John Adamson
A Fine Ligne
Prince of Europe: The Life of Charles-Joseph De Ligne, 1735-1814
By Philip Mansel
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 384pp £25
THE HOLY ROMAN Empire, Voltaire famously (and inaccurately) remarked, 'was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire'. As a put-down, it could hardly have been more successful. For while most schoolboys can tell you about the Third Reich, and a select few can even identify the Second (of 1871-1918), almost none have the slightest idea about the First - ironically, the only one of the three that I really did 'last for a thousand years', until its dissolution at the hands of Napoleon in 1806. If there is a single reason why we English, habituated for centuries to the constitutional simplicities of our nation-state, fail to understand Continental thinking on the 'European project', it is our almost total ignorance of this complicated, but extraordinarily successful, institution: a maze of 111 and partial sovereignties that provided a unified juridical framework for much of Europe - from Brussels to Berlin, the Adriatic to the Baltic - throughout most of the pre-Napoleonic millennium.
For a glimpse of its complexity, and of its centrality to European life. there is hardly a better face to start than Philip Mansel's fine new biography of one of its most colourful and rakish grandees: Charles-Joseph, seventh Prince de Ligne. Raconteur, wit, seducer, and would-be counsellor of kings, Ligne conquered
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk