THE LAST KING OF POLAND
The last king of Poland owed his throne largely to his youthful romance with the future Catherine the Great of Russia. But Stanislaw Augustus was nobody's pawn. He was an ambitious, highly intelligent and complex character, a dashing figure in the finest eighteenth-century tradition, He was a perfect illustration of the contradictions of Europe's ideological and religious viewpoints; he worshipped reason but was led by the heart; professed Catholicism but believed in Providence; toyed with the occult and practised freemasonry. A great believer in art and education, he spent fortunes on cultural projects, and finding that he was blocked politically by Catherine, he put his energies into a programme of social and artistic regeneration. He transformed the mood of his country and brought it to a new phase of reform and independence, culminating in the passing of the constitution in 1791, hailed in Britain, France and the United States as one of the greatest events of the century.
Poland's neighbours, however, viewed this beacon of liberty in their midst with alarm, and as they invaded and partitioned it, Stanislaw was obliged to watch the destruction of his life's work, and ultimately forced to abdicate, a broken man, deceived and disillusioned.
The Last King of Poland is the rich and enthralling story of a personal dream with all the elements of grand tragedy, and at the same time an important chronicle of the birth and death of liberalism in Poland and the establishment of Russian power in Europe.
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, Financial Times
'Intelligent, impressively researched, beautifully written.'
Neal Ascherson, 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, 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 - a good life of Chopin, an excellent one of Paderewski - 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, Sunday Times
'This sparkling study is both a fascinating biography and a pertinent reminder of the past instability of Eastern Europe.'
Jeremy Black, 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, Observer
'This is a book that anyone charged with responsibility, or who cares about power and its use, would do well to read.'
Roderic Dunnett, The European
'Zamoyski's biography of Stanislaw August, elegantly written and thoroughly researched, rises fearlessly over partisan opinions, and reviews the evidence step by step through the labyrinthine domestic and international convolutions of half a century. In the end, Zamoyski comes down convincingly on the side of a much suffering and much misunderstood monarch. 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, Times Literary Supplement
'The Last King of Poland is a magnificent panorama of one of the saddest periods in Poland's history. Zamoyski's eloquent prose drove me into several days of depression pondering on Poland's tragic fate.'
Radek Sikorski, Daily Telegraph
'There can be few writers as well qualified as Adam Zamoyski to assess the life and work of Poland's last king. Not only is he a master of the art of biography but he also possesses a sound knowledge of Polish political and cultural history and is able to place it well within a wide European context. Zamoyski's book is an outstanding achievement.'
Hubert Zawadzki, Catholic Herald
'It is, to be sure, a tale full of pathos; and Zamoyski tells it well.'
Niall Ferguson, 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 Mozartian charm; the web of political intrigue unfolds like an appetising detective novel.'
Scotsman