Elisabeth: Kaiserin wider Willen by Brigitte Hamann
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I visited the Sissi museum in Vienna in December of last year. It was beautiful and enchanting and piqued my enthusiasm of learning more about Elisabeth. I must apologize, if I sound biased and even condescending, but unfortunately most of the books and research one can find about Elisabeth is only through one author, Brigitte Hamann.
Based on everything I have read of hers dealing with Elisabeth I am confused as to her motivations to devote so much time and effort into a subject that appears to not be her passion or even full interest. Dispersed within the texts about Elisabeth she adds comment that have a snide undertone, as if she was more inclined to judge the subject of her research instead of presenting the facts as she has researched them.
A 600-page biography, meticulously research and full of facts, has become nothing more than an extended curriculum vitae with Elisabeth being nothing more than a passive entity. The author could have at least tried to bring the person of her research a little more to the foreground to facilitate some interest.
It was a tedious read and based on one falsehood I wonder how many other little snippets in this book were stretched further than the truth allowed.
Overall, I felt that the author used her fascination of this beautiful historical figure to allow herself to judge her more than study her. Many paragraphs contained her own opinion rather than staying objective and letting the facts speak for themselves. There are, I believe, a few more books available on Elisabeth, written by people, who actually knew her in diary and letter form. These may offer more insight into the person that Elisabeth was. I’m on the fence about at least suggesting this book or giving it a pass, most likely because it’s the only comprehensive one published.
