Count Brühl
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in eighteenth-century European court and political history
- Patient readers who enjoy historical novels and are willing to untangle character relationships
- Advanced readers studying Polish literature or East European historical narrative
- Those who need a public-domain English text for reading or translation practice
Not a good fit for
- Readers unfamiliar with the relevant history who do not wish to prepare background
- Readers seeking light entertainment and put off by complex character relationships
- Readers who read only in Chinese and do not wish to read an English text
Reading tips
- Look up the basic outlines of the eighteenth-century Saxon court first; the main text is easier to enter afterward.
- Keep a character chart as you read to avoid confusing names and offices.
- Read historical accounts alongside the novel to appreciate the balance of literary reinvention.
- Set aside blocks of time for reading in installments so as to keep the political threads in continuous memory.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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FAQ
Is Count Brühl a real historical figure?
Do I need to study history before reading this book?
How does this book differ from Iermola?
Comments
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About the author
Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812–1887) was a Polish novelist of astonishing output, whose work spans historical fiction, social novels and political writing. Public information on the details of his life is limited, but the four works held here reveal the focus of his writing: The Jew and Iermola draw on the life of Jewish communities and local society in Poland and Eastern Europe, while The Countess Cosel: A Romance of History of the Times of Augustus the Strong and Count Brühl centre on the Saxon court politics and personal fortunes of the reigns of Augustus II and Augustus III. His historical novels are distinguished by solid historical detail and complex human relationships, weaving court intrigue together with everyday town life; his social fiction observes ethnic relations and the circumstances of ordinary people with a fine, close brush. His style is realist in inclination, with a leisurely narrative pace, and he had a lasting influence on the popularisation of the nineteenth-century Polish historical novel.
