Well, this is hard! I checked what else our buddy Horowski has to offer. Seems he has a new book coming out in November which could be just the ticket, as it's about the families Richelieu, Bentinck and Liechtenstein between the 17th and the 19th century. But it's months till November, and the only other book that's available sounds way more academic and more like it's his published dissertation. It's also hideously expensive (69 Euros!).
Now, there are Sophie of Hannover's Memoirs in German, which have the advantage of being a) short, b) not hideously expensive (ca. 15 Euros on Kindle), and c) this includes the introduction essay for the new translation and the footnotes. I found them very entertaining, informative (with the caveat that they end shortly after Sophie's turned 50, so don't expect anything about the Hohenzollern in them) and often witty, see my write-up. But there are also a lot of people mentioned you might not know yet (though there are footnotes telling you who they are). Btw, there's an English translation out there as well, I think, at least there's one at the Stabi, which I'm not interested in since I have the German translation at home.
(ETA: another advantage of the Sophie memoirs in German is that the translation is recent - the Memoirs were written in French, after all - , which means you don't have to put up with Baroque German. Which you would have in any edition of Liselotte's letters which isn't a translation into English, so I can't rec it to you./ETA.)b
If you want to branch out and try fiction after all, I could also reccommend the book which I've gifted to cahn in English, Christine Brückner's "Ungehaltene Reden ungehaltener Frauen". This has the advantage that the fictional speeches by various real and fictional ladies are all short texts (and the book itself is also a slim volume), and every text stands on its own. I don't love all speeches to the same degree, but several of them I do, and there is much wit there as well as emotion.
I might try the Sophie memoirs out, thanks! I was going to ask if the Beuys Sophie book was more like Ziebura or like Stollberg-Rilinger? If it's more like Ziebura, I might try it.
Füssel comes in two variations. He's written both a lengthy and a short book about the 7 Years War. Both are readable and interesting - language wise, more like Ziebura than Stolberg-Rillinger. Mind you, especially in the lengthy book, he quotes from original documents, some of which were in German which means Rokoko language. But as he really covers the "first World War" aspect, i.e. we get the overseas goings on as well, these aren't a lot.
The Beuys Sophie & Sophie book (as it's really about both of them) isn't as academic as Stollberg-Rillinger, and not nearly as lengthy, either, but it is drier than Ziebura.
Royal readers are so helpful in so many ways. Thank you!
The Beuys Sophie & Sophie book (as it's really about both of them) isn't as academic as Stollberg-Rillinger, and not nearly as lengthy, either, but it is drier than Ziebura.
Pity, I *would* be interested in learning more about them. I might still be able to tolerate it, since it's not 900 pages (I've actually made it about 300 pages into SR!), but won't rush out and buy it.
But it's months till November
And months more from November until German post arrives here! *lolsob*
What about the French Revolution? Any good readable books in German on that? Having just covered the War of the Spanish Succession and Joseph II, I've now beefed up on 1700-1790, whereas my French Revolution memories are faded outlines of what I used to know, twenty years ago.
(And if you find any readable Joseph II books in June, do let me know. The Blanning volume turned out to be a short treatment focused on a very specific topic, i.e. Joseph's political decisions 1780-1790.)
How's Hahn as an author? I know his books (the ones I've found) are short, at least.
Hahn: informative, though not suspenseful. His approach is not chronological but ordered by subject matter. (I.e. inner politics, foreign politics, law reform, etc.).
The next round of books from the Stabi is ordered, so I'll tell you what I'll find.
French Revolution: I immediately thought of Stefan Zweig, master of the biographie romancee in the 1920s. His biography of Joseph Fouché is my Dad's all time favourite biography, and it is very good, an illustration of how you don't have to write about a "likeable" character to make a compelling book. He also wrote a biography of Marie Antoinette which was groundbreaking for its time (though not anymore, of course), since it was the first one to address the wretched matter of the royal couple's sex life (or lack of same) for the first seven years of their marriage squarely and without euphemisms, and discussed the likely psychological effects this had on Marie Antoinette. You can also tell that Zweig, who was Austrian, felt in the post WWI world about the Habsburgs like an increasing amount of Germans post WWI (and even more post WWII, of course) felt about Fritz and the Hohenzollern, i.e. after years of uncritical and often over the top glorification going into hardcore debunking mode about the lot of them, though he's not without sympathy for MA, and even admires her in her final years.
Anyway, while Zweig doesn't write short sentences, exactly, he writes beautiful German, and he's a superb storyteller. As he was fluent in French and loved French culture, he had an advantage about a great many French and English biographers in that he could read primary sources in either language. The Fouché biography covers, like Fouchés life, the French Revolution and Napoleon and the restoration of the monarchy from a unique pov. I'd compare it to fanfic written from the villain's pov WITHOUT the woobiefication that usually goes with it. And course Fouché was very good at what he did, so we do have an extremely, chillingly competent antihero/villain protagonist to follow.
