No comments about Mona Lisa's Escort: Andre Malraux and the Reinvention of French Culture.

2 comments about Constance Markievicz: Irish Revolutionary.

1. This is my favorite biography of the Countess. It seems to be the most complete and unbiased version of her life that I have read. I recommend this book to any serious student of Irish history.



2. I have read several biographies of Constance Markievicz. This proves to be the most complete as well as the most enjoyable read. Haverty does an admirable job of tracing Constance's life from her sheltered childhood on the Co. Sligo estate of her Anglo-Irish family, to her years in the Arts Salons of Paris, to her conversion to a revolutionary leading the charge of Irish Republicanism and Labour. The imagery and language of this book, will make this a treat for the reader. Quite informative and well researched, I highly recommend this book.

1 comments about Franco (2nd Edition) (Profiles in Power Series).

1. Francisco Franco was a brutal dictator that ruled Spain with an iron fist after assuming power in the Spanish Civil War. Ellwood's book seeks to look at his life and time in power. This is not a day by day account of Franco but a look at his legacy and general actions. The book goes through several phases of his life and does an excellent job of detailing what was happening in Spain without getting lost in those details. The profile in power series does an excellent job for those starting out in the subject and this book is no exception. For those wanting to understand how Franco and Spain developed during his reign this is a great book. If you want an in-depth look at the Spanish Civil War or the post war years in Spain you will want to look elsewhere. Generally you are left with the feeling that you have enough information on the subject but there are always a few spots in each profile that leave you wanting a little more information.

1 comments about No Ordinary Women: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900 - 1923.

1. I have yet to read the whole book, but what I have seen so far looks to be an exciting resource on a much neglected subject. The bios are excellent. I will critique the rest when I have a chance.

2 comments about Royal Secrets: The View from Downstairs.

1. Light fun reading from Charles' late Valet, Stephen Barry (passed away from AIDS).
   Only thing which I found annoying was like most authors on things royal is the usage of the "splendids" "most wonderfuls" and other marbles-in-mouth type terms that he and other lackies have used in their writings.
   Still, an entertaining read. Recommended.Most wonderful and splendid.



2. . . .from the former valet of the Prince of Wales. Stephen Barry, in his first book, provided a heartwarming and friendly view of the life of the British Royal Family.

   Unfortunately, in this second book, he turns from his previous image of faithful family retainer, to a new, distasteful image as a tattle-tale. As the name implies, "Royal Secrets" was a book that didn't need to be written. Nothing particularly new or scandalous is revealed (other than the author's poor sense of taste).

   Whatever good will remained between Barry and the Royal Family after his first book (quite a lot, I expect) certainly could not remain after this one.

   Very disappointing. Give it a miss.

4 comments about Metternich: The Autobiography, 1773-1815.

1. Metternich is fun to read. His vision, limited by his time, of course, should be contrasted with that of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Metternich is far the wiser man. He knew what it took to found and maintain empire; which greatly contrasts with Mr. Wilson as well as the current (2008) U.S. and British governments. The self-history of Metternich should be read and understood by anyone interested in Government or history. A "statesmsn" who does not know Metternich is in the wrong business.



2. This is an outstanding volume and it belongs on the shelf of every student of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period, whether or not your interest is in the diplomats and diplomacy of the period.
   
   Metternich was quite possibly the best diplomat of his day. A displaced Rhinelander, he went to work for the Austrian Hapsburg monarchy with 'vengeance very much in mind.' His family's Rhineland estates had been overrun by the Revolutianary French, the serfs freed, and Metternich very much desired to have the status quo returned to prewar status.
   
   He hated the French Revolution, a gangrene he believed needed to be 'burned out with a red hot iron.' As Napoleon has been pictured as the inheritor of that Revolution, Metternich transferred his hatred to Napoleon and his government. At the same time, Austria's and the Hapsburg's interests were to be advanced at others' expense.
   
   The results obtained by Metternich guaranteed him the place of Europe's foremost diplomat. Until thrown out by the 1848 Revolution, Metternich's policies hung over Europe, from the virtual imprisonment of Napoleon's unfortunate son to the reoccupation of Italy in 1815 and the restoration of reactionary rule. The Congress of Vienna was Metternich's crowning achievement.
   
   This autobiography chronicles one of the most interesting characters of the age. His diplomatic ability was unquestioned, whether intriguing with Murat as King of Naples, or 'mediating' with Napoleon during the 1813 armistice. It is a fascinating life chronicled in a fascinating book. Ravenhall is to be congratulated for publishing it. This volume is highly recommended.



