Not the Finest, But Good Enough
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Prince Talleyrand's life is undoubtedly fascinating, and telling his story requires large doses of cynicism, as well as deep knowledge of the politics of Europe at that time.
David Lawday succeeds admirably in maintaining this mix; unlike many biographers, he is not madly in love with his subject but, at the same time, he has not succumbed to the modern temptation of "deconstructing" the person about whom he is writing.
The book is elegantly written, and should suffice for most general readers. However, it still lacks the sparkle of Duff Cooper's biography, published so many decades ago.
All in all, a highly recommended work, and a good backgrounder to the Napoleonic period.
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Disgraceful selective quotation
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I know that many publishers and authors pick out of reviews the phrases most favourable to their book, but I was astonished to see that someone has posted half a sentence from my review of David Lawday's book in the Sunday Telegraph that gives an entirely erroneous impression of my opinion of the book. Whoever is responsible should be ashamed of himself.
Adam Zamoyski
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Fascinating and thought-provoking
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A delightful read about one of history's more fascinating figures who played his part in bringing down two kings and one emperor. The parallels with modern events are striking, especially Talleyrand's quote "I attest that any system which aims at taking freedom by open force to other peoples will only make that freedom hated and prevent its triumph". Napoleon didn't listen and neither did george W
Talleyrand was clearly a complex and flawed character who perplexed his contemporaries and would have been hounded out of office today. the author is forgiving of his sins, arguing that his shrewd judgement of France's interests outweighed them. One could argue the same of Lloyd George or bismarck
Well worth a read, espeically for those whose knowledge of the French revolution is confined to Robiespierre and Napoleon
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Politics as an extreme sport
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Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord didn't just surf the Zeitgeist - he shot the barrel like nobody before or since. So much is generally agreed. How he did it, what he achieved, and what we are supposed to think of him, are not.
Surprisingly, Lawday's is the first biography in English since Duff-Cooper's, which dates (I think) from before the second world war, although Amazon has just told me that Jean Orieux's standard biography appeared in English in 1974 (with the highly appropriate subtitle 'the art of survival'). The reason this is surprising is that if ever there was a perfect subject for a popular history, then surely CMdT-P is it. And Lawday provides a superior popular history. He also presents an unashamed case for the defence: he is scrupulous about documenting the sins, but argues that these were venal, that in the big things, like France and the civilised future of Europe, Talleyrand was more or less unbending. Possibly more or less true (though opinions differ - c.f., e.g., Paul Schroeder), but by the end Lawday seems in danger of confusing his subject with Jean Monnet, which is a bit much, esp. given Talleyrand's completely bonkers idea - an enduring delusion the French General Staff shared with him into the 20th Century - that the 'natural border' of France lies at the Rhine.
I have heard (I'd like to think that it is true, but I've never confirmed it) that on receiving the news of Talleyrand's death, Metternich asked rhetorically 'und was hat er damit gemeint?'. This side is absent - the detailed analysis of Talleyrand as world-historical political player never gets far beyond the fact that he employed (more accurately, deployed) Antoine Careme very effectively as his cook. Fair enough - any attempt at this sort of thing would not only have a much smaller chance of ending up on the pick of the week table at the front of your local bookshop, but would be a much larger and more complex book, that might very well, I suspect, resemble Orieux's, which has been looking at me somewhat accusingly from my 'to read' shelf for a year or so now. I bought Lawday's book as a substitute, but alas (and it is certainly not intended as a criticism), in spite of the fact that I enjoyed Lawday, I think I still need to read Orieux.
In the meantime, the LRB review quoted above summarises it nicely.
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