Books in Brief: The Hapsburgs, Portrait of a Dynasty

The Hapsburgs, Portrait of a Dynasty, by Edward Crankshaw (Viking, 272 pp., illus., $16.50).

Last year the Viking people gave the Christmas trade Wilfrid Blunt’s lavishly illustrated Dream King, the frothy saga of Ludwig II of Bavaria. This season they have taken on the Hapsburgs, a far less trivial subject, and not so easily squeezed into a single gift volume. If you like color and browsing and are not a stickler for detail, you will find much enjoyment. Some of the color art is irresistible, but expect no wonders from Mr. Crankshaw’s plodding, general text. The only real excitement for discerning readers is tracking down blunders in the narrative and picture captions. For example, if venerable old Franz Josef’s shade still skims the sphere, it will tremble with rage at seeing the plate on page 247, allegedly showing the Old Kaiser at work in his study at the Hofburg. In fact, it is a portrait of Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany, a Hohenzollern upstart, whose similarity to Franz Josef ended with his white whiskers. On the desk, adding insult to injury, is a statuette of a triumphant spike-helmeted Prussian soldier. My suspicions up, I have made a quick spot check of earlier illustrations and recognize, in a group of blue-coated fusiliers tagged “Austrian troops struggle over frozen mountain passes to join battle with Napoleon” an old print of the French army’s passage of the Alps under—perhaps you’ve guessed already—First Consul Bonaparte. Subtle nuances of uniforms aside, one of the men carries the French Tricolor. Overcome, I drop this inadvertent work of fiction to the floor, and begin counting the days until publication of Otto von Hapsburg’s forthcoming family history. It is much needed, if only as an antidote.

AB

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Aram Bakshian Jr.

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The Hapsburgs, Portrait of a Dynasty, by Edward Crankshaw (Viking, 272 pp., illus., $16.50).

Last year the Viking people gave the Christmas trade Wilfrid Blunt’s lavishly illustrated Dream King, the frothy saga of Ludwig II of Bavaria. This season they have taken on the Hapsburgs, a far less trivial subject, and not so easily squeezed into a single gift volume. If you like color and browsing and are not a stickler for detail, you will find much enjoyment. Some of the color art is irresistible, but expect no wonders from Mr. Crankshaw’s plodding, general text. The only real excitement for discerning readers is tracking down blunders in the narrative and picture captions. For example, if venerable old Franz Josef’s shade still skims the sphere, it will tremble with rage at seeing the plate on page 247, allegedly showing the Old Kaiser at work in his study at the Hofburg. In fact, it is a portrait of Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany, a Hohenzollern upstart, whose similarity to Franz Josef ended with his white whiskers. On the desk, adding insult to injury, is a statuette of a triumphant spike-helmeted Prussian soldier. My suspicions up, I have made a quick spot check of earlier illustrations and recognize, in a group of blue-coated fusiliers tagged “Austrian troops struggle over frozen mountain passes to join battle with Napoleon” an old print of the French army’s passage of the Alps under—perhaps you’ve guessed already—First Consul Bonaparte. Subtle nuances of uniforms aside, one of the men carries the French Tricolor. Overcome, I drop this inadvertent work of fiction to the floor, and begin counting the days until publication of Otto von Hapsburg’s forthcoming family history. It is much needed, if only as an antidote.