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Rating: 
Summary: Incomplete
Review: Although this work is interesting in that it attempts to flesh out the details of the lives of the Emperor and Empress of Mexico, it's lack of bibliography and any kind of footnotes or end notes makes it very incomplete. Additionally, I was very disappointed to see that the author (perhaps because of his royal connections) failed to even mention the rather horrible manner in which the incapacitated Empress Charlotte's personal fortune was completely looted by her brother King Leopold II to fund his personal posession of the Congo (later taken over by the Belgian State and turned into a Belgian colony).
Rating: 
Summary: Behind the Scenes Detailing, without trudging through muck
Review: Delightful and anctedotal. If you're already familiar with the subjects, then you'll enjoy the author's presentation of some heretofore undisclosed "facts" as well as insightful speculations to explain the ill-fated royal couple who claimed Mexican territories as their God-given right. Having read letters of accounts from the ladies of the court and compared them to libraried American minutes of the Congressional attention on the "Mexican Problem" during the Civil War era, the author's focus on the human sides of the royal couple and the cause that brought them together is icing on the cake. Since the revolutionaries of Mexico habitually killed the captive officers and freed the women to wander and make it on their own, once can only imagine what drove the Empress - at one time called the Dove by the Mexicans - to the brink of madness. Read by a warm fireplace...
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I have read about Charlotte and Maximillian as peripheral figures in many other books and was looking forward to a book about them alone. Boy, was I disappointed. This is a fan letter to the royal couple, who in all other accounts were spoiled and difficult. There are no photos or other illustrations, no genealogical tables to help sort out the relatives, and worst of all, no index, footnotes, or references. A high school student could do a better job. I am still not entirely sure if this is fiction or non fiction, the author seems to operate half on conjecture and the other on wishful thinking!
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly researched, easily read
Review: I suppose I can't legitimately say whether or not EMPRESS OF FAREWELLS was properly researched...because Prince Michael of Greece gives no evidence of his research in any kind of real bibliography. The lack of an index or table of contents is also glaring. Despite tossing about the names of several royal families, he includes no genealogical charts. Finally, while he refers to a photograph of the Empress on pg. 217, describing the severe facial expression seen in most of her photos, not one such representation is included in the book. Which is a great disappointment.Despite these drawbacks, FAREWELLS reads like a fairy-tale (except, of course, for this princess's doomed, insane existence for the last decades of her life). The Emperor Maximilian is an inscrutable character: was he gay? Did he find Charlotte physically unappealing? Because their marriage was never consummated. Charlotte is depicted as intelligent, brave, imperious, and stoic, and her time in Mexico was filled with revolution and intrigue of all kinds. Bottom line, Prince Paul (who may or may not be somehow related to the Empress...I'd know had he provided family trees...) delivers an easily-read biography of a tragic royal character.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT READING SO/SO HISTORY
Review: Like most readers of royal biographies I anticipated this volumn by Prince Peter of Greece who is more than well connected with both the families of Carlota and Maximillian.
Unfortunately -although the book is extemely readable- the lack of documentation is sad. Especially when he makes allegations that their marriage was never consumated, that he may or may not have been homosexual, that he may or may not have sired other children, etc. These kinds of "revelations" need more substance than "I am a prince and I know of what I speak".
Nonethless if one approaches this book with some background on the characters and the era and reads it as a piece of royal fiction where license is permitted the author, then it will be an enjoyable work for most.
I sadly missed the footnotes, bibliography and historical documentation.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly annotated, easily read
Review: Prince Michael's biography of the tragic Charlotte of Mexico contains a sad lack of customary "book guides" (i.e., table of contents, index, footnotes); as he rambles off family names and connections (there are plenty to keep track of among the Orleans, Hapsburgs, Coburgs, and others) it would also have been prudent to include more than one genealogical chart. Lastly, there is an appalling lack of pictorial representations of the characters described. A portrait of Marie-Amelie or a photograph of Bazaine would have greatly enhanced reading about these characters; the author directly alludes to photographs of a bitter, sallow Empress on page 217 of the text but fails to include copies of any photographs of the biography's subject. These shortcomings notwithstanding, this is a very readable book;
the story unwinds literally like a fairytale. Of course, there are no happily-ever-afters here; Charlotte's insanity plagues the last 6 decades of her sorry life. A good read for anyone interested in the lesser figures of royal history.
Rating: 
Summary: The Empress of Farewells
Review: This "biography" should be listed under historical fiction. There are no footnotes, family tree, indices, photographs or a bibliography. I find it very difficult to believe and seriously doubt that anyone in the 1860's, especially a cosseted female princess, would supposedly use a phrase in a letter, such as "between a rock and a hard place". That slang term is decidely too modern. I would not recommend this book for the novice history buff. Only those of us who have read extensively on Europeon royalty would understand the relationships between the families and would know who came from where and how closely related the individuals were. I do not think much scholorship went into this book. The only item of interest I learned was that Carlotta died in Belgium and not in Trieste at Miramar.
Rating:
Summary: There Are Better Books on the Subject.
Review: This is a subject I am interested in. The only reason I gave it two stars was the easy reading. There was a definite bias in favor of Max and Charlotte. Benito Juarez, a decent man at heart was villifed and referred to as "that Indian." Max was also a decent man who meant well. That was the sad part of this story that was left unsaid. If you are looking for a cut and dried "black hats and white hats," you will not get it, except for some of the slime who clung to the Royal couple and convinced him to take Mexico's crown. A crown that in reality, was as thorny as the cactus, eagle and snake of the Mexican flag.
Read Joan Haslip's The Crown of Mexico instead.
Rating:
Summary: Defective but fascinating
Review: Yes, it is true that this book has no footnotes and no bibliography to speak of, and that it is full of rumor and speculation and unanswered questions. As I read along its sometimes insipid prose I said to myself: why do I keep reading? There was only one answer: I seldom fail to finish a book I start. But about the time that Charlotte goes back to Europe this book became exciting to read and began telling me things I had not remembered about the the story from when I read, back in the summer of 1945, Phantom Crown: The Story of Maximilian & Carlota of Mexico, by Bertita Harding, a novel-like telling of the story which really caught me up in those halycon days of my youth. Of course, one would like to know the truth and the source about things like Charlotte's bizarre crashing into the residence of Pope Pius IX, but it must be more or less accurate, can we not think? This is a defective book, but anyone interested in 19th century royalty cannot help but be a bit attracted to what it has to say. Who is Prince George of Greece, does someone know? He could at least have told us who his ancestors were, I would think.
Rating:
Summary: Defective but fascinating
Review: Yes, it is true that this book has no footnotes and no bibliography to speak of, and that it is full of rumor and speculation and unanswered questions. As I read along its sometimes insipid prose I said to myself: why do I keep reading? There was only one answer: I seldom fail to finish a book I start. But about the time that Charlotte goes back to Europe this book became exciting to read and began telling me things I had not remembered about the the story from when I read, back in the summer of 1945, Phantom Crown: The Story of Maximilian & Carlota of Mexico, by Bertita Harding, a novel-like telling of the story which really caught me up in those halycon days of my youth. Of course, one would like to know the truth and the source about things like Charlotte's bizarre crashing into the residence of Pope Pius IX, but it must be more or less accurate, can we not think? This is a defective book, but anyone interested in 19th century royalty cannot help but be a bit attracted to what it has to say. Who is Prince George of Greece, does someone know? He could at least have told us who his ancestors were, I would think.
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