3. Out of print in English since the 1970s, Ravenhall Books has published a welcomed new edition of Metternich's Autobiography in an inexpensive paperback edition. Based on three separate biographical extracts from Metternich's Nachgelassenen and originally edited by Metternich's son, Metternich's memoirs were not truly memoirs, but, like many so-called "memoirs" of the era, a collection of letters, diaries and other documents. Prince Richard Metternich, in presenting the Memoirs, wrote, somewhat hopefully perhaps, "now that more than a generation has passed over his quiet tomb, the image of the resolute defender of conservative principles appears still more imposing, and his own words will enable men to realize the power and charm of his character. Even his enemies will be touched, and will regard with respect the great statesman as he once again passes before them." Metternich observed somewhat disingenuously that "I have made history, and therefore have not found the time to write it." But Metternich also bragged, "What gratifies me is to notice that the productions of my pen are always those which are most to the taste of the public." Metternich's son edited his father's papers with an eye to history. The memoirs were published virtually simultaneously in German French and English (the English translation was done by Robina Napier, wife of a Norfolk vicar, the son of the first editor of the Edinburgh Review).
   
   Metternich's self-described purpose for writing these extracts was that "The present work is tended only to communicate what concerns myself, or has reference to the tone of mind which the circumstances of my time have produced in me, those of which I was a mere spectator and those in which I have myself played a part." These autobiographical extracts were written well after the events described and written, at least in part, for posterity. The account of Metternich's negotiations with Napoleon in 1813, for example, was written almost two decades after the events. Beyond Metternich's self-justifications, are the deletions and "remarkable remolding" of Metternich's memoirs by his son and editor. And as time passes, memories fade and alter as events are internalized into one's inner narrative, which often tends to favor and flatter oneself. French historian Albert Sorel complained of Metternich's account of events: "He makes himself the light of the world; he dazzles himself with his own rays in the mirror which he holds perpetually before his eyes." Though Sorel himself has his own axe to grind as Pieter Geyl has pointed out.
   
   In addition Metternich is not particularly forthcoming, even in writings supposedly not intended for publication. Metternich, for instance, does not mention that it was Talleyrand who was keeping him informed of the negotiations at Erfurt or that Talleyrand was urging Austria to declare war in 1809. His views of many of his contemporaries beyond Napoleon are very circumspect. Nonetheless, French Napoleonic expert Tulard has called Metternich's memoirs "naturellement fondamentale," and observes that, like Talleyrand's memoirs (or Bourrienne's memoirs or Napier's history of the Peninsular war), the publication of Metternich's lead to an exchange of polemics over their veracity. Stuart Woolf calls Metternich "a hostile but attentive observer of the French emperor from the time of his nomination as ambassador at Paris in 1805." A contemporary review of the Memoirs observed that "...few estimates of the Emperor [Napoleon] ever printed have received a like attention from students or been estimated by them at a higher value. Outside of France there was no statesman who knew [Napoleon] so well, none who had such opportunities for seeing and understanding him under widely differing circumstances. Over most contemporary views it had the advantage of being written by a clear-sighted statesman..."
   
   Unlike David Copperfield, who didn't know if he'd be the hero of his life, Metternich had no such doubts. "...An observer of or a participator in all the circumstances which accompanied and followed the overthrow of that order [in France], of all my contemporaries I now stand alone on the lofty stage on which neither my will nor my inclination placed me." Historian Gregor Dallas wrote has written, "Totally vain, [Metternich] might just as well have entitled the memoirs he eventually left behind The History of Me and the World because, as he never tired of pointing out, the destiny of both marched together." Of Metternich's much celebrated "European outlook" Enno E Kraehe points out that it "acquired much embellishment along the way, some of it genuine, much of it rhetorical."
   
   Reviewers of the memoirs, while admitting the "special value" of the memoirs, seemed to see Metternich in a far less admirable light the farther he was removed from the flame of his great adversary, Napoleon. One critic in the Contemporary Review observed at, "There were two Metternich's, indeed-one before and another after 1815.... It is a pity only that the latter wrote the history of the former." The Century magazine, reviewing the memoirs, observed that, "Fussy, pompous, full of hollow phrases, alternately whining or threatening at the foreign policy of France, the spectacle of Metternich is not edifying to witness, and accounts for much of the legacy of hatred and contempt his name left behind him in Europe. He outlived his time. The moment for his disappearance should have that of Napoleon's death..."
   
