Customer Reviews

Memoirs of Duc de Saint-Simon, 1691-1709: Presented to the King

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first time my husband read the memoirs he couldn't stop quoting from them to me. Each day brought a new, interesting and usually funny anecdote from the squeaky-voiced, height-challenged, pomp and circumstance loving Duc. Loyal to a fault the Duc de Saint-Simon came of age during the reign of the French king, Louis XIII. Upon that king's death the era of the Sun King, Louis XIV began--a reign that lasted more than 30 years and was known for its opulence, corruption and debauchery. In passionate detail Saint-Simon provides an insider's look at the machinations of a royal court over the course of three kings and their wives, consorts, children, spiritual advisors, political consultants and hundreds, if not thousands of hangers-on. It's a fascinating journey and now that I've had the pleasure of reading Saint-Simon's trilogy for myself I find I can't stop telling his story. Over the years there have been a few English translations of Saint-Simon's original French work but this one by Lucy Norton is considered by most to be the definitive one. When my husband and I decided to start 1500 Books we felt that having Saint-Simon, as translated by Lucy Norton, on our list would be the jewel in the crown of our venture. We are delighted to bring these books to a new audience and we hope you share our enthusiasm. As Antonia Fraser, historian and best-selling author of Love and Louis XIV says of the Memoirs of Duc de Saint-Simon, they are "...not only great history, [they are] a great read!"

I can't add anything to what the publisher, Eileen J Bertelli, says in her review above, but I thought that such a show-stopper of a book deserved more gushing.

So, I was rereading The Three Musketeers (and not enjoying it, for some reason) and thinking about how very foreign it was. Dumas in 1844 didn't write at all the way a person would now--the morality and outlook on life are different. The culture he wrote about--France in 1650--was so colorful and romantic...I wondered how much was true and how much was an 1844 invention?

Just as I was thinking that and my interest in royal France was all heightened, I ran across this book, Memoirs of Saint-Simon. This book takes place in France in 1700--so now instead of Louis XIII we are in the time of Louis XIV, the Sun King, the most famous and glamourous of royal courts--and was written at the time (obviously, since it's a memoir), so it's a chance to really get inside the alien head of someone from a different age.

I'd never heard of Saint-Simon before and I don't usually like biographies (I don't like the lack of plot) but I gave the book a try. It is just amazing. It is packed with fascinating and witty anecdotes. Saint-Simon gives so many details about life in the royal court of France. He doesn't just list events--he has strong feelings about what he thinks is right or wrong and that helps glue things together (I would think, oh, here he is complaining about the royal bastards again just like he always does, and here he is taking another opportunity to say how very much he admires that abbot guy, and so forth). Apparently Saint-Simon revised his memoirs constantly throughout his life, which I think meant that he was able to think for a long time about what events meant to him instead of just writing down his first impressions.

Since this is a memoir, it has its boring parts. There is lots of military stuff that I couldn't follow and lots of pages that were just names and names and names and my eyes glazed over. However, memoirs need that sort of stuff to get the reader immersed in the time period. There is really very little of it. It made me glad I was reading an abridged version, though, as I think the unabridged version--if it was even available in English--would be hard to slog through. Although now that I've read the abridged version and enjoyed it so thoroughly I probably would be interested in the unabridged version.

The footnotes are terse and enlightening. The index is wonderful. Whenever I lost track of what was going on, the index would clear things right up. For example, some Duke got married and everybody was making a big stink about it. Why? Aha, the index says that the Duke is the oldest son of the crown prince, hence the heir to the throne, so his bride is the future Queen of France. As another example, some army commander did a terrible job but nobody wanted to complain to the King about it. Why not? Oh, right, the index says this commander is the King's son.

There is also a wonderful page that lists "THE ROYAL FAMILY IN 1691" and a wonderful family tree of the mingled French and Spanish royal families.

I feel I should say something about the physical book. It's just your regular old modern oversized trade paperback, so by definition ugly, but somehow it seems to be up at the high end of such things. I think it is unusually appealing. The paper is reasonably thin and white and the binding is fine. The cover, with the solid color and writing on top and the painting on the bottom, and the solid color being carried over to the back, is handsome. The thickness of the book is in a good ratio to the height and the thickness is enough to have a pretty spine with writing at the top and a picture on the bottom. Inside, the fonts are appealingly varied. Big friendly welcoming letters for the title page, a good worksmanlike font for the meat of the book, a smaller font for the index with capitol letters that jump out a little, tiny footnotes (which never overwhelm the page since they are terse and sparse), small capitols for the top of the page ( "MEMOIRS OF SAINT-SIMON" on one side and the year on the other, so the page tops slowly change from 1691 to 1709, neither boringly constant nor distractingly changeable), nice italics for the chapter summaries at the beginning of each chapter.....and the table of contents is pretty, and the family tree I mentioned above is wonderful, and the list of the members of the royal family is nicely laid out...really I think its just a nice book to handle.

So, this book is just wonderful. A great read of unique historical significance. I'm about to start reading the second book in the series. I think I shall poke around and try to find some more books about this fascinating time and place.

I was introduced to these memoires through a review by the incomperable Joseph Epstein. This is the first volume of three, each 500 or so substantial pages. As the blurb says, "a terrific read." Anyone interested in the court of Louis XIV (and who isn't?) must get this set. The good duc spent 30 years writing it without expectation of it's being published--at least in his lifetime. Do him and yourself a favor.

The bon Duc himself is a fascinating man: sardonic, suspicious, upright, snobbish, and almost never boring. (I'd say he's the French Pepys, minus the extra-marital affaires.) And he lived at Versailles in the fascinating time of Louis XIV, during the war of the Spanish succession, the deaths of 3 Dauphins and the Sun King, and the Regency of the Duc d'Orleans during the minority of Louis XV. He seems to know everything and everybody; his friends and "sources" include everyone from duchesses to footmen, so we hear all the salacious gossip of the day. For one so proud of his birth and ranking, largely isolated at court, he is surprisingly aware of and sympathetic to the misery of the French population. (He'd have been appalled by the Revolution, but not I think surprised.) Saint-Simon is simply one of the greatest diarists of all time.
This edition is a marvel. The only previous edition readily available in English was the translation by Bayle St. John, eminent Victorian, who couldn't stand the French; loathed Louis XIV; and often wasn't overly fond of the Duc himself. Ms. Norton's new edition is more scholarly, sympathetic and "reader-friendly"; the footnotes are far more informative, and the index is a wonderful guide in keeping straight all the various personalities at Versailles.
The book "Saint-Simon at Versailles", written by Ms. Norton and Nancy Mitford, is a wonderful companion to these three volumes, and includes pictures, maps, and additional exerpts from the Duc's memoires.
I'm halfway through the third volume now, and I don't want it to end. If you like to lose yourself in another century - these are the books for you.

Although three volumes, and over 1500 pages, this is still not all of it. I have an old two volume hardback edition with slip case and everything, which, I believe, contains even less. It would be nice if someone would translate the entire work. Casanova's memoirs are now available in their entirety. And then someone should do Froissart's Chronicle. Thank You

A first hand account of life in the court of Louis XIV? I gotta read that. The book has not disappointed. I especially like his snarky comments on various people (the King's bastards mostly) He's like an 18th century gossip columnist. Too much fun.