"Absent documentation, history can only speculate about what happened between Rudolf and Mary at that isolated lodge" (p. 249). This is the most important thing to keep in mind about the incident at Mayerling.

The book is arranged so: Part 1 covers Rudolph's life and Mary's life up to January 28th 1889, which gives us the context and background for the incident; Part 2 is about what happened at Mayerling; Part 3 is about all the theories concerning the incident at Mayerling; and Part 4 is a summary of the first three parts stripped down to the essentials and mixed all together. Frankly I was irritated by the fourth part because 98% of it was a repeat of what came before, but at the same time one can't really skip it due to that new, interesting 2%. They would have done better weaving the good into the previous sections, keeping the Epilogue, and eliminating the rest of Part 4.

My other problem with this book concerns source material. The authors make it very clear that primary source material is scarce, due to the Emperor ordering basically everything about the incident destroyed or suppressed. Furthermore, everything that we do have, primary source or not, is of dubious truth because everyone - everyone - had reasons for lying about what happened at Mayerling; even Rudolph and Mary's letters are not to be trusted. And yet these same dubious materials are what the authors use as the basis for their book. It is hard for me to read that the memoir of so-and-so is filled with lies about Mayerling in order to protect their own skin, and then a few pages later read something presented as fact but whose source is that same lie-filled memoir.

Overall I'm conflicted about this book. On the one hand the first two parts were informative and exciting, but that final part was nothing short of tedious and left a bad impression behind. ( )

This work of 'narrative history' about the Maylering incident is not without merit, but is best regarded as simply an introduction to what happened in 1889. The first half, setting out the events leading up to the double death, seems largely lifted from other sources, especially Morton's 'A Nervous Splendor'. The latter half of the book is given over to sifting through the various theories and rumours about the deaths, but this is done in a confusing and repetitive way, with some of the authors' own speculations thrown in for good measure. Ultimately rather disappointing. Some good photographs, and information on events in subsequent years. ( )

A really well thought out look at the tragedy of Rudolf of Austria and Mary Vetsera. In the style that has come to characterize each of their books, Greg King and Penny Wilson set the stage in a sumptuous and richly descriptive way. The book is divided into four parts. In the first, we learn about the principal characters. In the second, we read of the senseless murder/suicide of Rudolf and Mary. In the third, the authors take us on a trip through all the conspiracy theories that were advanced in an effort to explain what exactly happened at the Mayerling hunting lodge. In the fourth and final part of the book, the authors deftly navigate what we know about the tragedy and what we know about mental illness today and create a very plausible picture of what they think happen.

Anyone that enjoys reading of the Habsburgs will find this hard to put down. I know I did. ( )

Good presentation of the events leading up to, and following, the 1889 murder-suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and one of his mistresses, the young Baroness Mary Vetsera, at the royal hunting lodge Mayerling, outside Vienna. The book succeeds on a number of levels: by delineating many of the characters in the drama, by providing an overview of the chaos that followed the discovery of the bodies, and the various theories and explanations that were spun, almost out of control, in its aftermath. The authors manage to dispel a number of long-held notions (the character of Crown Princess Stephanie, for example, was not the coldhearted, bitter shrew she is so often depicted as having been), as well as the romanticism that grown up around the relationship between Rudolf and Mary. Perhaps most helpfully, they lay out a plausible explanation for what happened behind the locked doors of Mayerling on January 30, 1889, and how events led up to this sad result. ( )

3.5 Several months back I read [book:The Radetzky March|54258], and realized how little I knew about the Hungarian, Austrian empire. The March was about the end of this huge empire, but told from a military standpoint, soldiers fighting for the empire that could see the end coming. This book shows the inner imploding of the empire and the beginning of the end of power of the Hapsburgs. When the crown prince Rudolf is found dead, alongside his seventeen years old mistress, leaving the empire without a direct heir, the end of this powerful house is near. These deaths would cause gossip, speculation and conspiracy theories that have reverberated through the decades. What really happened at Mayerling?

I love nonfiction that is not dry, told in an easy but through way, additionally I enjoyed how this book was arranged. In four distinct parts, the author takes us through the royal family, how Rudolf was raised, his marriage, his partying, drinking and his frustration with his life. The second section sets the stage for what was found at Mayerling, and how it was handled, covered up, things hidden. Then we hear about the conspiracies suspected, world reaction to the event, and different interpretations about the event. We learn what happened to those directly or indirectly and indirectly involved, and lastly the interpretations of all the evidence to date, which conclusion makes the most sense and seems to fit the best.

Quite well done. It covers much more than just the deaths, it also looked inside the inbreeding of the royal family. The state of their marriages and family. The political background of the time, and what was going on in this empire. Blackmail, a mother selling her daughter for entry into higher echelons of influence, and s young girl caught in the middle of these machinations. Quite sad, but fascinating. ( )