   Perhaps it is best, as Metternich would have wanted it, to give him the last word, ""I think few men have known [Napoleon] better than I, because I have not confined myself to bare symptoms, but have endeavored to discover their foundation. When I saw that the whole power of good and evil was embodied in that one man, I could do no otherwise than study him, and only him. Circumstances placed me near this man; they have, so to speak, chained me to him.... After my death a very interesting memoir will be found of this man and his influence on the events of his age.... By the writings I leave behind me, many circumstances will certainly be explained, many doubts dispelled, and many errors rectified. For many years I have written and labored at this work.... This work is one of my favorite employments."
   
   Ravenhall has given this sturdy paperback an attractively designed cover and has added some portraits of the chief characters. I would have like to have seen either footnotes or an appendix giving some background on the individuals mentioned in Metternich's memoir. Metternich has a tendency to throw out many names, some famous and some obscure, and even specialists might have to use a biographical reference to identify individuals such as Herr von Alopäus, Abbé Maury, the advocate Vandernoot, Eulogius Schneider, Basedow and Campe, General von Pfuel or Merlin de Thionville, for example.



4. I have many books on metternich, He was one of the most important man who ever lived in the 19th century,His thoughts inspired even Henry Kissinger who was a great diplomate for the United States. He skill and knowledge keeped Europe out of major war for 100 yrs after the Congress of Vienna which he was instrumental in saving Europe after the devastating Napolionic wars. He led Europe for almost 50yrs, and has shaped the world as we know it today. This book is very well writen, and gives a great account of his dealings with napolion, and The allied powers after. Very interesting to read, and very imformative, and a must for all historians. One of the Best books I have ever read.

5 comments about All Will Be Well: A Memoir.

1. This is the kind of book that ligers on in the memory long after the reader has finished the final page. It's a very vivid portrait of a deeply devoted sons love for his mother only for her to die and for authors life to be dominated by a bullying insensitive rural policeman father in a tiny hamlet with no crime to tackle. This truly is a wonderful book that is enriching and life affirming.



2. I am only a few years younger than John McGahern and my maternal grandparents grew up in County Leitrim prior to coming to the US in the early 1890's. McGahern chose to focus on his early years for most of this book because, in many ways, it is an ode to his mother. The author's Mom was an educated woman who taught in the local schools, but sadly, she died from cancer when the author was 9 years of age. From then on, he and his 4 younger siblings were raised by several "hired girls" and his father, who was a Sargeant in the Garda (the Irish Republic national police).
   McGahern, who died around the time this book was published, was an excellent writer who captures what life in County Leitrim was like as he was growing up in the late 30's and 40'. He describes how he rode his little bicycle for miles at a very young age in order to spend the weekend with his father where he was stationed. We are also told how his demanding father had him cutting turf from the bog from an early age and that his father seldom, if ever, uttered a work of praise or encouragement to him or his siblings.
   Later in the book, we learn that some of McGahern's writings were banned in his native country. It is to his credit, that McGahern never engages in tirades against his tyrannical father or the Catholic Church in Ireland. However, from this book and his writings in general, it is clear that he stood up to both his father and the Church.



3. John McGahern's memoir summarises the leitmotifs of his fictional works, where recurring themes of abused children, put-upon wives, and dominating, "old-school" husbands are echoed here. Indeed, one can trace the genesis of the themes of his novels from the people, places, and circumstances that provide the unity of his prose in "All Will Be Well".
   And the kind of man and writer into which McGahern matured is elegantly presented in this quote (p. 87):
   "I am sure it is from those days that I take the belief that the best of life is life lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything".



4. I have read all of McGahern's work, and sadly this is the last such exactingly prepared book that I presume will appear under his name. Any reader of The Dark, The Leavetaking, or By the Lake (aka That They May Face the Rising Sun) will find much here to document how McG hacked out from his own servitude much of the raw material for his justly praised prose constructions. Most deeply rooted in the straitened years of the 40s and 50s excavated here are seeds of what blossomed into his first novel The Barracks and his later success Amongst Women. The tone, shared with his fiction, often is shadowed more than sunny. This does make for a challenging read in parts, notably as the book goes on and McG battles with his father after the death (halfway through the book, when the author was nine) of his beloved mother.
   
