John S. C. Abbott (1805–1877)

This is a well-written biography of King Louis XIV of France. The book opens with a summary of his parents, Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. Louis XIII was a mere teenager at his wedding; Anne just eleven. It was common place for nobles to marry this young during the 1600s, which seems inconceivable from a twenty-first century perspective.

Louis XIII died when his son was seven, leaving Anne to rule France as regent.

Louis XIV was crowned king of France at the age of thirteen. It seems show more incredible that one so young should be given so much power. This perhaps was the first contributing factor to turning him into a man who instigated many cruelties to his subjects.

What Louis did to Frenchmen of the Protestant faith competes with what Hitler did to the Jews. He wanted France to be populated by Catholics only. Any Protestant who refused to convert would be assaulted by soldiers without mercy or even killed. This extended to young children, though many children were torn from the homes and forced to live with adult Catholics, who'd force them to adapt to their faith.

Louis was power-obsessed. At one point he declared war on the Dutch with no apparent reason. Many of his actions shocked the rest of Europe in the latter half of the 1600s and the early 1700s.

Louis was also fickle regarding women. He would flirt with his favourite mistresses without a thought for the queen. When a new young beauty caught his eye he'd focus his attentions on her, not caring how he mentally tortured his previous 'favourite'. Again and again his treatment of women proved heartless.

As John Abbott - the author of this fine work - points out in the brief intro, Louis XIV's actions and cruelties to his subjects sewed the seeds of the French Revolution. Many of the poor starved so Louis could live in luxury and spend endless amounts of the treasury on creating new buildings.

Despite all Louis XIV's faults, he was an interesting - and at times fascinating - character. I recommend this work to anyone interested in French or European history, or to those interested in historical figures who made a huge impact on the world, be it good or bad. show less

I decided to read this because my knowledge of French history is patchy at best and I wanted to learn something new about something old. I learned more than expected, as one chapter summarizes the history of the French monarchy from the days when the country was known as Gaul up until events in the life of Henry IV.

The main focus of this tome is the continual conflict between the Catholic and Protestant faith and I think the title of this volume is perhaps misleading. I recommend it to show more anyone interested in learning about France or European history in and around the sixteenth century, but wouldn't recommend it to someone specifically looking for a detailed account of Henry IV alone.

The text covers the period of 1475-1610. The opening chapters feature Henry's great-grandmother and grandfather. There is as much info on Charles IX and Henry III in this as there is on Henry IV, who rarely appears in the first third of the book. As stated, this is fine for someone such as I, who is interested in learning about this period in general, but could prove annoying for someone wanting specific info on Henry IV.

I was shocked at some of the events that transpired in France during the 1500s. The massacre of St. Bartholomew was particularly disturbing: Catholics murdered 70,000-100,000 Protestants for practicing a different religion to them. This kind of thing continued for years. One horrible account was an eight-year-old boy offering a 'man' eight coins to spare his life - this innocent child was one of thousands murdered without mercy.

Henry IV saw both faiths as political parties and he himself converted back and forth between them since his childhood. He was a very humane king. His ascension to the throne helped bring peace to the war-torn France he so dearly loved. He set a great example. He didn't abuse his power like so many rulers have in all countries throughout history.

The author has done a good job of presenting this history in an interesting way and not offering the reader a dull 'text book'. show less

“The Empire of Russia” covers the period of 600 BC until the time of this book’s publication in the 1850s. Little info was available to John Abbott regarding the first 1.500 years, thus this period is sparsely covered.

I found this tome informative though at times the in-depth battle details proved a little tedious.

I was more interested in the characteristics of the Russian monarchs and morbidly fascinated by some of the horrific punishments that the “lesser” people endured.

Paul I, show more son of Catharine the Great, was not so great. He comes across as a raving lunatic. Take this quote from the text as an example of Paul I’s behaviour:

“One of the freaks of this crazy prince was to court-martial his horse. The noble steed had tripped beneath his rider. A council was convened, composed of the equerries of the palace. The horse was proved guilty of failing in respect to his majesty, and was condemned to receive fifty blows from a heavy whip. Paul stood by, as the sentence was executed, counting off the blows.”

Regarding Mr Abbott’s style, he was a good writer, apart from his tendency of favouring the passive voice over the active, which occasionally spoils the flow of the narrative.

For example, rather than stating that “the horse of Oleg fell”, why not make this clause active by stating, “Oleg’s horse fell”?

And “She was one of the maids of honor of Olga” would have read better as “She was one of Olga’s maids of honor ”.

The worse occasion of Mr Abbott’s use of the passive voice is this:

“Boris Gudenow, who, it will be recollected, was the father of the wife of Feodor”

For such a seasoned writer, one would have thought he would’ve opted for:

“Boris Gudenow, who, it will be recollected, was Feodor’s father-in-law”

This volume is available for free download from Project Gutenberg. show less

John Abbott is a good writer but I found this tome too repetitive and over detailed. Abbott has the utmost respect for Napoleon, so I understand his enthusiasm, but I feel he would've created a better account of the famous emperor's life if he'd refined it more. This is the second of four volumes and having read the first two I already think a three volume set would've been a better idea. The further I progressed into the text, the more often I started skipping over paragraphs.

My reasons for show more stating the above is mainly due to the amount of times Abbott stresses that Napoleon was a good man; that he was merciful; that he didn't want war, plus various other commendable things. As a reader I don't need to be constantly told the same things.

Abbott sometimes recalls events from a certain battle and then repeats it all again in brief from a different perspective. Every so often he wants to remind us of what Napoleon had achieved by such and such a time, thus he spends a page or so going over what he's already explained. I skipped these parts. This is another reason why I feel a three-volume set would've been more appropriate.

It's good to read quotes by Napoleon but Abbott tends to use many that convey the same message, like Napoleon not wanting war, or justifying his actions by stating the same reasons over and over.

Anyone - like John Abbott - who is obsessed or fascinated by Napoleon will most likely get much more enjoyment from this work than I have. That said, I'm glad to learn more about Napoleon, as I've always thought of him as a mad dictator. I now know that he was a man devoted not only to his country, but he wanted to help the people - that is the average citizen, not the rich - of the rest of the world.

He was one of these great men who were misunderstood by the leaders of other nations. Those who were opposed to him - mainly monarchs who feared he'd dethrone them and give power to the people - blackened his reputation by printing falsehoods about him. It's a shame that these people couldn't gather what good Napoleon was trying to do. show less