Frederick the Great

An entertaining royal biography of Prussian king Frederick the Great—a fascinating character with conflicting visions of authority and reform, power and art—from “one of Britain’s most piercing observers of social manners” (New York Times).

The Prussian king Frederick II is today best remembered for successfully defending his tiny country against the three great European powers of France, Austria, and Russia during the Seven Years’ War. But in his youth, tormented by a spectacularly cruel an...