Frederick the Great

Nancy Mitford wrote history almost in the same manner that she wrote fiction. Her eye is always on the telling anecdote or characteristic. In this book on Frederick the Great she probably has more of a character than even she is used to dealing with. He was the King of Prussia who was more comfortable with the ideals of the French enlightenment, but with the morals of the Medicis (as he would have described it himself).Mitford is the author of a series of wonderfully composed comic novels which feature the comings and goings of the upper classes in Britain. She is probably the 20th century's answer to Jane Austen, since no one wrote better comedies of manners other than perhaps the recently departed Louis Auchincloss.Critics have alleged that her histories owe a great deal to this sensibility. In her books on Louis XIV, Madame Pompadour, and Voltaire, the notion is that she uses her own highly placed social connections to form a template of mores that is somewhat anachronistic. Aristocratic culture in 18th century France was different from that of between the wars England.I think that most of Mitford's critics are being too hard on her mainly because of her other literary endeavors. Few academic historians or even popular ones have ever achieved the sort of success that Nancy Mitford has. It is impossible for even the greatest of historians (Gibbon, Macaulay, and Carlyle) to divorce themselves from their own ages and world views. Why should Miss Mitford be required to do otherwise?The choice of Frederick the Great is a natural one for someone with Mitford's love of eccentricity. The well-documented incidents of her own rather interesting family probably ensure that this is something less than a choice and more than an inclination. The portrait she paints of Frederick and indeed all of international diplomacy is that of a collection of eccentrics who compete with each other by blasting the brains out of each other's subjects.While Frederick's mania for all things French is interesting, it is difficult to understand in a world after the Romantic revolution of the 19th century. He preferred to speak in French, wrote verse in French (which he was touchy about) and attempted to win the praise if not of the French court then of the real shapers of French culture, the philosophes. In the end Frederick the cultural figure will probably be best remembered for his compositions for the flute which he played until he lost too many of his own teeth to do so.As a war leader Frederick was probably the leading figure of his age. Unlike Gustavus Adolphus and Napoleon, I would argue that Frederick did not really revolutionize military affairs at the strategic level as much as he did at the tactical level and generally in conflicts waged with his life long adversary, Marie Therese, empress of what was later referred to as Austria Hungary and over the territory of Silesia.If anything Frederick accomplished more of a diplomatic revolution by his actions in Central Europe, putting an end to the centuries old rivalry between the Bourbons and Hapsburgs who saw him and the rising power of Prussia as a threat to both of their interests and therefore something to be halted before it grew too strong. Nothing promotes unity as well as a common enemy.This book in the end provides a good overview of Frederick's life and times. If Mitford has a weakness it is that there is very little on Frederick's ability as a military leader. This has never been a strong point in her writings, but she does address it competently in the end.

The book was written, rather informally, in Mitford's expected, readable style. Numerous illustrations of people, buildings. and maps in color and black and white enhance the text. The people index is fine. Frederick was, without question, one of History's greatest monarchs and soldiers. He possessed a wonderful mixture of physical and intellectual traits. His curiosity about many things led to lots of search for causality. He as a competent musician, composer, and flute player (I have some of his works). He was an animal lover and wore no spurs, saying it was like sticking a fork into a naked stomach. He was bereaved when his little dog Biche, a companion for many years, died. At midnight, the night of his death, he asked a servant to throw a quilt over his dog who was shivering with the cold. He had prepared a grave for himself, his dogs, and his horse on the terrace of his fun palace Sans Souci. After the Battle of Torgau, Frederick and his generals walked so that the wounded could be carried in the wagons. Frederick's life knew much sorrow, as when Frederick and his friend (boyfriend?), Hans Hermann von Katte tried to escape the demands of Frederick's father Frederick I. The book discusses in fair details Frederick's interactions with prominent writers like Voltaire and monarchs like Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. A Lineage Chart would have added to the book's value.Finally, if you want the details on things like armaments, then this is not your book. If my review piques your desire for more, then place the book om you shelf beside your Caesar, your Napoleon, and your Lincoln.

