Description
Book Synopsis''Hilarious, heartbreaking and utterly extraordinary.'' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Books of the Year
Superbly entertaining.' Financial Times
Jaw-dropping.' Sunday Times
Fascinating.' Guardian
Gripping.' The Times
Terrific . . . A page-turning history of imperial hubris and nemesis, deceit and delusion, love and betrayal on a grand scale.' Sunday Times
In 1864, a young Austrian archduke by the name of Maximilian crossed the Atlantic to assume a faraway throne. He had been lured into the voyage by a duplicitous Napoleon III. Keen to spread his own interests abroad, the French emperor had promised Maximilian a hero's welcome. Instead, he walked into a bloody guerrilla war. With a head full of impractical ideals and a penchant for pomp and butterflies the new emperor' was singularly ill-equipped for what lay in store.
This is the vivid history of this barely known, barely b
