Customer Reviews

The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria

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Elisabeth of Austria has held a strange fascination for many people, because of her reknown beauty and her strange relationship with her husand and children. Married at 15 to the emperor of Austria, Elisabeth was under the domination of her mother in law. Her first two children are virtually raised by her mother in law and she has very little impact on their life. Feeling oppressed by the court atmosphere, Elisabeth escapes through numerous diversions, including exercise and horseback riding. Supporting a constitutional monarchy, she alienates herself from her husband, who nevertheless continues to love her desperately. Finally they are reconciled and she gives birth to her last child, a daughter who will be "her" child. Elisabeth becomes increasing erratic until she finally removes herself from court life completely. Her final years are marred by unhappiness with the suicide of her only son and her own death at the hands of an assassin.

Author Hamann does an excellent job of portryaing the life of this woman, who has often been compared to Princess Diana. What really becomes clear is that Elisabeth must have suffered from some sort of mental breakdown and without help, she chose to life a life that brought unhappiness to quite a few people, including her husband and children. The book is well written and captures the time period perfectly.

Having traveled to Vienna this past summer and touring both the Hofburg and the Schoenbrunn Palace, and unfortunately sleeping thru history class when I was in school, I'd never heard of the Habsburgs nor Sisi. After touring Elisabeth's quarters in the Hofburg, seeing her exercise room and her many jewels, dresses and other belongings, I became entranced with her and had to learn more about this beautiful but sad woman who was married and put into a gilded cage at the age of 15.

This book did not disappoint. I found the author's research, along with the addition of writings from diaries from her daughter Valerie, along with several of her "ladies in waiting" coupled with plenty of Elisabeth's own writings and correspondence, to be top notch. The author doesn't interject her own feelings about the life of Sisi, but lays out a fair analysis and leaves the reader to make up their own minds as to the state of mind of this beautiful, but troubled woman.

I really wish I had read this book before I traveled to Austria and Hungary, because I would have been able to tour Sisi's other palaces and castles, had I known about them. Luckily, I'll be traveling to Corfu this summer............and surprise, Sisi also built a palace there, and I can't wait to see it.

This is a must read for anyone traveling to Vienna, because it gives the tourist a better interpretation of what they are seeing. I also recommend "A Nervous Splendor, Vienna 1888/1889, by Frederic Morton, that goes into great detail with regards to suicide of Crown Prince Rudolph, Sisi's son, and the events surrounding the tragedy at Mayerling.

I highly recommend this book!

I purchased this book after touring the Schonbrunn Palace outside Vienna, the former Habsburg summer residence. After hearing a little bit about the Empress Elisabeth, I was curious to learn more. This book is a fantastically interesting account of Elisabeth's life. I urge you to read and enjoy!!

After finding Sisi on our trip to Vienna,I knew I had to know more. I am a retired world history teacher, so I was choosy about my choice of books about this most interesting person. I found The Reluctant Empress to be the least biased and I could not put it down. I felt sympathy, contempt, love, curiosity and just plain fascination with this unique woman of 19th century Europe. I am now going to read the sad story of her son, Crown Prince Rudolf, who died a very tragic death at Mayerling. You know" the more you learn, the more you learn how much there is to learn". Loved this book. Well written, and well documented. I do believe that the intermarrying of these three Royal families of the time did produce some very disturbing character traits, such as hemophilia, erratic behavior, severe depression, leading to suicide, madness,, among them. But Sisi made some very questionable decisions, especially concerning her family. At times a pitiful figure, at times a very selfish one, but as I said, always fascinating!

I recently went on a trip to Vienna Austria and while I was visiting the city we went to the Hofburg Imperial Apartments which included the tour of the Sisi Museum. I could not help but become intrigued by Empress Sisi and her husband Franz Joseph who seemed so very different from each other. Empress Sisi could probably be considered the 19th century version of Princess Diana. Her story is very fascinating and I could not help but notice how she was a woman before her time. Despite the fact that she was extremely beautiful she was a free spirit and I think she found court life to be very trying and harsh. When the tour was finished I picked up a copy of this book because I was looking for some more information about this woman and her life. As soon as I returned home I could not wait to start reading this book. I really enjoyed it and I found all of the information in the book to be extremely helpful in trying to create an accurate picture of Sisi and her life. As far as biographies go I found this one to be very interesting and enjoyable. All of the information is presented in a very easy to understand way and follows the major sequences of Sisi's life including her love of horses, Hungry, and her need to travel. I still think her story is very tragic and I can't help but wonder if she had been raised differently or if her husband had tried to include her in politics from the beginning whether her life might have been different. Still, I my heart goes out to her husband who did really love her in his own way and her children who tried desperately to get her attention. I'm really glad that I purchased this book when I was in Vienna because I think it helped me understand and appreciate all of the things that I saw while touring the Hofburg Imperial Apartments and helped me gain a better understanding of personalities and times of Empress Sisi and Emperor Franz Joseph.

Although I enjoyed reading the book the contents is a bit disjointed because the events are not laid out in a chronological order. However, the book reveals what a complex woman the Empress of Austria was. She was a total contradiction of her political views as she despised the very Monarchy that enabled her to travel the world and monetarily accommodated her every whim. But maybe her life would have unfolded differently had she not been forced to marry at 16 years of age. Then again, there are other monarchs who were thrust into the Royal life and did handle their position quiet well. Overall, unfortunately the Empress of Austria lived a very unhealthy and unhappy life.

It is heartbreaking to read about the destruction of an attractive and lively personality. Yet that is what Brigitte Hamann's biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria does. Titled THE RELUCTANT EMPRESS, Ms. Hamann's book charts the downfall of Elisabeth (more commonly known by her nickname "Sisi") from a carefree 15-year-old who caught the heart of the Emperor Franz-Joseph, to a teenager whose children were taken from her by her jealous mother-in-law, to a twenty-two year old who fled the Viennese court and her marriage because after six years of marriage, she became so ill, that people feared for her life.

Unable to live with a husband who was dominated by his mother, and kowtowed to a stifling regimented Spanish etiquette, Sisi tried to find something to do with her life.

In the 1860s, she agitated for the parity of the Hungarian crown with the Austrian. In 1867, her efforts were crowned with a coronation ceremony in Budapest.

In the 1870s, she dropped politics and moved onto horse-racing, becoming one of the most outstanding equestrians in the world.

In the 1880s, she focused on poetry, writing several hundred poems, most of which were not published until after her death (they were too subversive). She stopped writing poetry when her only son, the Archduke Rudolf, committed suicide in 1889.

In 1890, her youngest child married, giving her even less reason to stay in Vienna. And so she wandered, from place to place, never finding a home of her own.

For those of us who remember the trials and tribulations of Princess Diana this makes chilling reading. Like Diana, Elisabeth suffered from anorexia. Like Diana, she was a perfectionist who cultivated a cult based on her own extraordinary beauty. LIke Diana, she became an unhappy woman who never seemed to find her footing in the world. So when Elisabeth was assassinated in 1898, her death was a relief. Birgitte Hamann writes:

"This sensational act of violence in Geneva was a deliverance for a deeply unhappy, emotionally disturbed and physically debilitated woman whose parting hardly left a gap."

What a tragedy for such a deeply gifted, and sensitive personality. Five stars.

This book is wonderfully written. Goes into the everyday lives of Sissi, her family and friends. Very interesting reading. Great buy!

elizabeth could never aloud the stirct austian court break her.so she excape traveling the world refusing to be trap in a golden cage.in the end her beauty and fame only brought her unhappiness and death .