Empress Maria Theresa

Fülszöveg

EMPRESS
MARIA THERESA
The Earlier Years, 1717-1757
by Robert Pick
Maria Theresa of Habsburg has not for
sixty years been treated to a biography in
English. Yet she was a key figure in the
turbulent politics and wars of eighteenth-
century Europe. A woman of extraordi-
nary tenacity, will power and dedication,
she ruled the Habsburg dominions for
forty years. She came to the throne at the
age of twenty-three, scarcely prepared for
the ordeals that lay ahead. Betrayed by
large sections of the privileged classes,
without responsible advice, without
money or an adequate army, she miracu-
lously prevailed. She transformed the
congeries of her family's possessions into
a viable country. Hers was a victory of
common sense, perseverance, and an in-
stinct for practicality one looks for in
vain in her forebears. She was, says Lord
Acton, "a sensible and reasonable woman,
much the best that had ever ruled. . .
Robert Pick's important biographical
study emphasizes... Tovább

Fülszöveg

EMPRESS
MARIA THERESA
The Earlier Years, 1717-1757
by Robert Pick
Maria Theresa of Habsburg has not for
sixty years been treated to a biography in
English. Yet she was a key figure in the
turbulent politics and wars of eighteenth-
century Europe. A woman of extraordi-
nary tenacity, will power and dedication,
she ruled the Habsburg dominions for
forty years. She came to the throne at the
age of twenty-three, scarcely prepared for
the ordeals that lay ahead. Betrayed by
large sections of the privileged classes,
without responsible advice, without
money or an adequate army, she miracu-
lously prevailed. She transformed the
congeries of her family's possessions into
a viable country. Hers was a victory of
common sense, perseverance, and an in-
stinct for practicality one looks for in
vain in her forebears. She was, says Lord
Acton, "a sensible and reasonable woman,
much the best that had ever ruled. . .
Robert Pick's important biographical
study emphasizes the interplay of Maria
Theresa's moving personal history with
the story of her reign. Passionately and
(continued from front flap)
jealously in love with her charming but
rather ineffectual husband, she bore him
sixteen children. But her domestic affec-
tions and her love of pleasure became
subjugated to her concern for the dynas-
tic future of her House. The present vol-
ume brings the story of her life and reign
to the summer of 1757. She was forty
years of age; the first and only woman
ever to rule her family's lands, she had
won the respect of Europe; she had cre-
ated a dynasty; the grand confederacy
she had built in defiance of Habsburg
tradition could still hope to thwart the
designs of Frederick the Great. Her trials
were far from over but she had emerged
on the world scene against all but unsur-
mountable odds—and that in itself was a
triumph.
•
Robert Pick, born and educated in Vi-
enna, became known in this country as
a novelist and essayist in the 1940^. He
was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
in 1946. Having held a variety of jobs
since making the United States his home,
he worked for a number of years as an
editor for a New York publishing house.
An American citizen, Robert Pick lives
with his wife in Manhattan and spends
the summer months in Woodstock, New
York. Vissza