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A really super dual mirror for princes, with Karl XII as the virtuous but bad king, and Peter the Great as the Good Prince blighted by personal vices. This is from the old school of biography and historical writing, in which truth and fact are subordinate to the didactic value of the story. As long as the reader is aware of this, and can read critically, I think there is still value to this sort of work, and I would agree with Voltaire that facts and figures quoted uncritically with no style are no better than white noise. It must also be remembered that Voltaire set new high standards for research and referencing with this biography, and that most of the basic information presented is quoted directly from eye witnesses or from contemporary letters, documents, diaries etc. in the strong tradition of Thucydides.

What I find most bizarre is that Napoleon must have read this landmark in French literature, and not only read it, but known it well. Despite all this, he ignored Voltaire's advice completely and outmatched even Karl XII for personal brilliance and national tragedy, even following him into Russia to destroy another great army. No one, it seems, can hope to learn from history...

JM 30/07/18