The King's Love

A brisk and insightful biography of Frederick the Great written by two of his royal descendants, Princess Sibylle and Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia. Deemphasizing the king's political and military achievements while highlighting his personal relationships, interests, and even quirks, this book gives us Frederick as full-blooded Mensch rather than as Olympian monarch. His tortured relationship with his martinet father, the soldier king; his extraordinary devotion to his dogs, eclipsing even his love for significant humans; his passion for reading and for the ideals of Enlightenment philosophy as guiding forces in government; the seemingly ceaseless tide of grief he had to endure over the rapid succession of deaths of those closest to him; even his less than fastidious table manners in cutting up bits of meat on the tablecloth for his nearby dogsthese and many other facets of a charismatic personality make this a volume that is for history buffs virtually unputdownable.

Autorentext
war Dozentin und künstlerische Leiterin an der Hochschule der Künste Berlin und lebt heute als freischaffende Künstlerin in Berlin

Leseprobe
You'll find it odd that an old man like me could lose his heart to a little dog. For fourteen years Thisbe was my constant companion; she was loyal to me like that queen of Babylon whose name I gave her. Perhaps she was enchanted! On many an occasion I believed it! Whenever I couldn't sleep at night, she would lie next to me and look at me quite curiously like a good soul! Frederick the Great in the year 1783 on the death of his beloved Italian greyhound Thisbe