Talleyrand's Last Duchess PDF Download

Author: Françoise de Bernardy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nobility
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Author: David King
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307337170
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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“Reads like a novel. A fast-paced page-turner, it has everything: sex, wit, humor, and adventures. But it is an impressively researched and important story.” —David Fromkin, author of Europe’s Last Summer Vienna, 1814 is an evocative and brilliantly researched account of the most audacious and extravagant peace conference in modern European history. With the feared Napoleon Bonaparte presumably defeated and exiled to the small island of Elba, heads of some 216 states gathered in Vienna to begin piecing together the ruins of his toppled empire. Major questions loomed: What would be done with France? How were the newly liberated territories to be divided? What type of restitution would be offered to families of the deceased? But this unprecedented gathering of kings, dignitaries, and diplomatic leaders unfurled a seemingly endless stream of personal vendettas, long-simmering feuds, and romantic entanglements that threatened to undermine the crucial work at hand, even as their hard-fought policy decisions shaped the destiny of Europe and led to the longest sustained peace the continent would ever see. Beyond the diplomatic wrangling, however, the Congress of Vienna served as a backdrop for the most spectacular Vanity Fair of its time. Highlighted by such celebrated figures as the elegant but incredibly vain Prince Metternich of Austria, the unflappable and devious Prince Talleyrand of France, and the volatile Tsar Alexander of Russia, as well as appearances by Ludwig van Beethoven and Emilia Bigottini, the sheer star power of the Vienna congress outshone nearly everything else in the public eye. An early incarnation of the cult of celebrity, the congress devolved into a series of debauched parties that continually delayed the progress of peace, until word arrived that Napoleon had escaped, abruptly halting the revelry and shrouding the continent in panic once again. Vienna, 1814 beautifully illuminates the intricate social and political intrigue of this history-defining congress–a glorified party that seemingly valued frivolity over substance but nonetheless managed to drastically reconfigure Europe’s balance of power and usher in the modern age.

Author: Jean Orieux
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 760

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Some lives are shaped in childhood, others in the course of time; still others must reach the threshold of advanced age before their purpose is clear. But not the life of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, born on February 2, 1754, whose family bore an illustrious name and had held a pre-eminent rank in society since the ninth century. At birth, his life pattern was set: opulence and renown, coupled with spiritual privation. He limped from the start, yet he was destined to go far. - p. 3.

Author: Joseph McCabe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Author: Alfred Duff Cooper 1st Viscount Norwich
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786257238
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 525

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Unique in his own age and a phenomenon in any, Charles-Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand, was a statesman of outstanding ability and extraordinary contradictions. He was a world-class rogue who held high office in five successive regimes. A well-known opportunist and a notorious bribe taker, Talleyrand’s gifts to France arguably outvalued the vast personal fortune he amassed in her service. Once a supporter of the Revolution, after the fall of the monarchy, he fled to England and then to the United States. Talleyrand returned to France two years later and served under Napoleon, and represented France at the Congress of Vienna. Duff Cooper’s classic biography contains all the vigor, elegance, and intellect of its remarkable subject.—Print ed.

Author: Barbara Norman Makanowitzky
Publisher: Scarborough House
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Author: Duff Cooper
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 9780802137678
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Unique in his own age and a phenomenon in any, Charles-Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand, was a statesman of outstanding ability and extraordinary contradictions. He was a world-class rogue who held high office in five successive regimes. A well-known opportunist and a notorious bribe taker, Talleyrand's gifts to France arguably outvalued the vast personal fortune he amassed in her service. Once a supporter of the Revolution, after the fall of the monarchy, he fled to England and then to the United States. Talleyrand returned to France two years later and served under Napoleon, and represented France at the Congress of Vienna. Duff Cooper's classic biography contains all the vigor, elegance, and intellect of its remarkable subject.

Author: University of California (System). Institute of Library Research
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Library catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 874

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Author: Los Angeles County Public Library
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Library catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Author: Philip Ziegler
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 9781842125861
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
A unique life of Talleyrand's niece - the Duchess of Dino - written by one of Britain's pre-eminent biographers.