Letters from Liselotte: Elizabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine and Duchess of Orleans

by Maaria Kroll

Hardcover - First American Edition, 1971 - The McCall Publishing Company, New York. Red linen boards with gilt decoration and writing on cover and spine; boards are perfectly square, sharp tips, no edge rubbing, perfect in very good dust jacket. Jacket has edge wear and rubbing at head/foot of spine, else good. Original owner's personal bookplate on 1st free page, very neat and discrete. Interior pages are clean, crisp, unmarked of a warm ivory tone. This book comes from a private collection and a year round home.

Genres: History, France, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Yooperprof · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable collection of letters from the royal court of Louis XIV, in an engaging and colloquial translation. Elizabeth-Charlotte was a German princess, and although she converted from Lutheranism to the Roman Catholic faith at the time of her marriage, she would always be sympathetic to the protestantism of her youth. She remained proud of her Rhenish heritage, and felt like an outsider in France through fifty-plus years of life there. This made the Duchess something of a cultural anthropologist of the court, since her detachment allowed her the perspective necessary to comment pungently on the elaborate rituals of status and hierarchy.

Elizabeth-Charlotte was married to Philippe, Duke of Orleans, younger brother of Louis XIV. Philippe was a flamboyant homosexual at a time when there was no word for homosexuality - although his flamboyance fit in quite easily with the rest of the French court. Her comments on her husband's orientation make for fascinating reading, as does also her attention to details of dress and deportment among the elite. There's something agreeably earthy about Elizabeth-Charlotte. Among the topics she writes about: the quality of fabric for the dresses and gowns worn by the ladies; the misbehavior of the unruly children in the palaces, running wild without supervision; the various card games favored by the aristocracy; and the occasion jokes about farting and other bodily functions that her family enjoyed sharing. There's nothing stuffy or artificial about the Duchess.

She also makes many interesting comments on the international political scene of Europe in the late 17th and early 18th century. Elizabeth-Charlotte was connected by blood or marriage with almost all of the important European leaders of this time. William of Orange and his wife Mary, victors of the Glorious Revolution, were both cousins. Her favorite correspondent was her beloved aunt Sophia, Electress of Hanover, mother of the future King George I of Great Britain. Moreover, her son, another Philippe Duke of Orleans, became Regent and de facto ruler of France after the death of Louis XIV, during the childhood of the future Louis XV.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liselotte, the queen of France in my heart