Victor Emmanuel II

by C.S. Forester

The history of Italy -- from the Congress of Vienna to the rise of Mussolini -- is treated in detail, with the clarity and fine writing one came to expect from C. S. Forester.

Genres: History

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

Reviews

[Stuart Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The unification of Italy under Victor Emmanuel II. Before Victor Emmanuel there had never been a country of Italy. There had been city states and Papal states, Venice had been its own country, and so had Florence and Milan. Under Rome the peninsula had been unified, but those were Romans. The people of Rome were Romans, the people of Pompeii were Romans, as were the Roman Greeks and the Romans of Gaul. Not until Victor Emmanuel was there a King of Italy.

Victor Emmanuel was King of Sardinia, which also included northwest Italy. The Pope ruled central Italy, while the rest was governed by Dukes and Princes, along with much of the peninsula ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while France and Spain also held pieces. When his father Charles Albert abdicated after a disastrous campaign against Austria Victor Emmanuel was suddenly King. While Charles Albert was a strict monarchist, Victor Emmanuel has more democratic ideals. He gave Sardinia a constitution and a parliament, then bided his time for opportunities to grow. With the constant upheaval in Italy and Europe in general opportunities abounded. While dealing with Napoleon III, Pope Pius IX, and Franz Joseph Victor Emmanuel found ways to slowly grow his kingdom a piece at a time through nearly constant warfare. With some victories and even more often defeats he created Italy one piece at a time. With the radical paper hanger Mazzini, the radical soldier Garibaldi, and the perfect politician Cavour all in their own ways serving his purposes, Victor Emmanuel turned a bunch of individual city states into a unified nation for the first time. When it was done, he died.

A very scholarly work covering in depth the history of Italy from 1848 5to 1871. While the people of 1927 when the book was written may have known much of the Franco-Prussian War and could actually talk to men who participated, that knowledge is not so wide spread today so many references are obscure. Still, it is greatly interesting and well written.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise telling of the history, well written and interesting. The author has a bit of an Anglophile bias against the French and the Pope, but his priase of Victo Emannuel II is well deserved.

[Peter Macinnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent account of the era of the Risorgimento by a master story teller. Italy in the 19th century, with many acts of bastardry. I'm just sorry he didn't mention the nice draymen at the London brewery who showed Haynau what it felt like to be whipped.