Izabela the Valiant: The Story of an Indomitable Polish Princess

(Hardback)

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A brilliant excavation of the life of bestselling historian Adam Zamoyskis great-great-great-great grandmother, a princess and pioneer of education who created the first museum in Poland.
This is an unknown history brought to startling light for the first time. Izabela the Valiant is a story of a vulnerable but resilient women caught up in extraordinary events a story that must be told.

In the late 18th century, Europe sat at a crossroads, the formerly rococo world shattered by the French Revolution and then transformed by Napoleons agenda. Social values, the religious landscape, the positions of royalty were morphing. Izabela is a fascinating route into this world; buffeted by conflicting forces, her life provides an insight into what these changes meant for real people living through them. Inherited values and conventional notions of honour and loyalty to the throne were challenged by the new doctrine of sacrifice in the service of the nation. The sentimentality and pragmatism of the eighteenth century morphed respectively into the Romantic movement and a new realpolitik.

By following this creative, forward-thinking woman who sat at the centre of power and held many important mens affections, Zamoyskis charming and engrossing biography will open up a stormy period of late eighteenth, early nineteenth century Polish history.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR NAPOLEON:

Napoleon is an out-and-out masterpiece and a joy to read
Antony Beevor

The emperor has had few biographers who address this shooting star with Zamoyskis narrative power and nuanced judgment
Max Hastings, Sunday Times

Zamoyskis research is meticulous, his writing sublime. This is probably one of the truest biographies of Napoleon. this book undoubtedly needed to be written
Gerard DeGroot, The Times

The real value of this wonderful biography elegantly written, exhaustively researched and compellingly argued is the insight it gives us into Napoleon the Man
Saul David, Daily Telegraph

The refreshing distinction of Zamoyski as a biographer is that he humanises BonaparteIn portraying the person behind the many myths that have accrued around his name, Zamoyski acts as a skilful picture-restorer, scraping away layers of lies, exaggerations and misconceptions to reveal the man in his true, unvarnished colours
Nigel Jones, Spectator

'Always elegant in style and original in analysis, Zamoyski, a master of the sources and the culture and politics that created his subject, produces a fresh, nuanced, beautifully written, gripping and outstanding biography of Napoleon
Simon Sebag-Montefiore

'A lifetime's diligent research and profound thinking about Napoleon and his times has gone into this hugely readable, highly enjoyable and well-balanced biography. Zamoyski is at the top of his game as a biographer'
Andrew Roberts

'Adam Zamoyski has retold a story that we thought we knew and made it fresh. Stripping away two centuries of mythology, discarding the apocryphal stories and legends, he finally brings us the real Napoleon'
Anne Applebaum

Author Bio

Adam Zamoyski is a British historian of Polish origin. He is the author of the best-selling 1812: Napoleons Fatal March on Moscow and its sequel Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna, as well as several other acclaimed works on key figures and aspects of European history. His books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Persian as well as most of the European languages. His comprehensive history of Poland, The Polish Way, not only featured in the best-seller lists for several weeks when it came out in 1987, but has never been out of print since. Zamoyski has also contributed to all the major British papers and periodicals, as well as lecturing widely in England, Europe and the United States. He lives in London and Poland.