   The grimness of great stretches of this memoir makes it sobering for any naive reader expecting a rural idyll romanticized. I would have edited more of the micro-detail that McG presents, as not all of it is germane to his larger arc, although he labors long in providing the meticulous array of details and spare dialogue to pace his vignettes. McG is known for his concerted rewritings and revisions of his work before publication. Perhaps his early death, soon after this memoir appeared, may account for the hastier (only by comparison with his other works, spaced out often over decades rather than years) appearance of "All Will be Well." Intriguing to find that the British version that appeared first is titled only "Memoir;" terse contrast with the more poetic and much more fitting "That They May Face the Rising Sun" title abroad of his final novel that for Americans was redubbed the less evocative if also enigmatic "By the Lake."
   
   The lack of breaks in the autobiography deepens the feeling of unrelenting struggle engaged in by the narrator. You feel more trapped in the telling of his difficult coming of age. Beauty and sorrow tumble one after the other. You never know which will appear next as you read--he recreates the surprises and terrors of anyone's life, no matter, as he says, how softly led. "I am sure it is from these days that I take the belief that the best of life is lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything." (87)
   
   But the book is lopsided. Presumably intentionally, for perhaps McGahern anticipated a sequel? However, as half the book takes place only up to his ninth year, the remaining couple of decades rush by with alarming brevity. The author does not have intimations of being such until he's late in his teens, and this occurs first on p. 217 of a 290 pp. account.
   
   Necessarily and deliberately, McG's young adulthood and the start of his career is compressed into much less space. I would have preferred much more attention to his maturation as a writer than the extreme emphasis paid his early formation. I understand the polarity of his parental positions and how they marked irreperably McG's own soul, but if more follow-through had been given to how he wrested himself free of the restraints of his family and his nation would have made for a more memorable, and also less suddenly fast-forwarded, depiction of himself. (This portrait of the artist as a young man conveys shades of Stephen Dedalus at the end of Portrait; like Stephen, McG too returns, however, to Ireland after overseas self-exile has not fully freed the artistic imagination from its first inspiration.) Yet, McGahern knows that he cannot stand apart smugly from his inherited legacy, in its joys and its sorrows, and he comes to accept this if not find comfort in it later in his telling.
   
   Despite its uneven pace, this story will endure as an self-penned and as always in such books, a prematurely engraved epitaph. McGahern's courage in standing up for himself against the powers of Church, School, and State makes for engrossing if often reticently told autobiography. Refusing the comforts of faith as he grows, he nonetheless is fair-minded and balanced in crediting the good that the Church instilled in him during very dark years. Never concealing the sins, but noticing too the comforts, he looks at himself with as much detachment as he does others, no easy feat, considering what we now know would have been his last couple of years (dying at seventy of cancer)as he wrote this memoir.
   
   He hides as much as he exposes, the privilege of any teller of one's own tale. This is recommended for those already familiar with his fiction, as his early publications find only bare mention here, but a grounding in his harsh and bracing, and later more nuanced and forgiving, tales is necessary if you wish to savor all the textures here evident, poignantly, in the last two pages. He spent a decade on By the Lake, and his craft is never hurried or unmeditated. As with his last novel, the conclusion to "All Will Be Well" ends this intense narrative elegantly and powerfully.



5. This story, so beautifully told, of McGahern's family is like a microcosm of Ireland in the 1940s and 50s: the rough indifference of his callous father alongside the selfless warmth of his mother. So it was in Ireland during that time: an era marked on the one hand by the cruel exclusion of those who did not buckle to the rigid demands of society, in contrast to much altruism and a shared sense of decency.
   How McGahern didn't emerge a bitter man from his childhood (the latter part of which was dominated by his father) is beyond me. But it seems that he chose to build on the strengths inherited from his mother and to disregard the rest.
   He writes beautifully. His descriptions of the rituals of country life, the ordinary events and day-to-day struggles, are conveyed in a way that manages to be both simple and sublime. About his mother he writes with honesty and heartbreaking grace. It is a book to keep and reread.

4 comments about Edward IV (The English Monarchs Series).

1. Excellent portrait of this facinating King. Highly recommended. Buy the paperback though....$28.00 as opposed to $60.00.



2. Charles Ross presents an unforgettable tale of the most confusing, uneven and adventurous reign of any king in the English history. Edward IV remains the only king who was able to loose a kingdom and them successfully reclaim the crown. Possessing remarkable talents in administration and warfare, he however managed to bring the treasury to almost complete ruin by the end of his term, and botch the most impressive show of force in France any English king (including Edward III and Henry V) can ever master to assemble. Edward IV lived in the extraordinary age, full with great personalities like Richard Warwick the "Kingmaker", Margaret, the queen of Henry VI, and his own kid brother Richard, future most vilified by Shakespeare king Richard the III.

