Izabela the Valiant (2024)
Trawling through a vast family archive and arcane sources in half a dozen languages, Adam Zamoyski has revealed the dramatic life of his great-great-great grandmother, an uneducated, vulnerable girl cast into a man’s world.
Her aristocratic position enmeshed her in high politics and close encounters with Frederick the Great, Benjamin Franklin, Rousseau, Joseph II, Marie-Antoinette and Tsar Alexander I, and earned her the enmity of Catherine the Great. She lived through revolution and no less than five wars, in which her cherished homes were devastated, her possessions looted and her children scattered. Caught up in tempestuous love affairs which led her to nervous breakdown and the brink of suicide, exploited by her lovers, she remained undaunted and liberated herself through education. And, unusually for her time, she became a caring mother devoted to her children.
She learned much by travelling extensively around Europe at a time of political and ideological change, and her observations, particularly on Georgian Britain, are remarkable. She gradually won the admiration of learned men and intellectual honours. She pioneered schooling for children of the poor and developed her own educational methods. Fascinated by the power of objects to kindle memories and arouse emotions, she was an avid collector of anything with a sensuous association and built two unique museums to act as teaching aids.
This is a story of triumph over adversity and betrayal. It was not achieved by her looks: ‘I have never been beautiful, but I have sometimes been pretty,’ she wrote. It was achieved by force of character and resilience.
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Zielony Balonik book club notes:
The book opens with a quasi-biblical genealogy, though a ‘cast of characters’ might have been more useful, as they’re the people whose histories we follow through the book. (Most of those listed in the genealogy don’t feature in the main narrative.)
Izabela led busy life, and her relationships (family, in-laws, friends, lovers, rivals…) were complicated – it’s often hard to keep track of who’s who. She was someone who liked to be at the centre of attention. Her mental and physical strength, to keep going through the tribulations of a long life. The scale of their entourages, as they tour their land.
But it’s hard to understand why she is important, e.g. there’s no real sense of the importance of her collections.
There’s a lack of thematic continuity and analysis – too much detail and simple recounting of events, one after another – the book becomes half-biography and half-history (neither quite one nor the other).
Knowing about other events going on at the time, such as the French Revolution, helps provide context.
The period, and what happens, are reminiscent of War & Peace. Novels give better insights to the lives of the aristocracy at the time.
The aristocracy are vastly wealthy, controlling estates across national and imperial borders. They act in their own interests, lining up dynastic marriages, and adapting their politics to protect their landholdings and their wealth. (Not dissimilar to today’s oligarchs.)
An interesting subject but an unsatisfying, disappointing book.
Other comparable writers might be William Dalrymple, Robert Harris, Richard Evans – better at weaving a coherent narrative from the threads of historical fact. Saying that, Zamoyski’s Concise History of Poland is a good book.