Frederick the Great

by Nancy Mitford, Liesl Schillinger (Introduction)

Overview

An entertaining royal biography of Prussian king Frederick the Great—a fascinating character with conflicting visions of authority and reform, power and art—from “one of Britain’s most piercing observers of social manners” (New York Times).

The Prussian king Frederick II is today best remembered for successfully defending his tiny country against the three great European powers of France, Austria, and Russia during the Seven Years’ War. But in his youth, tormented by a spectacularly cruel and dyspeptic father, the future military genius was drawn to the flute and French poetry, and throughout his long life counted nothing more important than the company of good friends and great wits. This was especially evident in his longstanding, loving, and vexing relationship with Voltaire. An absolute ruler who was allergic to pomp, a non-hunter who wore no spurs, a reformer of great zeal who maintained complete freedom of the press and religion and cleaned up his country’s courts, a fiscal conservative and patron of the arts, the builder of the rococo palace Sans Souci and improver of the farmers’ lot, maddening to his rivals but beloved by nearly everyone he met, Frederick was—notwithstanding a penchant for merciless teasing—arguably the most humane of enlightened despots.

In Frederick the Great, a richly entertaining biography of one of the eighteenth century’s most fascinating figures, the trademark wit of the author of Love in a Cold Climate finds its ideal subject.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590176238
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	07/23/2013
Series:	NYRB Classics Series
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	533,801
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.97(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Nancy Mitford (1904–1973) was born into the British aristocracy and, by her own account, brought up without an education, except in riding and French. She managed a London bookshop during the Second World War, then moved to Paris, where she began to write her celebrated and successful novels, among them The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, about the foibles of the English upper class. Mitford was also the author of four biographies: Madame de Pompadour (1954), Voltaire in Love (1957), The Sun King (1966), and Frederick the Great (1970)—all available as NYRB classics. In 1967 Mitford moved from Paris to Versailles, where she lived until her death from Hodgkin’s disease.

Liesl Schillinger is a journalist, critic, and translator. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review and has written on literature, culture, theater, politics, and travel for many publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, and The Independent on Sunday. Among her translations are The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas (fils) and Every Day, Every Hour by Nataša Dragnić. Her illustrated book of neologisms, Wordbirds, will be published in October 2013.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Acknowledgements xvii

1 The Father 1

2 The Unhappy Family 18

3 Escape 28

4 Rehabilitation 36

5 Marriage 43

6 Out of a Rembrandt into a Watteau 49

7 The Throne 56

8 Check to the Queen of Hungary 62

9 Diplomats' Nightmare 77

10 The King's Friends 90

11 The Second Silesian War 99

12 Thoughts on Warfare 107

13 Sans Souci 114

14 The Poet 128

15 The Reversal of Alliances 145

16 The Seven Years' War 154

17 Ma Sœur de Bayreuth 171

18 The Great Frederick 182

19 Man is made to work 198

20 The Uncle of Germany 205

21 The Potato War 215

22 Winter 224

Sources 232

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

It is written with all the author’s skill, is really hard to put down once its rhythm and energy take hold, and yet imparts an astounding quantity of information.” —Guardian
 
“Mitford’s felicity lies in capturing the spirit of a society and an age.” —The Times Literary Supplement

“Nancy Mitford seems to have brought a new talent to the study of history: that of the sophisticated, worldly wise observer, who is able to penetrate old archives with a fresh eye for qualities in the dead.” —Louis Auchincloss, The New York Times Book Review
 
“Her style is skillfully succinct . . . and her wit proceeds from uncommon shrewdness.” —Sunday Times
 
“Apart from Miss Mitford’s special interests in the fun and fashion department, one may admire her most for her power to condense and explain the most complicated events.” —The New Statesman

From the Publisher