THE SUN KING. [Hardcover]

Nancy: Mitford (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Pan (1999)
• ASIN: B000T5TNL8
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant society analyst Mitford on most brilliant society, September 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sun King (Mass Market Paperback)

Nobody understood the nuances of aristocratic society better than the Mitford sisters. No aristocratic society ever had more nuances than Louis XIV's.

That background and Nancy Mitford's witty prose make her study of Louis and her court so readable that her exhaustive research and genuine scholarship may be overshadowed.

To the unitiated, Louis is a gilt and ormalu figure rather than one of the most interesting personalities in European history. Anyone new to the Louis fascination will be infected, but Mitford's biography is also deep enough for readers who know much more.

Most biographers of Louis understand how interesting, funny, and complex his personality and long life were. Mitford explains this phenonomen well, and illustrates his personality by examining Louis's family, court, and surroundings.

Mitford lived near Versailles for many years and draws from hundreds of original French documents.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chatty and Charming, June 21, 2000

By 

P A Brown (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sun King (Mass Market Paperback)

Nancy Mitford is not so much a historian as a gossip. She loves using words like delicious or delightful that more scholarly types would eschew. But her histories are delicious, full of little details of dress and deportment, disapproving profiles of people who weren't much fun. She forgives the extravagant Sun King for and his heirs for bankrupting France because they did it with exquisite style and taste. Although I want to disapprove of Nancy's chats on the basis of their casualness and fawning over the rich and lovely, I just cannot help loving them. As she so often said, "Oh, admit!" I do.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty and personable, good introduction to the subject., June 4, 2002

By 

Cas (the Idaho mountains) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Sun King (Mass Market Paperback)

Here's "Lifestyles of the Obscenely Wealthy and Powerful"! I admit I'd never read much about this period of history (I'm fond of joking that my in-depth knowledge of politics and history more or less ends with Elizabeth I's death), but the bit I read at the bookstore made this book irresistible. I passed up an Alison Weir for this, but I don't regret the choice at all. It is both charming and knowledgable, with a witty, personable, almost gossipy tone.

There's a lot of information here, packaged with lots of pictures and glossy pages. It is a lovely book to look at purely on an aesthetic level. But do take the time to actually read it! Though sparse in areas, it is a rich look at the life of Louis, and at the lifestyle of a courtier of his day. The creation of Versailles is gone into in much detail, as are sexual politics and wartime attitudes. Mostly this focuses on Louis' personal life and that of his court and how Versailles came about, so there isn't much here about actual wars or about international politics. But what there is is just stupendous. I'd call this a must-have for a beginner in French history. I'm very glad I got it.