What do you think?
Rate this book
Selected Works
•This e-book is publisher’s unique compilation of five books by Charles Major.
•All the books are illustrated as per original publications..
•The images have been resized, digitally enhanced and optimized for a Kindle.
•A new table of contents with links to individual chapters has been added by a publisher.
An excerpt from the beginning of the book:
To a great majority of persons having the good fortune to possess an imagination, princesses as a class are exceedingly attractive.
Long ago, kings and princes were found to be of the earth very earthy, and the fact that the clay of which they are made is nothing better than what in the human pottery might be called " Common Adam Yellow" has become so well known that romance and male royalty have grown to be things apart, even to the imaginative mind.
But the princess has always been treated with such unmitigated cruelty and has been so universally the victim of royal caprice, a mere article of barter and sale, that her sweet clay has become soft and white on the potter's wheel, and she has taken her place in the great throbbing heart of the world, to be cherished with a romantic love that goes out to no one else. A cursory glance through history will readily convince one that it is better to be born a beggar whose fate is to die of want than to come into the world a princess who will one day die a queen. The head that wears a crown knows nothing of uneasiness compared with the head that lies beside it.
The only compensation the princess receives for her hard fate lies in the fact that her praises are often oversung. For example, she is always beautiful no one ever heard of a princess who was not usually gentle and wise. The chroniclers assert her beauty with so great insistence that frequently we are led to suspect these old scriveners of protesting too much. But despite our scepticism, we are forced at times to believe all they say.
Wilhelmina, sister of Frederick the Great, was one against whom our doubts cannot prevail. The evidence in her favor is overwhelming, and we must believe that she was not only beautiful, but wise, learned and witty, gentle, tender, lovable and true. Voltaire was her friend, and probably she was the one person of whom that interesting old cynic wrote nothing but good. Guy Dickens, Frederick the Great and a score of others render the same verdict and we must accept it.
"Wilhelmina, too, wrote a great deal about herself, and left us one of the most interesting books ever published. From it this story is taken. The princess does not say she is beautiful, for modesty shows its sweet face in and between all the lines of her fascinating memoir, but she proves conclusively her learning, her wisdom and her virtues.
•All the books are illustrated as per original publications..
•The images have been resized, digitally enhanced and optimized for a Kindle.
•A new table of contents with links to individual chapters has been added by a publisher.
An excerpt from the beginning of the book:
To a great majority of persons having the good fortune to possess an imagination, princesses as a class are exceedingly attractive.
Long ago, kings and princes were found to be of the earth very earthy, and the fact that the clay of which they are made is nothing better than what in the human pottery might be called " Common Adam Yellow" has become so well known that romance and male royalty have grown to be things apart, even to the imaginative mind.
But the princess has always been treated with such unmitigated cruelty and has been so universally the victim of royal caprice, a mere article of barter and sale, that her sweet clay has become soft and white on the potter's wheel, and she has taken her place in the great throbbing heart of the world, to be cherished with a romantic love that goes out to no one else. A cursory glance through history will readily convince one that it is better to be born a beggar whose fate is to die of want than to come into the world a princess who will one day die a queen. The head that wears a crown knows nothing of uneasiness compared with the head that lies beside it.
The only compensation the princess receives for her hard fate lies in the fact that her praises are often oversung. For example, she is always beautiful no one ever heard of a princess who was not usually gentle and wise. The chroniclers assert her beauty with so great insistence that frequently we are led to suspect these old scriveners of protesting too much. But despite our scepticism, we are forced at times to believe all they say.
Wilhelmina, sister of Frederick the Great, was one against whom our doubts cannot prevail. The evidence in her favor is overwhelming, and we must believe that she was not only beautiful, but wise, learned and witty, gentle, tender, lovable and true. Voltaire was her friend, and probably she was the one person of whom that interesting old cynic wrote nothing but good. Guy Dickens, Frederick the Great and a score of others render the same verdict and we must accept it.
"Wilhelmina, too, wrote a great deal about herself, and left us one of the most interesting books ever published. From it this story is taken. The princess does not say she is beautiful, for modesty shows its sweet face in and between all the lines of her fascinating memoir, but she proves conclusively her learning, her wisdom and her virtues.
Kindle Edition
Published August 22, 2014
1 person want to read
About the author
Charles Major
95 books3 followersCharles Major (July 25, 1856 – February 13, 1913) was an American lawyer and novelist.
Born to an upper-middle class Indianapolis family, Major developed in interest in both law and English history at an early age and attended the University of Michigan from 1872 through 1875, being admitted to the Indiana bar association in 1877. Shortly thereafter he opened his own law practice, which launched a short political career, culminating in a year-long term in the Indiana state legislature.
Writing remained an interest of Major, and in 1898, he published his first novel, When Knighthood Was in Flower. The novel about England during the reign of King Henry VIII was an exhaustively researched historical romance, and became enormously popular, holding a place on the New York Times bestselling list for nearly three years. The novel was adapted into a popular Broadway play by Paul Kester in 1901, premiering at the Criterion Theatre that year. The novel also launched relatively successful film adaptations in 1908 and 1922.
With a successful writing career, Major gradually lessened his legal obligations, closing his law practice over a year after his first novel, in 1899. Published in 1902, his third novel, Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall, another historical romance, this time set in Elizabethan times, rivaled the success of his first. Once again, the novel was adapted for the theater by Paul Kester, and saw a film release in 1924 starring Mary Pickford.
Major continued to write and publish several additional novels, to varying degrees of success, as well as a number of children's adventure stories, most set in and around his native state of Indiana. Charles Major died of liver cancer on February 13, 1913, at his home in Shelbyville, Indiana.
Wikipedia
Born to an upper-middle class Indianapolis family, Major developed in interest in both law and English history at an early age and attended the University of Michigan from 1872 through 1875, being admitted to the Indiana bar association in 1877. Shortly thereafter he opened his own law practice, which launched a short political career, culminating in a year-long term in the Indiana state legislature.
Writing remained an interest of Major, and in 1898, he published his first novel, When Knighthood Was in Flower. The novel about England during the reign of King Henry VIII was an exhaustively researched historical romance, and became enormously popular, holding a place on the New York Times bestselling list for nearly three years. The novel was adapted into a popular Broadway play by Paul Kester in 1901, premiering at the Criterion Theatre that year. The novel also launched relatively successful film adaptations in 1908 and 1922.
With a successful writing career, Major gradually lessened his legal obligations, closing his law practice over a year after his first novel, in 1899. Published in 1902, his third novel, Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall, another historical romance, this time set in Elizabethan times, rivaled the success of his first. Once again, the novel was adapted for the theater by Paul Kester, and saw a film release in 1924 starring Mary Pickford.
Major continued to write and publish several additional novels, to varying degrees of success, as well as a number of children's adventure stories, most set in and around his native state of Indiana. Charles Major died of liver cancer on February 13, 1913, at his home in Shelbyville, Indiana.
Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.