Have sent the Zweig Kindle samples (woot, actually available in the US and for cheap, too!) to my Kindle, thanks! Sounds promising.
Anyway, while Zweig doesn't write short sentences, exactly
That's fine, neither did Horowski! I want to improve my facility with German. It's just that I need the content to compensate for the difficulty of the language. Which Horowski did perfectly. And Lehndorff, despite short sentences, did not (he's wonderful and invaluable as a resource, of course! but you--or at least I--have to be able to either read quickly through the parts that you don't have context for, or do research/salon chat to get that context).
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Request for book recs
Date: 2021-05-28 08:17 am (UTC)Now, there are Sophie of Hannover's Memoirs in German, which have the advantage of being a) short, b) not hideously expensive (ca. 15 Euros on Kindle), and c) this includes the introduction essay for the new translation and the footnotes. I found them very entertaining, informative (with the caveat that they end shortly after Sophie's turned 50, so don't expect anything about the Hohenzollern in them) and often witty, see my write-up. But there are also a lot of people mentioned you might not know yet (though there are footnotes telling you who they are). Btw, there's an English translation out there as well, I think, at least there's one at the Stabi, which I'm not interested in since I have the German translation at home.
(ETA: another advantage of the Sophie memoirs in German is that the translation is recent - the Memoirs were written in French, after all - , which means you don't have to put up with Baroque German. Which you would have in any edition of Liselotte's letters which isn't a translation into English, so I can't rec it to you./ETA.)b
If you want to branch out and try fiction after all, I could also reccommend the book which I've gifted to
Re: Request for book recs
Date: 2021-05-28 02:23 pm (UTC)What about Füssel?
Re: Request for book recs
Date: 2021-05-28 02:27 pm (UTC)The Beuys Sophie & Sophie book (as it's really about both of them) isn't as academic as Stollberg-Rillinger, and not nearly as lengthy, either, but it is drier than Ziebura.
Re: Request for book recs
Date: 2021-05-28 02:45 pm (UTC)The Beuys Sophie & Sophie book (as it's really about both of them) isn't as academic as Stollberg-Rillinger, and not nearly as lengthy, either, but it is drier than Ziebura.
Pity, I *would* be interested in learning more about them. I might still be able to tolerate it, since it's not 900 pages (I've actually made it about 300 pages into SR!), but won't rush out and buy it.
But it's months till November
And months more from November until German post arrives here! *lolsob*
Re: Request for book recs
Date: 2021-05-29 02:28 am (UTC)(And if you find any readable Joseph II books in June, do let me know. The Blanning volume turned out to be a short treatment focused on a very specific topic, i.e. Joseph's political decisions 1780-1790.)
How's Hahn as an author? I know his books (the ones I've found) are short, at least.
Re: Request for book recs
Date: 2021-05-29 07:08 am (UTC)The next round of books from the Stabi is ordered, so I'll tell you what I'll find.
French Revolution: I immediately thought of Stefan Zweig, master of the biographie romancee in the 1920s. His biography of Joseph Fouché is my Dad's all time favourite biography, and it is very good, an illustration of how you don't have to write about a "likeable" character to make a compelling book. He also wrote a biography of Marie Antoinette which was groundbreaking for its time (though not anymore, of course), since it was the first one to address the wretched matter of the royal couple's sex life (or lack of same) for the first seven years of their marriage squarely and without euphemisms, and discussed the likely psychological effects this had on Marie Antoinette. You can also tell that Zweig, who was Austrian, felt in the post WWI world about the Habsburgs like an increasing amount of Germans post WWI (and even more post WWII, of course) felt about Fritz and the Hohenzollern, i.e. after years of uncritical and often over the top glorification going into hardcore debunking mode about the lot of them, though he's not without sympathy for MA, and even admires her in her final years.
Anyway, while Zweig doesn't write short sentences, exactly, he writes beautiful German, and he's a superb storyteller. As he was fluent in French and loved French culture, he had an advantage about a great many French and English biographers in that he could read primary sources in either language. The Fouché biography covers, like Fouchés life, the French Revolution and Napoleon and the restoration of the monarchy from a unique pov. I'd compare it to fanfic written from the villain's pov WITHOUT the woobiefication that usually goes with it. And course Fouché was very good at what he did, so we do have an extremely, chillingly competent antihero/villain protagonist to follow.
Re: Request for book recs
Date: 2021-05-29 11:10 am (UTC)Anyway, while Zweig doesn't write short sentences, exactly
That's fine, neither did Horowski! I want to improve my facility with German. It's just that I need the content to compensate for the difficulty of the language. Which Horowski did perfectly. And Lehndorff, despite short sentences, did not (he's wonderful and invaluable as a resource, of course! but you--or at least I--have to be able to either read quickly through the parts that you don't have context for, or do research/salon chat to get that context).