My Letters From Ludwig: A Novel About King Ludwig II Of Bavaria

by C. Robert Holloway

While apprenticing backstage at Richard Wagner’s legendary Festival Theatre in Bayreuth, Germany, C. R. Holloway happens onto a handwritten note purporting to be from King Ludwig II. If real, its allegations are so slanderous, they would further stain Wagner’s and Ludwig’s already sullied reputations, and outrage their descendents and admirers.

Reluctant to inform anyone of his discovery, Holloway hides the note inside the lining of his luggage and, on returning home to Honolulu, stows it in a safety deposit box, hoping eventually to find time to verify its genesis and authenticity. Shortly, his Waikiki postman delivers a letter in which its writer demands the found note be destroyed immediately. Written in a hand identical to the original, it is signed by someone claiming to be Ludwig, himself!

Soon, a series of revealing letters arrive from ‘Ludwig’ in which he becomes increasingly more hostile toward Holloway and proportionately less self-recriminatory. Concurrent with the arrival of these letters, Holloway’s life takes a bizarre and disquieting turn that includes his phone being tapped, surprise visitors from Germany and frequent nightmares.

All of which energizes his determination to return to Bavaria, surreptitiously investigate Ludwig’s world and prowl his castles in search of the truth about the tortured life and mysterious death of ‘The Mad King.’ While a paying guest of the Hohenlohes, a wealthy family of nobility in Munich, Holloway becomes involved with their nineteen-year-old son, Reiger, a strikingly handsome, moody, first year medical student. Their edgy relationship nearly gets the two of them killed.

In the end, Holloway’s findings are sure to anger Wagnerian purists, infuriate Bavarian bureaucrats, startle keepers of Ludwig’s flame and give tourists a new perspective while tramping through his “Dream Castles.”

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 12, 2004

Reviews

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wildester (und schlechtester) take on Ludwig bis jetzt:
Das pacing ist kaum nachzuvolziehen, am Ende bleiben mehr Fragen ungeklärt als beantwortet, schlechtes Deutsch (teiweise ein Wort innerhalb einer Seite auf verschiedene Arten falsch geschrieben) und Französisch und Charaktere, die weder interessant sind noch die Handlung vorantreiben. Plotpoints werden eingebracht und kommen nie wieder auf (war der Junge die Reinkarnation einer historischen Figur?) und Handlungsorte werden regelmäßig durcheinaner gebracht (die Venusgrotte ist NICHT in Neuschwanstein). Generell unnötig sexuell ohne dabei die Handlung zu berreichern. Teilweise borderline Textstellen aus anderen Biographien entnommen, geschichtlich trotztdem fragwürdig.
Der einzige Grund, weshalb es nicht nur einen Stern bekommt ist, dass der Richard Hornig "plot twist" so unglaublich war. Vermutlich einer der lustigsten Theorien für Ludwigs Tod bisher.