almost gossipy tone.

There's a lot of information here, packaged with lots of pictures and glossy pages. It is a lovely book to look at purely on an aesthetic level. But do take the time to actually read it! Though sparse in areas, it is a rich look at the life of Louis, and at the lifestyle of a courtier of his day. The creation of Versailles is gone into in much detail, as are sexual politics and wartime attitudes. Mostly this focuses on Louis' personal life and that of his court and how Versailles came about, so there isn't much here about actual wars or about international politics. But what there is is just stupendous. I'd call this a must-have for a beginner in French history. I'm very glad I got it.

Rating:
Summary: The Sun King
Review: Nancy Mitford came to me by way of this book and, ignorant of the incredible talents that lie with her, her sisters and the aristocratic family into which she was born. Since then, I have devoured Nancy's fiction, her personal history and I have much more to learn. However, it is her talents as a biographer and historian, perhaps best exemplified with this book, that I believe she achieves the realization of her greatest gift; that is to send life into the dead hand of history. In "The Sun King" history comes alive as I have truly never experienced. Here is a book that takes heretofore one dimensional characters and fills their frames with humanity, giving them dimemsionality, life. She uncovers the perspective that sheds light on each characters good and bad side, turning Louis XIV, Monsieur, The King's wives, his children, in fact the whole of the court at Versailles into a vision in one's head that makes it easy to understand why the Ancien Regime in France can still provide relevance to a contemporary world that approximates it so little. Relevance and topic interest, to be sure, is the most amazing feat for a historian to achieve. Nancy Mitford with "The Sun King" stands among rarified company in such an achievement.

Rating:
Summary: Elegantly Entertaining
Review: Nancy Mitford is best known as an author of witty, elegant novels like The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. In the 1950s and 1960s she also produced a number of historical works, of which The Sun King is one of the best.

The Sun King is a personal biography of Louis XIV. It does not deal in great detail with the political, military, or economic issues of Louis XIV's reign but primarily focuses on his personal life and that of his family. Louis married his double first cousin Marie Therese of Spain (she being his genetic sister for all intents and purposes, the reader is amazed that his family turned out as strong and healthy as they did). He also had three major mistresses and a string of casual acquaintanceships which produced a number of illegitimate children. His numerous relations also produced a quantity of children and had many extramarital relationships.

A major part of the book deals with the construction of Versailles. Indeed the book seems almost to be a biography of the chateau. The profuse illustrations, including many photographs of the chateau and its grounds, add immeasurably to the pleasure of reading this work.

But the most compelling reason for reading The Sun King is to enjoy Mitford's elegant, witty, prose style, which is as much in evidence here as in her novels.

Rating:
Summary: Chatty and Charming
Review: Nancy Mitford is not so much a historian as a gossip. She loves using words like delicious or delightful that more scholarly types would eschew. But her histories are delicious, full of little details of dress and deportment, disapproving profiles of people who weren't much fun. She forgives the extravagant Sun King for and his heirs for bankrupting France because they did it with exquisite style and taste. Although I want to disapprove of Nancy's chats on the basis of their casualness and fawning over the rich and lovely, I just cannot help loving them. As she so often said, "Oh, admit!" I do.

Rating:
Summary: Chatty and Charming
Review: Nancy Mitford is not so much a historian as a gossip. She loves using words like delicious or delightful that more scholarly types would eschew. But her histories are delicious, full of little details of dress and deportment, disapproving profiles of people who weren't much fun. She forgives the extravagant Sun King for and his heirs for bankrupting France because they did it with exquisite style and taste. Although I want to disapprove of Nancy's chats on the basis of their casualness and fawning over the rich and lovely, I just cannot help loving them. As she so often said, "Oh, admit!" I do.