Louis XIV

Rating:
Summary: Louis XIV
Review: 'Louis XIV' by Ian Dunlop is the perfect biography. That is, when the author enjoys such a visceral feeling for his subject, that he, she is able to translate to a reader, the true human and spiritual qualities. An ideal inner life portrayed, not clouded by descriptions and bogus historical data. Not that Ian Dunlop doesn't reveal a myriad of well reseached events, though here, luckily, his scholastic duties never get on the way of showing us intimately his grand and real Bourbon king. There are familiar themes though this time narrated by a very virile mind (is this politically correct?) Dunlop is here concerned historically with many political and military vignettes that at times I found hard to grasp. My fault, not Dunlop's. He's more at easy discribing military stuff, than he is at gossiping with Louise de la Valliere, the Mancini, or Madame de Montespan. Everything about La Fronde is brilliantly accounted. At last I got to really know Anne Marie Luise d'Orleans, La grande Mademoiselle. And her tortured relationship with her cousin. That dreamy king of France. Kind, young, handsome, alluring, noble. Who was incongruously happiest at war camps, fighting his own battles. And many battles were wrought, a sinister epecter borne that will cost France later, much blood. All the political and military unfold in an articulate and lucid manner. Dunlop, by nature not a gossip, nevertheless reveals triumphantly the filial relationship with the young king's mother, Anne of Austria. La Montespan appears as rackish and fascinating as ever. I'm intrigued, have a thing, for Madame de Maintenon, and don't you know I read her pages two or three times. Ladies, keep an eye on your baby sitters. Dunlap channels her with a new and sober elan. It's all here St Cyr, everything. I repeat, this is a great biography, sober, but never dull.Characters that emerge and quickly demand a life. For those who like froth buy this book and read about the young Marie-Adelaide de Savoy, duchesse de Bourgogne, who like a contemporary rock star, suddenly appears at Versailles quickly inflowing the dimming life of the king. Abruptly, a new source of fascination. Notice the disparity between the arresting macabre Marquise de Maintenon, the morganatic wife. And this silly emerging butterfly. All at 17thc Versailles! The rare read, a new biography with virtuosity.For more reading check out 'The Memoirs of the Duke de Saint Simon' Also a superb colletion, 'False Dawn, women in the age of the Sun King' by Louis Auchincloss

Rating:
Summary: Specialists beware, others should enjoy
Review: Academic reviewers have been a bit sniffy about this book. It's true that Dunlop scatters quotations throughout the book without a footnote to be seen. He also makes some careless errors of fact. For example on p.432 he claims that Lully was composing music in 1710, when he had been dead for 23 years.

However, readers who are not worried about its lack of scholarly rigour should find this a very enjoyable book. Dunlop has a delightfully easy going style and an eye for the enlivening anecdote. It would be hard to write a dull book about such an extraordinary monarch as Louis XIV and Dunlop's biography is not a bad place to make his acquaintance.

Those who want to meet Louis face to face, as it were, should seek out Lucy Norton's three volume edition of Saint Simon's Versailles memoirs.

Rating:
Summary: Specialists beware, others should enjoy
Review: Academic reviewers have been a bit sniffy about this book. It's true that Dunlop scatters quotations throughout the book without a footnote to be seen. He also makes some careless errors of fact. For example on p.432 he claims that Lully was composing music in 1710, when he had been dead for 23 years.

However, readers who are not worried about its lack of scholarly rigour should find this a very enjoyable book. Dunlop has a delightfully easy going style and an eye for the enlivening anecdote. It would be hard to write a dull book about such an extraordinary monarch as Louis XIV and Dunlop's biography is not a bad place to make his acquaintance.

Those who want to meet Louis face to face, as it were, should seek out Lucy Norton's three volume edition of Saint Simon's Versailles memoirs.