Mitford is such a brilliant biographer with an intuitive understanding of the aristocracy , but Frederick the Great is simply not that interesting a subject, sad to say.Also - and I wish to say this as politely as possible- Mitford’s sister , Unity, was a member of Hitler’s innermost circle, and a dedicated Nazi until her suicide . I regret that the sister was permitted burial in England, and I regret that following this, Nancy Mitford chose a Prussian as her subject, perhaps not in the best of taste.

This is a period of history with which I am not familiar and to this point had little interest. However, I had planned a day for my wife and myself in Potsdam and I thought a little background information would enhance our day.Mitford's book turned out to be the perfect guide for a day in Potsdam. As other reviews here testify, she is no academic. What she is, is a heck of a good story teller.Frederick was not at all the stiff necked Prussian autocrat/warrior that I expected. He was instead, a multi-talented, captivating individual who comes alive under Mitford's deft touch.Well worth your time.

I have read all the major English language biographies of Frederick. Nancy Mitford's work remains among the very best. She understands character, drama, and nobility. Read this if Carlyle's Frederick is too long for you, which is a very reasonable feeling considering the length of that work.

The Life of Frederick the Great can (and does) fills tomes at the hands of other biographers. Life is short, so I opted for this slim little volume instead and was surprised how enjoyable and insightful it was. Nancy Mitford has a gift for transforming dry facts into literature, without indulging in hyperbole and conjecture.

Nancy Mitford, all those years ago, wrote an amusing and well-researched Life of this interesting character, Frederick. I could see how Ms Mitford (an interesting character, herself) looked back across the ages and found a personal fondness for her subject. There are quite a few quotable lines in this book, some that provoke a smile, that I'll leave it to the discriminating reader to find. The author dusts him off and brings him forward from the darkness of his time into the friendly light of hers... and ours.

If you read History for pleasure, and if you are fascinated by the eighteenth century, turn to Nancy Mitford! Although Mitford was, on her own admission, badly educated, she did her homework thoroughly; sifting through palace archives and the surviving correspondence of her subjects. He biographies of Louis XIV - 'The Sun King' - and of Madame de Pompadour are famous, have never been out of print, and they established Mitford as a serious historical biographer. Her fascination with Pompadour's great friend, Voltaire, produced two more books: 'Voltaire in Love' and 'Frederick the Great'. 'Frederick the Great' is a sympathetic and analytical portrait of a monarch whom neither his contemporaries nor later generations found easy to like; still less, to understand. A partial exception was Carlyle, but his biography is (a) hero-worshjip and (b) omits any mention of the King's homosexuality. Mitford is far more readable than the Sage of Ecclefechan; and had she access to contemporary sources which were not available to Carlyle. They include some of Voltaire's correspondence from the period when he was (self-) exiled from Versailles to Berlin. It is above all Mitford's racy and elegant style that makes this and her other books un-putdownable.

This was the last book that Nancy Mitford was to publish. She did not realise she was dying of cancer when she wrote it. The kindle edition doesn't have the illustrations in it. She had a thing for the 18th century and found the roccoco style enchanting. She blithely ignores the ultimate end results of Frederick the Great's warlike policies, indeed comes perilously close to trying to convince her readers that he wasn't warlike at all. She also skates over his creation of the Prussian Junker officer class. The end result of Frederick and Bismark's policies were of course WW2 and the attendant horrors of Gas Chambers and mass exterminations. That Frederick was a wicked tease who might or might not have been gay, played the flute, liked Roccoco architecture and was a cultured conversationalist doesn't quite take up the slack. He was an exceptional personality in his time, a brilliant General, and an unscrupulous politician. All of which qualities are related with glee, but there is a big hole where the end product of his actions are concerned.

I read her books many years ago. Reading again I am surprised she is such a good historian brining characters to life in the most readable way after thorough research. Nancy Mitford gives a new insight into French and German history of the time

Very readable, but a few tables of family relationships, and a table of dates would have helped.

Despatch and arrival were very good as is the book. A satisfied customer once more.