Memoirs of Friederike Sophie Wilhelmine of Prussia, Margravine of Bayreuth. Volume 2

德国Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8
Word count
522K words
Chapters
53

Tags

Foreign Language Books General Biography Court IntrigueAutobiographyEighteenth CenturySocial ObservationFemale Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Mémoires de Frédérique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, margrave de Bareith. Tome 2Author: Wilhelmine, Margravine, consort of Friedrich, Margrave of Bayreuth, 1709-1758,Language: French, Class: DD: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Germany, Release Date: Jan 14, 2009

Editor's review

This is the second volume of the memoirs of Wilhelmine, Princess of Prussia and Margravine of Bayreuth, written in French and released by Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain ebook. Its value lies in its firsthand historical material: as the sister of Frederick the Great, the author witnessed the Prussian court and European princely politics of the eighteenth century, and her writing combines observation with personality, offering court life and character sketches that differ from official histories. As a public-domain ebook, it is easy to search, copy, and read across devices, making it suitable as supplementary material for German history, court culture, or eighteenth-century European studies. It should be read as a historical source rather than as pure literature: first clarify the relationships among the figures and the timeline, then pay attention to the author's standpoint and narrative tendencies. For deeper understanding, read it alongside relevant background material on Prussian history.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the table of contents and the opening note to the volume, list the main figures and their family relationships, then proceed to the main text.
  2. After every few chapters, take timeline notes and distinguish what the author witnessed from what she relays as rumor.
  3. Read alongside a Prussian history or a biography of Frederick the Great to check the background of events.
  4. Use the ebook's search function to look back at names and places, avoiding confusion caused by differing translations of proper names.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

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

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53

FAQ

Is this a complete memoir? No. This is the second volume of Wilhelmine's memoirs, in the original French, released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook. It covers only part of the memoir; readers should note the volume number and look for other volumes or editions if they want the full picture.
Can I read it without knowing French? The original is in French, and reading it directly requires some French. Readers without French can use translation tools or read alongside related scholarly works, but they will lose the original tone and detail, and reading will be less efficient.
Is it suitable as an introduction to German history? Not very. It is a firsthand memoir with dense figures and strong opinions, lacking a systematic general-history framework. Beginners should first read an overview of German history or a biography of Frederick the Great, then use this book as supplementary source material.
What should I watch out for when reading the electronic edition? Public-domain ebooks are easy to search and copy, but layout and annotations vary by edition. When reading, mark figures and events as you go and check the spelling of proper names; when citing, note the edition source and volume number, and avoid treating the author's personal account as settled fact.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

德国 Author · 1709 · 1758

Wilhelmine, Margravine, consort of Friedrich, Marg, was an eighteenth-century Prussian princess, Margravine of Bayreuth, and a memoirist. She was born in 1758 and was German. The library currently holds two of her works, namely the two volumes of Mémoires de Frédérique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, margrave de Bareith. These memoirs recount court life and the events of her time from a first-hand perspective, with detailed and vivid writing that combines historical value with literary readability. In Chinese book classification, her works are often placed under inspirational growth. Public information about her is limited, and details of her life are known mainly through this autobiographical work, which has drawn the attention of later readers and researchers for its candid and lively narrative style.