OUT OF PRINT!
Letters from Liselotte: A story of unrequited love
LETTERS FROM LISELOTTE: ELISABETH CHARLOTTE, PRINCESS PALATINE AND DUCHESS OF ORLEANS, ‘MADAME’ 1651-1722 Translated and edited by Maria Kroll,
pub. 1971.
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Liselotte was in unrequited love with the most famous man in the world—the Sun King himself—her brother-in-law Louis XIV. Her story is an insider’s glimpse into the soap-opera machinations of the ancien régime’s mythical court.
The earthily earnest Palantine princess who calls herself a frumpy “monkey face,” penned a shockingly revealing trove of letters. As the second wife of Louis XIV’s younger gay brother Monsieur, the Duke of Orleans, Liselotte, thinks her husband is a superficial piddle-head. She disdains his wearing of women’s clothes, his male lovers, and his obsession with wildly extravagant jewels, gambling, and parties. At heart a sober hausfrau, Liselotte becomes a loyal pal to Louis XIV. Eventually, she loses his favor when she makes enemies with the king’s morganatic second wife, Madame de Maintenon, whom she describes as “that old whore.”
For the rest of her days, Liselotte tolerates court life. She consoles herself by writing scathingly amusing letters to relatives and friends around Europe. She complains about French food and longs for sausage and sauerkraut. She describes France’s royal bastards as “mouse-droppings among the pepper,” and observes that “dogs are the best people I have come across in France.”
The intimate letters are a rare behind-the-scenes acknowledgment that underscores the adage: all that glitters isn’t gold.
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