About:
Not So Happily Ever After: The Tale of King Ludwig II by Susan Barnett Braun is a short biography of the Bavarian King. Ms. Braun is an educator and writer from Indiana.
- 152 pages
- Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1477494537
My rating for Not So Happily Ever After – 4
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More books by Susan Barnett Braun*
Thoughts:
When planning our vacation to Germany in December, we made sure to carve out a day and visit Neuschwanstein Castle. I wanted to read a bit about the castle since I find that knowing the history of any place, makes the visit much more enjoyable and interesting.
Neuschwanstein today represents everything King Ludwig II, the Fairy Tale King or Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria, stood for. It is the most famous castle the King built, inspired by Richard Wagner’s operas, and an inspiration Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle.
King Ludwig II comes off as a loner, a tortured soul who wants to live in a fairy tale and resents his station in life as a king with no kingdom, since Bavaria was ruled by the Prussian Empire for most of his reign. The king hated his role in social events and was not a good administrator. However, he did build his castles from his own money, and the people in the area loved him for supplying good jobs.
Not So Happily Ever After Susan Barnett Braun tells bring King Ludwig II to life in a creative manner. It was an easy read about Ludwig’s life, idiosyncrasies, and his tragic end put in the context of the geopolitical reality of the era.
And the visit was wonderful, the castle is magnificent, the village of Hohenschwangau was tons of fun and the whole family enjoyed the day. It might have been the highlight of our tour.
Fun Fact: During World War II, Hitler stashed art in the castle, believing it was too beautiful for the Allies to destroy. He planned to blow up the castle but luckily he died before he could do so.
Buy Not So Happily Ever After from Amazon.com*
More books by Susan Barnett Braun*
Zohar — Man of la Book
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