Joseph II. and His Court: An Historical Novel

Vienna, 1765. The Austrian court hums with political calculation as Empress Maria Theresa wrestles control of her empire amid scheming ministers and shifting alliances. At the center of this viper's nest stands the young and enigmatic Count Kaunitz, whose ambitions threaten to reshape Europe, while the empress must balance the demands of sovereignty with the delicate realities of her personal life. Into this world of masked intentions stumbles a young woman who, unaware of the emperor's identity, calls Joseph II a miser and tyrant to his face. The scene that follows, when she discovers she has berated the ruler of half of Europe, crackles with the kind of dramatic tension that made Mühlbach one of the 19th century's most beloved novelists. Originally published in 1857, this is German literary realism at its most addictive: a court drama where every whisper carries weight, every marriage is political, and women wield power through wit and will despite the constraints of their age. Mühlbach, writing under her own name as a pioneering feminist, gives Maria Theresa a humanity and steel that history sometimes forgets.