Later Chapters of My Life: The Lost Memoir of Queen Marie of Romania (Hardcover)

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Product Description
The granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander II of Russia, Queen Marie of Romania was one of the most brilliant monarchs of the twentieth century. She distinguished herself not only during the years of the First World War through her charity activities or through her informal political-diplomatic effort, but also because she was a gifted writer. This recently discovered last volume of her memoirs, entitled Later Chapters of My Life - long believed to have been destroyed - covers the period following the First World War, the economic recovery, and the new political configuration in reunited Romania. The 1919 Peace Conference - at which she informally represented the country's interests, meeting Clemenceau, Poincare and Hoover, Queen Marie's informal visits to Paris and London, where she stayed with George V and Queen Mary, and her visit in Transylvania, are broadly depicted in these lost chapters. The memoirs also contain other details about the royal family, her last meeting with her mother, the Duchess of Coburg, in Switzerland, the first parliament of Greater Romania, social reconstruction, and the charity activities co-ordinated by the queen.

From the Author
This final volume, ‘Later Chapters of My Life’, a previously unpublished manuscript, was for a long time believed to have been destroyed by King Carol II after his mother’s death. Marie’s last private secretary, Christine Galitzi, knew ‘of the new book the Queen was writing as a sequel to The Story of My Life’. She believed that ‘after the Queen’s death Carol ordered the manuscript to be destroyed’.
The writing of these last memoirs was undertaken on the basis of notes from queen’s diary. Short time after the publication of the first volume from ‘The Story of My Life’ the Queen was asked to continue the writing of her captivating recollections. The first mentions about starting of the fourth volume appeared during August 1934 in the correspondence between the Queen and Ray Harris Baker, the founder of Queen Marie’s Collection.
The completion of this volume of memoirs by the Queen continued with many difficulties stemming from pressures from her son Carol II He was envying the queen because of her widely recognized prestige. The result was that she decided to hide her private papers. Also from 1931, as a measure of precaution against Carol’s intrusions, she arranged to have a part of her correspondence received through King Alexander of Yugoslavia, her son-in-law, in Belgrade and in Bucharest at the Yugoslav Legation.
Documents confirm Marie’s fears during 1930s and her wish to place the diaries and other personal papers in a safe place at the British Legation in Bucharest. This was a political sensitive action and was possible only for a short time. The intention to keep her papers, material for her memoirs, in a safe place was paralleled by similar situation which occurred between Empress Frederick and her son Kaiser Wilhelm II. The same kind of restrictions and pressure resulted that her memoirs and Kaiser Frederick III’ s personal papers to be smuggled out of Germany by the British Embassy in Berlin and stored in England.

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

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1 Review 5 star:  (1) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   60 of 61 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive - Queen Marie of Romania re-discovered, 22 Jul 2004 By  Klaus van Amelrode "kmcva" - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)       Later Chapters of My Life: The Lost Memoirs of Queen Marie of Romania, is the 4th part of the well-known memoirs of Queen Marie of Romania. This part was talked about but was until now never published as the Queen passed away and the manuscript was lost. The editor of this wonderful book, Diana Mandache, managed to find the lost memoirs and published them. Who was Marie of Romania? She was the daughter of the British Prince Alfred Duke of Edinburgh and later sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her mother was the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Therefore she was on her father's side one of the granddaughters of Queen Victoria and on her mother's side the granddaughter of Czar Alexander II.. She married the Crown Prince of Romania, Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, and became Queen Consort of Romania in 1914. She played an important part in the Romanian politics during her husband' s life time, was a well-known writer and was known as "the mother-in-law of the Balkans" as her children married into Balkan Royalty. She was the mother of the ill-faded King Carol II. She was not only a very beautiful woman, but a woman of energy, standing, determination, political thinking. She was in many ways flamboyant as the photos proved. Designed for the typical fate of a 19th century princess she developed into a modern woman who could, wanted and did play an important role in the affairs of her adopted country. Especially after World War I she gave Romania a face and pushed the course of her country at the Versailles Peace Conference. The memoirs basically deal with the time after the World War I and her efforts. But she describes as well family relations, the personalities she met. But not only that: she gives us as well a piece of her mind and she is open and candid about it. So these memoirs are partly not a typical royal memoirs. She openly admits not been able to say all and so she is for instance quiet about her scandalous son Carol and his marriage history causing so much up and downs and family rift. I was amazed how modern Queen Marie' s writing style is and how open she is about things. I loved especially how she describes the life of the cushioned and sheltered life of the British Royal Family and how she put the US-President Wilson in his place. There is so much in these pages that one wishes that she could have finished them properly and did hot have to encounter all these troubles caused by her son Carol. I just loved reading this and I am grateful to Diana Mandache for having found these lost memoirs. Diana Mandache has complemented the memoirs by family tables, notes, great pictures and introductory remarks which the reader will find very helpful. All in all a great book! Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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