Louisa of Prussia and Her Times: A Historical Novel
1867
Vienna, 1797. Napoleon's armies advance and the city trembles with fear and riots as Emperor Francis II flees. Into this cauldron of political chaos steps Queen Louisa of Prussia, the young monarch who would become a symbol of German resistance against French expansion. Mühlbach's sprawling historical canvas weaves together the grand maneuvers of courts and battlefields with the intimate dramas of those swept up in history's great convulsion. Baron von Thugut schemes in Vienna's corridors of power while the aged Joseph Haydn pursues his art in the shadow of empire. Across the continent, Josephine Bonaparte beguiles and manipulates, and Frederick William III grapples with a kingdom at war. The novel traces the path from the Treaty of Campo Formio through the awakening of Prussian national consciousness, revealing how the Napoleonic era forged the modern German identity through fire and humiliation. This is historical fiction written for readers who want to feel the weight of empire collapsing, the hope of a people, and the quiet courage of a queen who refused to bend.
