Throughout Prince Metternich's glittering and successful career he sought to free Europe from the forces unleashed by the French Revolution. He was an enemy of change, despised by republicans and feared by radicals. Metternich's acute skill for diplomacy was instrumental in creating alliances to reverse dangerous republicanism and restore Europe's legitimate monarchies to their thrones. This fascinating autobiography covers Metternich's early years from his school days in Strasbourg and his meteoric rise in the service of Austria to the defeat of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Metternich was at the heart of Europe's diplomatic community and he paints revealing portraits of such key figures as Napoleon, Czar Alexander, Talleyrand and the Bourbons. He also reveals much about the political life of a continent convulsed by the French Revolution and by the ambition of the Emperor Napoleon. Metternich's observant eye and sharp intellect reveal themselves in a book which is crucial to an understanding of the man who played such a significant role in reshaping Europe.