Reviews for Biographical Studies

The average rating for Biographical Studies based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-11-26 00:00:00 Irina Degtyareva Constructed out of three separate works by Metternich's son, this autobiography runs up to 1815 and the Congress of Vienna. Parts of it were written in the 1840s, the editing took place thirty years later, it seems fair to assume that the way that events worked out shaped how and what is recalled here. The translation is an old one but, apart from the phonetic rendering of Mainz as Mayence which confused me for a while, the tone seemed appropriate. Metternich served as Austria's foreign minister from 1809 to 1848 when he felt it incumbent upon himself to depart rapidly and seek a change of air in Britain after pronounced vocalisations indicative of intense disapprobation by various strata of the Vienna public against him and his policies. All of the separate parts of the autobiography were written some time after the events described but before the the 1848 revolutions. Metternich apparently regarded the events of 1848 as a vindication of his views and his writings here also serve to vindicate his actions as a diplomat, there are a number of unwitnessed conversations between Metternich and A N Other (usually dead by the time of writing) in which Metternich is cool, collected and right while his conversation partner is blustering, thoughtless and proved wrong by the judgement of history. Clearly it helps when writing the first draft of history to outlive people who might recollect things differently. Naturally there are omissions. Metternich doesn't mention his role in sending a man to seduce Napoleon's second wife Marie Louise (daughter of Metternich's master the Emperor Francis of Austria), she gets a fairly bad press from Metternich considering that she only did her duty in marrying Napoleon in the first place (Metternich's role in prompting this alliance is also ignored in his own account). Naturally there are some fairly strange judgements. The French are revolutionary spreading messy disorder all across the map of Europe, and so must be fought against, while Napoleon represents order but must also be fought against. Metternich, based on his time as Ambassador in France, understands France's essential war weariness already by 1809 better than anybody else, believes that the Austrians were ready to rise up en mass against the French in 1809 and is willing to give the impression that such an untrained and unarmed mass could have beaten the French army (later of course the Prussian Landwehr who do fight the French and after 1813 contribute towards victory, and presumably completely unlike Austrian forces, are merely vindictive) and apparently it was Napoleon's victories that showed Metternich that it was time for Austria to join the allies in 1813 rather than Napoleon's difficulties in scraping together an army after 1812 which he also alludes to. Between the lines the importance of family connections is very interesting. Family set Metternich on his career and the absence of a network of family interrelations and affiliations seems to have been absolutely fatal to Baron Thurgut who was the minister responsible for foreign affairs as Metternich began his career. Perhaps it's not so surprising then that Metternich has a poor opinion of the eighteenth century and the ideal of a rational and enlightened society. This is a fine example of self-serving political autobiographical writing, a genre which, I understand, has remained alive and well to this day.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-01-28 00:00:00 Patricia Foley Good