- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
- ISBN-10: 0241142741
- ISBN-13: 978-0241142745
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,402,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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First Sentence
She was a princess, Louise by name, the daughter of a king who was one of the richest and most hated men in Europe. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
She was a princess, Louise by name, the daughter of a king who was one of the richest and most hated men in Europe. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This book was interesting but I think it was confused as to whether it was fiction and non-fiction and so ended up being neither. I knew nothing of the story of Princess Louise and her lowly ranked soldier lover, so the premise was attractive. The author used as his sources books written by Princess Louise and her lover, Mattachich, so there were lots of direct quotes. It also used other historian's work. All these sources were footnoted which made me feel as though it was a non-fiction book, but then it was billed as a novel. I just ended up confused about what was fact and what was fiction and it detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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1 review
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Bizzare Love Triangle
21 Jan 2007
Format:Hardcover
I've often heard it said that one's ability to take responsibility for one's own actions is the highest indicator of self-esteem. Don't tell that to the protagonists of this book. Certainly we the readers are entertained by their devastating choices, but it's their inability to relent in the pursuit of the inevitable consequences that fascinates. I can only liken the behavior of these people to the current exploits of Britney Spears. However, I don't think Ms. Spears is as enamored with the acting out of the dramatization of her own saga as much as Princess Louise and her erstwhile lover Mattachich. Once on top of the world, Britney is insistent on degrading herself, but in the pursuit of pleasure. For the lovers of this historical novel, pleasure never really comes into it.
I believe the book's titular "love" was never part of their endgame (sorry to disappoint!) They are two united pilgrims of imagination, seeking to discover what lies beyond the strictures of class in Hapsburg Vienna. Once they find it, puzzlingly, they don't stop. They continue on in an intractable gyre of indigence and affliction of their own making, only ending, in this life at least, in death. While on the one hand the reader marvels at their brazen, obscene commitment to finish what they audaciously start, one cannot help but ponder, was it all worth it?
I believe the book's titular "love" was never part of their endgame (sorry to disappoint!) They are two united pilgrims of imagination, seeking to discover what lies beyond the strictures of class in Hapsburg Vienna. Once they find it, puzzlingly, they don't stop. They continue on in an intractable gyre of indigence and affliction of their own making, only ending, in this life at least, in death. While on the one hand the reader marvels at their brazen, obscene commitment to finish what they audaciously start, one cannot help but ponder, was it all worth it?
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