Soooo...in my (basically non-existent) spare time, I have been steadily plowing through "The Golden Fleece," a biography of Elisabeth and Franz Joseph of Austria. (For those of you who read this thing consistently, yes, this is the same Elisabeth whose life was chronicled in the Takarazuka show I was babbling about.) As far as bios go, this one was pretty good. Not the best in terms of actual historical writing, as it had no footnotes or the like, just a bibliography at the end, but since I was just reading it for fun, the amusing narrative style used by the author made it a quite enjoyable read. It also allowed me to brush up on my Austrian history, which is basically limited to two places - a history class where I learned I could lay the entire blame for the start of World War I on the shoulders of an Austrian archduke who ended up on the wrong side of an assassin's bullet, and the Sound of Music. This, obviously, was rather better.
I have to admit, it was quite interesting to see the liberties taken with Elisabeth's character in the play. Most things were essentially the same - her fiercely independent character, her love of walking and riding, her obsession with physical beauty - but the main difference I think was in the portrayal of how she ended up the way she did. In the play, it seemed quite obvious that she was the victim, both of a vicious and power-hungry mother-in-law, and of a loving but rather spineless husband who wouldn't lift much more than a finger to really help her. While the character of Sophie, her mother-in-law, was as wretched as ever, I must admit to coming away from the book with a much higher regard for Franz Joseph. His total and utter devotion to Elisabeth rather stunned me, and he came off not so much as weak as compromising. He loved his wife utterly but respected and honored his mother. He merely made what compromises he could.
The other interesting part of the book that was briefly dealt with in the show but perhaps not as much as it could have was Elisabeth's deep obsession with insanity. Her family had a history of mental illness, probably because of such close inbreeding (Elisabeth and Franz Joseph were direct cousins) and she was quite sure that she would end up like so many of her relatives. I particularly loved the description of her cousin Ludwig, king of Bavaria, who was more than a few fries short of a happy meal but apparently had superb tastes in castles. He might have been as mad as a hatter, but part of it came from his determination to flout conventional society, and I highly respect that.
More than anything, the book made me wonder how much of who we are in life comes from ourselves, and how much is shaped by those around us. Elisabeth, I don't think, was vain and selfish by nature, but she came across that way to Austria. Why? Was it because she grew so totally indifferent to her subjects, or rather because she needed so badly to escape the walls she felt were closing in around her? I can't help but ask the same question about people in the world today. Do people act certain ways because they want to or because they just don't care about the reaction, or is there something else driving them in the background?
Although I read this book for the sole purpose of learning about Elisabeth, I think the most amusing anecdote actually came after her death in 1914. When the crown price Rudolf committed suicide with his mistress (which, by the way, was a relief to me in some respects - I really wasn't dealing well with the huge Oedipus complex the poor boy had in the show) Franz Joseph had to find another heir to the throne. He adopted his nephew, Franz Ferdinand, probably the most famous Austrian archduke in history. It turns out that he and his wife only went to Bosnia that day because he and Franz Joseph were arguing. Franz Joseph told him not to go, that it was too dangerous, and Franz Ferdinand basically went just to spite him. After his assassination and the outbreak of war, Franz Joseph apparently spent a lot of time sitting around and wondering why the rest of the world had to go to war just because his nephew had been an over-confident idiot and gotten himself shot. For some reason, looking at WWI like that was just..well...rather funny for me ^^;;
And Luigi! The insanely funny (pun intended) Italian terrorist who stabbed Elisabeth to death with a dirty file just because she happened to be the the only royal personage in the area, and he had to kill *someone.* At his trial, he apparently commented that "a Lucheni would never hurt a washerwoman, but he is happy to do away with useless queens." He was apparently quite proud of his accomplishments, and only deigned to hang himself in prison when it seemed as though no one was paying attention to him anymore. *le sigh* I guess even anarchists need love.
At any rate, book = good. Even if you have no interest in the people personally, it's a good source of Austrian history. I highly recommend it! ^__^
My only complaint? I miss the Death-Elisabeth-Franz Joseph love triangle ^^;
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