best 5 2

Sissi fan since my youth, I read a lot about it. But I had not yet read a book as confusing but very well written. Far from the nice beautiful and romantic Empress Sissi is capricious, self-centered, extravagant, absent, and so on.
But what reason have we done in his place? It's hard to say. Married young, she ends up in an imperial court of Austria with a strict protocol and unchanged for centuries. His stepmother dictated his conduct. She has 4 children. The first died very young. These two Gisèle and Rodolphe raised by others, especially the mother-Sophie, will never benefit from the love of their mother. The youngest is only raised by Sissi. But Marie Valerie will be completely smothered by his mother.
This book is detailed, well written, well explained. It is a book much closer to reality I think that all these books rose water that we have made a nice sweet heroine beautiful operas. In any case I had heard of Brigitte Hamann as a great writer, a talented historian (who painted a portrait of Hitler quite interesting). I do not regret my reading of this book, I'll keep to reread a few years. Although many pages (p 568), but for fans of Sissi story, I highly recommend reading this. And for others this will discover another side of the Empress who has probably not lived in good century compared to his character.