WILHELMINE THE WICKED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7110, 23 April 1910, Page 9

WILHELMINE THE WICKED

‘A German pompadour, being the extruorumary iustoiy of milieiiruiie \ r on Gravcnilz, Landhufmea*i&r-erm of \Virtemoerg; a narrative of' the Eighteenth Century." By xUarie Hay. Dj-ndoii: Gcxnstable and 00. Trice fis.

First published some four years ago, at wUrcii time several extract* irctu its jjages were x>nnted m. tins journal, Mias ii.«ty s well wriuon narrative of pae career of WiiiicUniue vou Gravenitz fias Since ueou twice reprinted, the iutsent being a tnud ana in'uca eueftper eaitiou. it is the story of a ooiiutiuu woman oi rcsi>eotabie lamily, wno wa* specially cuuaoji oy a rascally relative for . th© position, of mistress of Eoernard, Duke of Vv urltemberg. Iu tho War of the bpaiusu Succession VVuntemberg suffered tiiiuugu oemg on the iagu-road from I rauce to Austria, and was constantly a prey to warfare. Eoerhaid, loyal to his Suzerain at Vienna, joined in the fray and fuugfit bravely at tiro side of Alarlborougn and Eugene of Savoy against the armies of Lours the Jb ouitecntn. Blenheim lought and won, the tide of battle swept northwards to the Netherlands, and the Luke settled down in. his capital, Stuttgardt. Soon, under th© auspices of her whom the good peasants or WurttoiuDorg learnt to call the "Land Despouor," began tho love story of Lbcrhajxl's life, the long drawn episode which made his name a target for gossip and scandal of early eigutoenth century Germany; th© episode which changed tho simple, stiff family life of tne Stuttgardt -court circle to a brilliant festive court, which travellers tell ug in their memoirs vied in magnificence with the glories of Versailles itself. This is the story which Alisa Hay tells in mo&t interesting style, tne story of WilhelmLne's triumphs, loves, and hatreds; of her haughtiness, pride, and, for a time, her all-powerful beauty, but finally, alas, of her downfall and disgrace. It is a story which carries with its own moral, but the moralities apart, it furnishes a series o& undeniably vivid and fascinating pictures of tuo court life of tho period. Deeply erring as was she who has been called "A German Fompadour/' one cannot help pitying her in her friendless old age. if she had been, a selfish and tyrannous sinner, as the virtuous peasants and biLrghers culled her, she was a beautiful, elegant woman of the great world, who was probably, so tho author declares, quit© justified mi calling them—or some of them at least —"canaille" In return. Selling herself, as she did, for position and wealth, she no doubt merited the loneliness which surrounded her in her old age at Schutfhausen, memory-, haunted an<l miserable, but nevertheless tho final chapter makes but sad reading, and even the most severe stickler for morality must fain wish that the Fates hud been more kindly, if less just. There are dozens of books of French memoirs enjoying a permanent popularity which are not half so readable as this record oi Wilhehnine Von Gravenitz.