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noellita234's review against another edition
4.0
Very thorough and well done. Ended up watching YouTube videos to learn more about these people, their lands, and their relationships and how they affected the world.
maplessence's review against another edition
4.0
A great man, who fell out of favour in modern history because he was so admired by the Nazis.
Having read another Mitford biography I knew what to expect - a conversational style and an assumption that the reader already has a working knowledge of the history of the era. This wasn't a problem for me with [b:Madame de Pompadour|153529|Madame de Pompadour |Nancy Mitford|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320436433s/153529.jpg|1756305] but what I knew about Russian history would fit comfortably on the back of a postage stamp, so I struggled with this read until I put all other books aside & really concentrated. At least this time there wasn't too many French phrases as my schoolgirl french is now pretty much non existent.
I'm lucky to have one of the lavishly illustrated editions. For example this is a tabagie
much beloved by Frederick's father Frederick William.
I really wouldn't recommend trying an edition without illustrations. That just isn't the full Mitford experience!
This family did put the "dis" in functional. Frederick's father wasn't a well man, was disliked by Frederick's mother who encouraged his children to bait & disobey him. Frederick William retaliated with violence & unreasonable behaviour.
Frederick at 12
As a teen Frederick even made plans to escape.
Married to a woman he didn't love (& probably couldn't love, he was homosexual)
he ignored Marie Christine for most of their lives. He made only the most perfunctory effort to produce a heir & they then lived apart. She must have been very lonely.
A young king
Contrasted with the sadness in his eyes at 70.
Most of the people he loved predeceased him. Which may help to explain his expression, but after a life of war & strategy he wasn't a well man.
I would love to read more about his greatest adversary, the wily Empress Maria Theresa 0f Hungary & Austria.
If anyone knows a good biography, let me know!
Having read another Mitford biography I knew what to expect - a conversational style and an assumption that the reader already has a working knowledge of the history of the era. This wasn't a problem for me with [b:Madame de Pompadour|153529|Madame de Pompadour |Nancy Mitford|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320436433s/153529.jpg|1756305] but what I knew about Russian history would fit comfortably on the back of a postage stamp, so I struggled with this read until I put all other books aside & really concentrated. At least this time there wasn't too many French phrases as my schoolgirl french is now pretty much non existent.
I'm lucky to have one of the lavishly illustrated editions. For example this is a tabagie
much beloved by Frederick's father Frederick William.
I really wouldn't recommend trying an edition without illustrations. That just isn't the full Mitford experience!
This family did put the "dis" in functional. Frederick's father wasn't a well man, was disliked by Frederick's mother who encouraged his children to bait & disobey him. Frederick William retaliated with violence & unreasonable behaviour.
Frederick at 12
As a teen Frederick even made plans to escape.
Married to a woman he didn't love (& probably couldn't love, he was homosexual)
he ignored Marie Christine for most of their lives. He made only the most perfunctory effort to produce a heir & they then lived apart. She must have been very lonely.
A young king
Contrasted with the sadness in his eyes at 70.
Most of the people he loved predeceased him. Which may help to explain his expression, but after a life of war & strategy he wasn't a well man.
I would love to read more about his greatest adversary, the wily Empress Maria Theresa 0f Hungary & Austria.
If anyone knows a good biography, let me know!
blueyorkie's review against another edition
3.0
One of the greatest despots the world has ever known.
annapurchase's review against another edition
3.0
officially a nancy mitford girl, although i think it's more to her credit as a writer that I enjoyed this because she chose such a boring subject to write a biography on. it reads like fat gossip and i love it <3 though not frederick the great and his wars (woefully boring).
whats_margaret_reading's review against another edition
4.0
Nancy Mitford is a favorite of mine, without a doubt, and her Frederick the Great is the last European Enlightenment biography that she managed to finish before her early death. Frederick was spared a lot of her razor wit and snide remarks, maybe because she related to the overbearing father and strict expectations. Whatever the reason, Mitford's last biography is simply wonderful.
Frederick the Great was challenged with problems early in his life (he had a brother die from the gun salute given to royal male children because the concussion blew out his ear drums and was always sickly himself) to his difficultly with his sexuality (probably fancied other men but in a hereditary monarchy needed to marry politically and have heirs) and overcoming the overbearing legacy of his father. Frederick the Great, though Prussian and considered somewhat backwards by the French, Mitford's usual subject, strived to make significant political reforms and really live up to the ideals of his Enlightenment idol, Voltaire.
Mitford brings her immense biographical powers to bear in her last work, and it's a bitter sweet ending to her career. Within two years of Frederick the Great's initial publication Nancy Mitford was diagnosed with lymphoma and died within six months, never recovering self sufficient level of health.
I just wish she'd written more.
Frederick the Great was challenged with problems early in his life (he had a brother die from the gun salute given to royal male children because the concussion blew out his ear drums and was always sickly himself) to his difficultly with his sexuality (probably fancied other men but in a hereditary monarchy needed to marry politically and have heirs) and overcoming the overbearing legacy of his father. Frederick the Great, though Prussian and considered somewhat backwards by the French, Mitford's usual subject, strived to make significant political reforms and really live up to the ideals of his Enlightenment idol, Voltaire.
Mitford brings her immense biographical powers to bear in her last work, and it's a bitter sweet ending to her career. Within two years of Frederick the Great's initial publication Nancy Mitford was diagnosed with lymphoma and died within six months, never recovering self sufficient level of health.
I just wish she'd written more.
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