Customer Reviews

Pleasure and Ambition: The Life, Loves and Wars of Augustus the Strong

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The first chapters about August's youth and his brother's obsession with his mistress are good reading stuff. I noticed that the mistress, Sybille, is described as "Billa", although German books nickname her "Billchen", but that's only a minor detail.

From the start of August's reign, however, the book becomes a biography of the British diplomat George Stepney. It describes what Stepney did, where he was, what he wrote about August, and why, at times, he couldn't write about August. The book has extensive notes, but even those give me the impression that Stepney's correspondence was its main source.

Despite the title, the books is more about August's ambition and wars, than about his pleasures and loves. The author is of the opinion that the claim that August fathered 254 illegitimate children is ridiculous. He also doubts incestuous relationships between August and his daughter, the Countess Orczelska, because he "was then 57, and weakened by diabetes and an amputated toe". In his opinion, both stories are only the fantasy of the Margravine of Bayreuth.

Since this seems to be the only English biography of King August the Strong, and he certainly is an interesting figure, I would still recommend this biography.