Frederick the Great

by Nancy Mitford, Liesl Schillinger (Introduction)

Overview

The Prussian king Frederick II (1712–1786) is perhaps best known for successfully defending his tiny country against the three great European powers of France, Austria, and Russia during the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), a feat that allowed Great Britain to limit its engagement on the Continent and emerge as the world’s leading colonial power, as summed up in William Pitt’s famous claim that “America was won in Germany.”

But in his youth, tormented by a spectacularly cruel and dyspeptic father, this future military genius was drawn first to the flute and French poetry, and throughout his long life counted nothing more important than the company of good friends and great wits. This was especially evident in his longstanding, loving, and vexing relationship with Voltaire. An absolute ruler allergic to pomp, a nonhunter who wore no spurs, a reformer of great zeal who maintained complete freedom of the press and religion and cleaned up his country’s courts, a fiscal conservative and patron of the arts, the builder of the rococo palace Sanssouci and improver of the farmers’ lot, maddening to his rivals but beloved by nearly everyone he met, Frederick was—notwithstanding a penchant for merciless teasing—arguably the most humane of enlightened despots.

In Frederick the Great, a richly entertaining biography of one of the eighteenth century’s most fascinating figures, Nancy Mitford’s trademark wit and charm find the ideal subject.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590176429
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	07/23/2013
Series:	NYRB Classics Series
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	525,644
File size:	763 KB

About the Author

Nancy Mitford (1904–1973) was the eldest of the “Mitford girls,” the sisters who captured the attention of the English public and press with their literary talents and unpopular politics. Nancy Mitford herself was known for her novels, for her forays into social science, and for her biographies of famous figures from French history, including Madame de Pompadour, The Sun King, and Voltaire in Love, all available from NYRB Classics.

Liesl Schillinger is a book critic for The New York Times and writes on the arts for a variety of other publications, including The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Vogue. Her translation of the novel Every Day, Every Hour by Nataša Dragnić, was published in May, 2012 by Viking.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Acknowledgements xvii

1 The Father 1

2 The Unhappy Family 18

3 Escape 28

4 Rehabilitation 36

5 Marriage 43

6 Out of a Rembrandt into a Watteau 49

7 The Throne 56

8 Check to the Queen of Hungary 62

9 Diplomats' Nightmare 77

10 The King's Friends 90

11 The Second Silesian War 99

12 Thoughts on Warfare 107

13 Sans Souci 114

14 The Poet 128

15 The Reversal of Alliances 145

16 The Seven Years' War 154

17 Ma Sœur de Bayreuth 171

18 The Great Frederick 182

19 Man is made to work 198

20 The Uncle of Germany 205

21 The Potato War 215

22 Winter 224

Sources 232

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

It is written with all the author’s skill, is really hard to put down once its rhythm and energy take hold, and yet imparts an astounding quantity of information.” —Guardian
 
“Mitford’s felicity lies in capturing the spirit of a society and an age.” —The Times Literary Supplement

“Nancy Mitford seems to have brought a new talent to the study of history: that of the sophisticated, worldly wise observer, who is able to penetrate old archives with a fresh eye for qualities in the dead.” —Louis Auchincloss, The New York Times Book Review
 
“Her style is skillfully succinct . . . and her wit proceeds from uncommon shrewdness.” —Sunday Times
 
“Apart from Miss Mitford’s special interests in the fun and fashion department, one may admire her most for her power to condense and explain the most complicated events.” —The New Statesman

From the Publisher