Louis XIV: The Power and the Glory

Before the French Revolution and the terror that followed, before Marie Antoinette and Napoleon, there was Louis XIV (1638–1715), the Sun King. Arguably, no monarch before or after him exemplified absolutism so lavishly. During Louis's more than seven decades leading France, the country became the political and cultural center of Europe. These were the years of dramatists Molière and Jean Racine and the expansion of Versailles, along with near continual warfare, religious conflicts, and the subjugation of an unruly nobility. It was also a time of courtiers and masked balls, palace intrigue and gossip, and extravagance beyond belief. Relying on the king's memoirs, as well as an array of secondary sources, Wilkinson (The Princes in the Tower) focuses more on the skirmishes among the aristocracy, glorious military campaigns, and romantic liaisons of Louis's reign than the administrative or economic functions of state. What is lacking in academic tone and research, however, is more than made up for by a historical account that is both entertaining and informative.