I have literally been like a kid at the bacon buffet...so many books, and there have been some real surprise gems here.
One of them is this little number, reviewed by yours truly.
Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of On War
I was pretty enthusiastic in my review, and well, I love me some Clausewitz...
One thing I DO NOT love is revisionist history...especially mushy gender-racial-blah, blah...hey let's re-write history to diminish and minimize the dead white male history.
When I first saw this book, I was skeptical to say the least...BUT as I love all things Clausewitz gave it a shot.
And was darn glad I did...as they say...NOW for the rest of the story.
First of all, to have access to the complete set of her correspondence with ol' Carl...which is the entire basis of Ms. Bellinger's book, as I note in my review, must have been totally awesome.
She does a marvelous job showing the unique character of their relationship and how Marie lived up to the old phrase "behind every successful man is a good woman" ...perhaps a quaint notion in the 21st century with our endless gender wars, but it was fascinating to read how she could be both the typical 19th century woman expected to prepare herself for marriage while still being a real intellectual and opinionated powerhouse.
I mean, besides the intimate intellectual correspondence and exchange of ideas noted in the book, what a fascinating glimpse in their private life...in the era before email, Twitter, and texting, letters were everything, and no doubt Ms. Bellinger must have left out some interesting gossip about life in the Prussian court, their intimate exchange of feelings and emotions during their many long separations...Carl, after all was a military man who spent a long time away from the woman he loved...we'll just leave it at that...I will say it is remarkable how couple's in the day could be intimate and loving with taste and decorum...no Snapchat for Carl and Marie, to be sure.
Needless to say, I LOVED this book...I have an extensive Clausewitz library, and this book will be right next to my Peter Paret and Jon Sumida.
Comments