Product Description

An enthralling life of the young and dashing King of Poland by one of Britains most exceptional young historians.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1813606 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 560 pages

From the Author
Extracts from Reviews of The Last King of Poland:
'A tragic tale beautifully told. Zamoyski's prose does not dazzle, nothing is strained, it is cool and pellucid. He is a great writer and his biography is very readable and instructive.' J.H.Plumb, The Financial Times.

'Intelligent, impressively reasearched, beautifully written.' Neal Ascherson, The Independent on Sunday.

'His wonderfully fresh and vigorous style carries even the ignorant reader easily through a historical tangle which in most other authors would remain indigestible and wearisome.' John Jolliffe, The Spectator.

'Writing Eastern European history is almost literally a nightmare: a surface of operetta, beneath which lurk endless, apparently pointless, complications, all ending in disaster. Adam Zamoyski has risen with great triumph above this, and has contributed a work of real scholarship that is also remarkably easy to read. He has written before, but has not done better than this book: its sources are original and multilingual, its understanding of 18th-century politics and diplomacy is impeccable.' Norman Stone, The Sunday Times.

'This is an exhilarating, flawlessly disciplined performance. A biography of the unfortunate Stanislaw Poniatowski, written with tremendous brio and full of shrewd sidelights on the tyrannical imperatives of international politics then and now.' Jonathan Keates, The Observer.

'This is a book that anyone charged with responsibility, or who cares about power and its use, would do well to read.' Roderic Dunnet, The European.

'One can read the book as an object lesson in the way that political power not only corrupts the powerful but also distorts the reputation of the losers. It can also be read as a corrective to the denigratory opinions about eastern Europe which still proliferate. It can even be read for the extraordinary ironies and echoes which reverberate between the 'progressive' politics of the enlightened despots and the recent pseudo-progress of the Soviet bloc. Above all, one can read it as a delightful example of the biographer's art, with a text as sensitive to the subject's personality as it is expert in the affairs of the subject's times.' Norman Davies, The Times Literary Supplement.

'It is, to be sure, a tale full of pathos; and Zamoyski tells it well.' Niall Ferguson, The Sunday TElegraph.

'A fine book, 'The Last King of Poland' marries freshness of scholarship with a welcome, accessible approach. It scores on numerous counts. Early amours are depicted with a Mozartian charm; the web of political intrigue unfolds like an appetising detective novel.' The Scotsman.

About the Author
Adam Zamoyski was born in New York of Polish parents but has lived most of his life in England. He was educated at Downside and Queen's College, Oxford.

Customer Reviews

great for political and cultural history...
The Last King of Poland is a great and deep travel into the Polsih political system in the 18th century that ended with the brutal particion of Poland while the world was waching in astonishment. How the King created the constitusion and how The Polish country ever since have called hom a Russian puppet (wich according to "The last King Of Poland" was nothing but a direct lie). I can recomend you this to read this book if you are interested in the political life in Europe in the 18th cent. or simply if you just want to know more about Polish culture & history