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Levi, Anthony : Louis XIV

Carroll & Graf, New York, 2004

ISBN 9780786713097

Fine copy in fine dust jacket, 8vo, 391 pp.

1st

LEVI,ANTHONY: : LOUIS XIV

LONDON.CONSTABLE,2004.

ISBN 1841194255.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,no price-clip to dw/dj. Colour,subject portrait illustrated dw/dj with negligible shelf-wear and creasing - no nicks or tears present - top+bottom rear corners minisculely bumped with reciprocal creasing.Top+fore-edges bright and clean, contents near pristine.Clean, brown paper-covered bds with bright, stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate, plain white eps.8vo,vii-xvii+1-391pp [paginated] includes half-title+title pages,contents+illustrations lists, preface, chronology, double-page genealogy tree, 3 b/w maps, 8pp mixed colour+b/w contemporary illustrations between pp138/9, 13 chapters, notes an index and 2pp blanks to rear. Levi's compelling new life of Louis XIV gives prominence to a very important question.Louis was four when he acceded to the throne in 1643 on the death of Louis XIII.While the facts of his acession are not in doubt, the identity of his father is.There is good reason to believe it was not in fact Louis XIII, but Cardinal Mazarin,the man with his hands on the reins of power during the regency. A psychological portrait of the king is explored in the context of this possibility,the historical consequences of which are extraordinarily reaching.In the 17thC,France was Europe's most glorious nation and Louis XIV was the incarnation of Apollo,the sun god, popularly referred to as Le Roi Soleil.He was invested with unprecedented power and privilege and endowed with life's finest pleasures, in the arts, music, poetry and material elegance. France was an exceedingly rich,diverse and powerful country:Louis was its magnificent public face,the pinnacle of its glory,for almost 50 years.But though he was one of the most politically effective monarchs ever to reign he was also a man irredeemably flawed and one who ultimately proved damaging both to France and its monarchy.Levi examines with an expert touch the lifelong clash between Louis' role as the sun king, custodian of the greatness of France, and his guilt, as a human being, at the effect of his reign on France and its people.He questions the wisdom of training one person to be the symbol of absolute authority without allowing or obliging them to act as the embodiment of that authority.Invested with such power,how did Louis use it? Was he tyrant or populist? What was behind the prodigal expenditure on pomp and finery - did he confuse his own glory with that of France? Levi creates a rich, intricate portrait of this legendary ruler,assessing his character and the mixture of devotion and promiscurity that is his hallmark.Detailed episodes reveal his relationships with women, the court, his ministers, subjects, the church and foreign powers.In a controversial and fascinating biography Anthony Levi shows how the ultimate monarch acquitted himself throughout the lengthy and testing role that fate cast him to play in European history.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.

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