Brigitte Hamann - Erzsébet királyné

The empress is the most beautiful woman in the world," writes István Széchenyi in his diary, and in another place he calls her a female angel who can even stand up to her majestic husband for the interests of the Hungarian people. These two things, her amazing beauty and her sincere friendship with Hungarians, explain why she was The sad-fated wife of Ferenc Joseph I has always had a cult following in Hungary. Brigitte Hamann does not idealize her heroine, she does not only know the words of rapture: she does not try to hide Elizabeth's difficult-to-manage qualities. She brings this rebellious woman, fueled by the desire for freedom, who is rather wrangling in the prison of court etiquette, closer to humanity. , his poetry revealing a vast imagination, his thirst for knowledge, and in the meantime we get an idea of ​​the social (and social) life of the second half of the nineteenth century, his beauty care and child-rearing practices, political movements, the happy years of peace of the Monarchy, and the role Elizabeth played in the Hungarian reconciliation. He paints an interesting portrait of a about an everyday individual, from the carefree childhood in Bavaria, the bright days in Vienna, the splendor of the coronation in Buda and the queen's restless world wanderings until her murder.