Louis XIV

Anthony Levi

ISBN 10: 0786713097 / ISBN 13: 9780786713097

Edité par Da Capo Press, 2004

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. N° de réf. du vendeur G0786713097I4N00

Synopsis :

A nation exceedingly rich and extraordinarily powerful, its arts unparalleled in elegance and excellence, France in the seventeenth century mirrored the monarch who ruled it: Louis XIV, heritor not only to the throne of his country but also, supposedly, to the powers of the mythological sun god Apollo. Known as le roi soleil—the sun king—and vested with unprecedented power and privilege, for fifty years Louis epitomized the glory that was France. On the dark underside of the monarchy's grand, gilded looking glass, however, lurked peasant starvation, financial bankruptcy, military defeat, and the deaths of thousands—all of which would plague the conscience of the king. It is in the struggle of the lofty sun king, who at least half-believed in his quasi divinity, to reconcile his extravagant persona with the shortcomings, flaws, miscalculations, and failures of an ordinary mortal that the fascination of this new, intricate, and controversial illustrated biography lies. Indeed, at the heart of Anthony Levi's probing study brews the conflict between Louis XIV's regal infallibility and his human, often tragic and far-reaching errors. Out of it emerges a complex personal portrait of one of the most politically effective monarchs ever to reign in Europe.

À propos de l'auteur:

Anthony Levi, a cultural historian and formerly Buchanan Professor of French Language and Literature at the University of St. Andrews, is also the author of Cardinal Richelieu and the Making of France.

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : Louis XIV
Éditeur : Da Capo Press
Date d'édition : 2004
Reliure : Hardcover
Etat : Very Good
Etat de la jaquette : No Jacket