Posts Tagged: Elisabeth of Austria
The bitter tears of Empress Elisabeth
Our Lady of Sorrows riding side-saddle through a vale of tears, or a morbid, capricious, drug-addicted, tattooed narcissist? Or both?
The bitter tears of Empress Elisabeth
Our Lady of Sorrows riding side-saddle through a vale of tears, or a morbid, capricious, drug-addicted, tattooed narcissist? Or both?
Secret Satan, 2022
You know what to expect by now, surely? Well, expect even more of it: this is our biggest year-end book selection yet.
Strange Flowers guide to Vienna, part 2
… in which we head further afield and meet Peter Altenberg and some other folk, but honestly, it’s mainly Peter Altenberg.
Strange Flowers guide to Vienna, part 2
… in which we head further afield and meet Peter Altenberg and some other folk, but honestly, it’s mainly Peter Altenberg.
Places: Hermesvilla
Sissi’s hideaway in the Habsburg hunting grounds outside Vienna
18 books for 2018
Three Marcels, two Nutters and a Sissi: imaginary lives and lives beyond imagining.
18 books for 2018
Three Marcels, two Nutters and a Sissi: imaginary lives and lives beyond imagining.
Places: Sissi and Fanny’s Corfu
The adjacent hillside retreats of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and “bohemian countess” Franziska zu Reventlow
Places: Sissi and Fanny’s Corfu
The adjacent hillside retreats of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and “bohemian countess” Franziska zu Reventlow
Late entries
A few book titles from late 2016 you may have missed…
Dress-down Friday, hommage edition
Casati. Naturally.
Circles: Ludwig II/Sissi
The Austrian empress and the Bavarian king were cousins and might have been in-laws as well if Ludwig hadn’t broken off his engagement with Sissi’s sister Sophie.
Circles: Ludwig II/Sissi
The Austrian empress and the Bavarian king were cousins and might have been in-laws as well if Ludwig hadn’t broken off his engagement with Sissi’s sister Sophie.
Ludwig at the movies
Ludwig II is back on screen at the end of this year in a new German production, a hundred years since his first film appearance, more or less. Here are ten milestones of the Bavarian king’s cinematic century.
Ludwig at the movies
Ludwig II is back on screen at the end of this year in a new German production, a hundred years since his first film appearance, more or less. Here are ten milestones of the Bavarian king’s cinematic century.
Places: Miramare
Maximilian and Charlotte’s imperial adventure was one of the most absurd episodes in the gothic carnival of wretchedness that characterised the last few decades of Habsburg rule, and its memory hung heavy over Miramare.
Places: Miramare
Maximilian and Charlotte’s imperial adventure was one of the most absurd episodes in the gothic carnival of wretchedness that characterised the last few decades of Habsburg rule, and its memory hung heavy over Miramare.
Sissi on horseback
Sissi would drive her mount faster and faster, often leaving other members of her party thrown and wounded in their attempts to keep up. The empress, who courted oblivion as if it were a reluctant paramour, called one of her horses “Nihilist”.
Sissi on horseback
Sissi would drive her mount faster and faster, often leaving other members of her party thrown and wounded in their attempts to keep up. The empress, who courted oblivion as if it were a reluctant paramour, called one of her horses “Nihilist”.
The 12-step Sissi lifestyle plan
Looking out from official portraits with her radiant skin, torrents of chestnut hair and tiny waist, Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty seems to be saying “this doesn’t just happen, you know”. And it really, really didn’t: maintaining it all was a full time occupation.
The 12-step Sissi lifestyle plan
Looking out from official portraits with her radiant skin, torrents of chestnut hair and tiny waist, Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty seems to be saying “this doesn’t just happen, you know”. And it really, really didn’t: maintaining it all was a full time occupation.
Phantom of the empire
She haunted Europe’s pleasure spots in widow’s weeds, a gothic freak show of peek-a-boo solipsism, a fan shielding her from the gaze of the hated hoi polloi. If she was seen at all it was in silhouette, like Marlene Dietrich in Maximilian Schell’s documentary, and for the same reason – neither could bear to disturb the earlier image the public had of her.
Phantom of the empire
She haunted Europe’s pleasure spots in widow’s weeds, a gothic freak show of peek-a-boo solipsism, a fan shielding her from the gaze of the hated hoi polloi. If she was seen at all it was in silhouette, like Marlene Dietrich in Maximilian Schell’s documentary, and for the same reason – neither could bear to disturb the earlier image the public had of her.
Rex Luna
Both Ludwig and Sissi took the abstractions of Romanticism and not only made them reality but practised them at the level of an extreme sport. In so doing they inspired the Decadent writers who furthered the Romantics’ cult of self.
Rex Luna
Both Ludwig and Sissi took the abstractions of Romanticism and not only made them reality but practised them at the level of an extreme sport. In so doing they inspired the Decadent writers who furthered the Romantics’ cult of self.
Thin white archduke
Ludwig was getting reckless and had a reputation for spending hours in the Centralbad, a prestigious complex of Orientalist steam baths, where his (no doubt pruny) hands were apt to wander…
Thin white archduke
Ludwig was getting reckless and had a reputation for spending hours in the Centralbad, a prestigious complex of Orientalist steam baths, where his (no doubt pruny) hands were apt to wander…
Dress-down Friday: Sissi
From her dark hair fell a veil of black. Black were the ornaments in her hair, black her pearls, everything black, only her face was marble-white and ineffably sad…
Dress-down Friday: Sissi
From her dark hair fell a veil of black. Black were the ornaments in her hair, black her pearls, everything black, only her face was marble-white and ineffably sad…
Strange Flowers 