Rating:
Summary: Well-Rounded Portrait Of The Sun King
Review: I found this to be a very well thought out, and well-written, biography. In the space of less than 500 pages we are given a very complete picture of a remarkable man, a man who came to the throne as a child and was king from 1643 until his death in 1715. The author is admirably even-handed. Louis' faults are not ignored: In his youth and up until middle-age he was an inveterate womanizer. When he was through with a mistress, she was carted off to a convent. (There was a joke making the rounds at the time that the quickest way to salvation for a woman was via the King's bed!) Louis also had an inordinate fondness for war and glory. Besides the obvious cost in lives for soldiers of all the countries involved in these conflicts, France was bankrupted. This did not stop Louis from building and renovating- Versailles; Marly; Fontainebleau, etc. One of the many strengths of this book is that Mr. Dunlop can rightfully criticize this irresponsible behavior and profligate spending; then, he can turn right around and describe the architectural splendor, the beautiful gardens and fountains, etc. For, as Montesquieu asked: "Who could have told that the King established the greatness of France by building Versailles and Marly?" Another glaring "negative" in the rule of The Sun King was his persecution of the Huguenots, via his 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. But without making excuses or trying to justify what Louis did, Mr. Dunlop puts this in perspective. To quote the author: "Tolerance enjoys a high moral status in Western civilisation today, but it exists in inverse proportion to a general decline in commitment to any creed or moral code. Total tolerance denies, in effect, the possibility of any objective truth in either religion or ethics. Intolerance, a logical outcome of total commitment or total conviction, is therefore more typical of the seventeenth century because of the often fanatical firmness with which the differing faiths were held." Likewise, regarding Louis' fondness for the ladies, the author shows us both the weakness of Louis in his giving in (often!) to temptation but also shows us the difficulties involved in resisting.... If you are brought up to believe that you are God's anointed, could you refuse the advances of beautiful, intelligent, charming women...some of whom were quite ruthless in the means they used to get a previous mistress out of the way? For bedding the King wasn't only a romantic achivement- the families of these women would "egg them on," hoping to gain political influence at court. Louis was aware that people were trying to use him, and he was always on his guard. This book is a wonderful blend of the political, the philosophical, the religious and the military aspects of Louis' reign....as well as containing much enjoyable material on the architecture and the gardens of the royal residences. The mistresses, the gossip and the hypocrisy and political infighting at court are certainly not neglected! With extensive excerpts from the diaries and letters of Louis, Saint-Simon, Vauban, Mme de Maintenon, etc., we get a beautiful balance of the personal and the public life of The Sun King. This is a very impressive book.

Rating:
Summary: A monarch for all seasons, and then some
Review: I once read that Louis XIV would hold court with his advisors and other notables while receiving his daily enema, making him sort of a public "enema of the people." Maybe that's what was wrong with the French monarchy. The author seems to agree with me that Louis did have his problems, not the least of which is the eponymous condition, Dunlap's disease (note the similarity to our author's name), which Louis had also. Asked once whether he was gaining weight, Louis replied, "It done lapped over my belt." And the rest, as they say, is history...

Rating:
Summary: punchlines in french
Review: i've read a lot of books about the sun king. this one is pretty good, but the author has way too many "punchlines" in french without the translations.

Rating:
Summary: Good book to start with!
Review: My purpose in reading this book was very simple: i wanted to have an idea on one of the most famous kings in french history and i wasnt dissapointed. The author makes an interesting accounting of Louis XIV.It covers important areas like major constructions ordered by Louis and his political struggles with other european nations. It is interesting the way the author explains Louis relationship with some of his family members like his oldest son and his oldest grand son, the King of Spain,Philip V.On the other hand, Mr Dunlop uses way too many french words and sentences.This is annoying because you are left trying to make sense out of what was said and it's relation with the rest of the paragraph.Also, the author dedicates too much pages to Louis desire for architecture and construction.He gaves too many details that are not that necesary when you are talking about a very prominenet and influential king as Louis XIV.In short, it is a very good book for someone who is beginning to get interested in the matter.

Rating:
Summary: Good book to start with!
Review: My purpose in reading this book was very simple: i wanted to have an idea on one of the most famous kings in french history and i wasnt dissapointed. The author makes an interesting accounting of Louis XIV.It covers important areas like major constructions ordered by Louis and his political struggles with other european nations. It is interesting the way the author explains Louis relationship with some of his family members like his oldest son and his oldest grand son, the King of Spain,Philip V.On the other hand, Mr Dunlop uses way too many french words and sentences.This is annoying because you are left trying to make sense out of what was said and it's relation with the rest of the paragraph.Also, the author dedicates too much pages to Louis desire for architecture and construction.He gaves too many details that are not that necesary when you are talking about a very prominenet and influential king as Louis XIV.In short, it is a very good book for someone who is beginning to get interested in the matter.

Rating:
Summary: Louis XIV
Review: The book's title appears to me to be misleading, inasmuch as rather than a chronological biography, as the title would seem to entail, it is a somewhat loose assembly of anecdotes relating to the Sun King's lifelong passion for the construction of royal palaces, interspersed with descriptions of his battles. I found that the portrait of the man, both as an individual and as a king, highlighting either his private or public life, or both, and the man's impact on history, with the whole coherently and cogently presented in a clear prose, was sorely missing. In sum, I found the book to be unfocused, uninformative, rambling and at times boring.