"Firmly resolved to live her own life and follow the desires of her own mind and heart"
By sally tarbox on 8 January 2018
Format: Paperback
First published in 1935, this is a very readable, fact-based account of Empress Elizabeth of Austria - something of a Princess Diana figure.
After a free and easy childhood near Munich (she was a member of the Wittelsbach family), Elizabeth was just sixteen when she married Franz Josef of Austria. Life suddenly changed dramatically as a member of the Viennese court. Her husband was loving but totally caught up in his duties; her mother-in-law overbearing and critical, assuming total control of Elizabeth's first two children.
The Empress seems to have retreated into herself, avoiding as many official duties as possible and absorbing herself totally in her interests: becoming fluent in Hungarian (which pleased one half of the - far from cohesive- Austro-Hungarian empire, and irritated the other); fixating on marathon exercise and diet regimes; travelling compulsively. She would sometimes go beyond the call of duty, visiting lunatic asylums and hospitals whose patients were highly contagious; while she was loved for it, there was also huge criticism for her absenting herself so much.
She had - and maintained control over- a third child; she seems to have devoted all her maternal feelings to this one. But she had tragedies too - from the strain of madness in her family (King Ludwig of Bavaria) to the Mayerling suicide/ murder of her son, Rudolf.
In later years she longed for an end to life; mostly travelling (her friendly relationship with her husband based mainly around letters they exchanged); her youngest child married, health problems. One feels that her eventual demise (stabbed by an anarchist) was almost a blessed release.

I felt the author left a lot of gaps; he gives detailed descriptions of her hunting expeditions and journeys round Europe, but I would have been interested to learn more of her distant relationship with elder daughter Gisela; to have had some understanding of Rudolf's motivation for Mayerling (while his suicide is acknowledged, little is said to explain his dead mistress beside him- presumably murder.) Googling Elizabeth brings up various issues which are not raised in the book - media allegations which, though likely spurious, would have helped the reader understand her antipathy to the wider world.

But an intersting if slightly dated biography.
With some b/w plates. ( )

Biografia datata ( )

Als am 1. Februar eine Abordnung der beiden Hauser das Kaiserpaar begrusst, wird Elisabeth in so warmen Worten der heisseste Dank der ganzen Nation fuer ihr Erscheinen in der ungarischen Hauptstadt ausgedruckt, dass es jerdermann und ihr am meisten klar wird, es sei nicht nur Zeremonie, nicht nur eine Pflichtbegruessung, sondern wirklich warme LIebe, Zuneigung und Begeisterung fuer ihre Person. Elisabeth ist das nicht gewohnt, in Oesterreich hat sie sich im Gegenteil immer verfolgt gefuhlt, ist immer in Kampf- und Abwehrstellung. Hier aber spuert sie die Waerme, die man ihr entgegenbringt, bis ans Herz heranreichen, und auch in ihr entsteht das Gefuehl inniger Sympatie, wie Liebe immer und ueberall wieder Liebe ausloest. Elisabeth verspricht sich selbst, fuer diese ritterliche Nation in gluecklichen wie in traurigen Tagen einzutreten, um ihnen diese Liebe zu vergelten, soviel sie es nur vermag. ( )

Man kann eigentlich diese Biographie heutzutage nicht mehr lesen, sondern sie nur als Kuriosität aufheben - das Elisabethbild hat sich nach durch aktuelle Forschung so derart verändert, dass die Conte Corti "Erzählung" nur mehr als senitmentales Märchen abgetan werden kann. ( )