1. The first ever biography of the extraordinarily colourful Archduke Wilhelm von Habsburg (1895-1947). Tattooed, bisexual, crossdressing, multilingual, he was a major - & symbolic - figure in 20th-century European culture & politics.
2. Born into one of the great European dynasties with every expectation of a glittering future, instead he became a playboy in Paris during the 1930s & died - a spy for Britain - under interrogation in a Soviet prison.
3. The arc of Wilhelm's life therefore describes the dying fall of the ancien régime - the Europe of his birth bears very little resemblance to that of his death.
4. Operating largely in inter-war Europe, Wilhelm is like a Le Carré character - a prisoner of private impulses that drove him to a doomed secret war.
5. To the history of the Second World War the book adds a detailed discussion of Hitler's confrontation with a particular object of his loathing - the Habsburg family.
6. A major subject of the book is Soviet communism and it's effect on the individual; cf Vassily Grossman's Life & Fate & A Writer at War.
7. This is a book of exceptional brilliance and originality - it cites documents from 20 archives & in 12 languages; each chapter title is a different colour.
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # VIB0224081527