   It is very easy to fell victim to novelized history when relating the events as extraordinary as the events of Edward's reign. Not Charles Ross. He is extremely well researched and versed in the records of the period, and presents the somewhat dry details of the records of the Household and Exchequer, in an interesting way and extremely well cross-referenced. Internal English sources are corroborated by continental and papal records. I would recommend this book to a serious student of history.

   Also see Charles Ross's "Richard III" for a mysterious, bloody, and tragically brief concluding reign of Plantagenet dynasty. This one is also highly recommended.




3. Edward IV is one of the great enigmas of history. Even how he was able to become King is not self-evident. His seizing the throne was then followed by government marked by occasional brilliance and great folly. For someone who at times was keenly aware of dynastic considerations, his own marriage was the height of folly compounded by giving far too much influence to the Queen's relatives. He gave far too much trust, power and wealth to a few individuals, especially the Earl of Warrick and his traitorous brother Clarence alienating in the process much of the established nobility and wrecking in his early years the King's finances. Overthrown in the course of his reign, he nevertheless succeeded in recapturing the throne in short order and then repairing his fortunes spectacularly. Even so, this was accompanied by the strangest series of preparations for invasion of France, ending in an almost farcical procession in Northern France and a pusillanimous retreat. Lazy, debauched, perceptive and effective-many such adjectives can be applied to him - and all miss the puzzling essence of the man and his reign. What a set of stories could be woven out of this material without clearly capturing the essence of the situation! One cannot help wondering why of the adult kings between Richard II and Henry VII, Edward IV alone did not attract Shakespeare's pen.

   Charles Ross wrote a fascinating book on this puzzling ruler, making as clear as the scanty and somewhat unreliable records allow the course of Edward's life and reign, and the various episodes that both fascinate and puzzle. The book (with a short introduction by R.A. Grifffiths rather than a revision by him) proceeds first by laying out the story, and then returning to give separate investigation of various aspects of Edward's rule, such as governance, his relations with the community and his finances. This latter subject is particularly well handled, as is the penultimate chapter on law and order. The story is well told, without excessive pedantry and without any attempt to hide when the record is unclear or the author has had to make large interpretations. One may not really know or understand Edward by the end of the book, but one's feeling is that it is the man himself who escapes capture by the biographer's art, not any weakness of the biographer himself. For those interested in such matters - and this is not light reading - Griffith's biography should prove highly satisfying.




4. The late Charles D. Ross presents here one of the most readable and interesting presentations of of English monarch ever written. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the king or his era-I used it extensively in my senior thesis!

No comments about Queen Elizabeth II: A Portrait in Stamps.

2 comments about Kings and Queens: A History of British Monarchy.

1. In fact I accidentally stumbled on this book in one of my former university's bookstores as I was thumbing through some books on discount. When I came across this book, which was in that collection, it triggered my memories of my earlier informal learning of British History through the LadyBird history series. When I inquired about that series, a Ladybird representative referred me to a Department that sold either out-of-print books or books that were no longer published. That is when it dawned upon me that the series had probably been discontinued. Nonetheless, this reminded me of the "Ladybird days," of an era when British history was romanticized as being "better" than the history of other societies. However, when I came to read this book, it presented a more realistic picture of British history, whereby you get the impression that British history had similar parallels with other societies in aspects such as despotic rule, lack of respect for civil as well as human rights on the part of its monarchy through the ages as well as the trajectory development and evolution of contemporary Democracy in Britain.
   The main shortcomings in the book include the fact that the author mentions the date of the births of some monarchs, while ignoring others. Another more conspicuous inaccuracy is when he says that Henry V died in 1433, whereas all accounts I have read over the years suggest that he died in 1422. When discussing Edward II, he fails to mention that he was the first Prince of Wales. Aside from such little failings in the book, it is a book that is well illustrated, in addition to offering a less flattering outlook on British history.



2. Kings & Queens by Ronald Pearsall is without question one of the most informative and interesting pieces of work on history of any sort, and is so in a brief and entertaining fashion. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about British monarchy. Before I picked it up, I had only a marginal knowledge about the history of the throne, but after reading through the book (and reading about the interesting monarchs again), I feel like I have a very respectable amount of knowledge on the subject. Not only does Pearsall's witty style draw the reader in, but the pictures of each monarch leave as much an imprint on the mind as the text.

   This is a must buy for students of British history.