The Age of Louis XIVThe Age of Louis XIV
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Downloadable Audiobook, 2015
Current format, Downloadable Audiobook, 2015, , See item page for details.Downloadable Audiobook, 2015
Current format, Downloadable Audiobook, 2015, , See item page for details. Offered in 0 more formatsThe Age of Louis XIV is the biography of aperiod (1648-1715) that Spengler considered the apex of modern Europeancivilization. Central to the book is the "Sun King" himself, Louis XIV, who ruled France for overseventy years, longer than almost any European ruler in history. He is thesubject of a character study that runs through seven chapters, revealing theflesh and blood beneath the purple and the crown. From France the narrative passes to the Netherlands, which shows theDutch opening their dikes to save their land from Louis XIV and sendingWilliam of Orange to become king of England and a leader of the Europeanalliance against Louis' hegemony. In England we contemplate the heyday of virtue under the Puritans and studythe character of Cromwell. We see Milton's passionate career as part of thevain effort to prevent the Stuart Restoration. We find Charles II, the "MerryMonarch," attend boisterous Restoration plays; we skim the diaries of Evelynand Pepys; and we follow Jonathan Swift from genius to insanity. Crossing the North Sea we trace the tragic heroism of Charles XII ofSweden and the attempt of Peter the Great to lead Russia from barbarism tocivilization. We accompany the noble Sobieski of Poland as he rescues Viennafrom the Turks. We visit Italy and Spain. We see the Jews proscribed andimpoverished in Europe but rising to riches in Amsterdam and following SabbataiZevi in a desperate hope of regaining Palestine and freedom. All this forms the background for the "intellectual adventure" of theEuropean mind in its passage from superstition, mythology, and intolerance toeducation, science, and philosophy, for this was the age of Newton, Leibniz,and Spinoza. The book ends with the sunset of Le Roi Soleil: Louis dying defeated andrepentant, begging his grandson and successor not to imitate his taste forsplendor and war, and followed in his funeral by the insults of the crowd.
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- [S.I.] : Blackstone Publishing, 2015.
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