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Sto caricando le informazioni... A Woman's Life in the Court of the Sun King: Letters of Liselotte von der Pfalz, Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchesse d' Orléans, 1652-1722di Charlotte-Élisabeth, duchesse d'Orléans
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. ‘No Carthusian monk could live more quietly or in greater seclusion than I do.’ This was the widowed Duchess of Orleans (1652-1722) writing to her half-sister describing her life at the court of her brother-in-law King Louis XIV. She had been married to the rather awful Monsieur, had three children, was neglected and found her forte in letter writing to her female relations describing life at Versailles and other royal residences in the late eighteenth and early eighteenth centuries. She adored Louis XIV but loathed his mistress (and later wife) Madame de Maintenon. Like rival stars she had nothing but insults for ‘The old whore ... old Drab ... old woman ... old Rumpumpel ... the great man’s old hag ... the old prune’. She was passionate about hunting, dogs (six slept on her bed keeping her warm and one pupped on her sofa while she was receiving grand company and she carried on regardless) and the theatre. She had no time for religious intolerance, attended the many religious functions at court with scepticism and aching knees, loathed the court doctors and was thoroughly pleased when adolescent lesbianism broke out in the Maintenton’s exclusive school for poor girls from noble families at St. Cyr. There is a delightful sidelight on the succession to the English throne because Liselotte had sympathy with ‘Our King of England’, the runaway James II and made a dear friend of his wife Queen Mary Beatrice but wanted her dearest aunt, Sophie, Electress of Hanover, to inherit the English crown. As she confessed to her aunt in 1702: ‘King William died last week. Now you are one step nearer the throne, with only one single person before you, and its looks as though she [Queen Anne] is almost ready for the next world too.’ She was honest, opinionated and a fabulous writer of purposely indiscrete letters. At times they are like Cranford meets Les Liaisons Dangereuses. 3933. Letters From Lisolette, by Elisabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine and Duchess of Orleans 'Madame' 1652-1722 (read 11 Sept 2004) This book is made up of letters written by Louis XIV's sister-in-law, and furnishes a sprightly behind the scenes look at life in French courtly circles in the late 1600s and early 1700s. They are well-edited and the connecting notes are excellent--and there is a very helpful family tree. She lived in interesting times and while her letters tell far more gossip than political history, I found them fun to read and a welcome refresher for the history of the period covered. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
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On 16 November 1671, Liselotte von der Pfalz, the nineteen-year-old daughter of the Elector of Palatine, was married to Philippe d'Orléans, "Monsieur," the only brother of Louis XIV. The marriage was not to be a happy one. Liselotte (known in France as Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchesse d'Orléans, or "Madame") was full of intellectual energy and moral rigor. Homesick for her native Germany, she felt temperamentally ill-suited to life at the French court. The homosexual Monsieur, deeply immersed in the pleasures and intrigues of the court, shared few of his wife's interests. Yet, for the next fifty years, Liselotte remained in France, never far from the center of one of the most glorious courts of Europe. And throughout this period, she wrote letters -- sometimes as many as forty week -- to her friends and relatives in Germany. It is from this extraordinary body of correspondence that A Woman's Life in the Court of the Sun King has been fashioned. As introduced and translated by Elborg Forster, the letters have become the remarkable personal narrative of Liselotte's transformation from an innocent, yet outspoken, girl into a formidable observer of great events and human folly. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)944.033History and Geography Europe France and region France Bourbon 1589-1789 Louis XIV 1643-1715; War of Spanish succession ; XVIIth CenturyClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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Elizabeth-Charlotte was married to Philippe, Duke of Orleans, younger brother of Louis XIV. Philippe was a flamboyant homosexual at a time when there was no word for homosexuality - although his flamboyance fit in quite easily with the rest of the French court. Her comments on her husband's orientation make for fascinating reading, as does also her attention to details of dress and deportment among the elite. There's something agreeably earthy about Elizabeth-Charlotte. Among the topics she writes about: the quality of fabric for the dresses and gowns worn by the ladies; the misbehavior of the unruly children in the palaces, running wild without supervision; the various card games favored by the aristocracy; and the occasion jokes about farting and other bodily functions that her family enjoyed sharing. There's nothing stuffy or artificial about the Duchess.
She also makes many interesting comments on the international political scene of Europe in the late 17th and early 18th century. Elizabeth-Charlotte was connected by blood or marriage with almost all of the important European leaders of this time. William of Orange and his wife Mary, victors of the Glorious Revolution, were both cousins. Her favorite correspondent was her beloved aunt Sophia, Electress of Hanover, mother of the future King George I of Great Britain. Moreover, her son, another Philippe Duke of Orleans, became Regent and de facto ruler of France after the death of Louis XIV, during the childhood of the future Louis XV. ( )