Books on the Habsburgs

[Robert_Hall]

This is an interesting little tome in several respects.
The author is a Miss Nellie Ryan, an Englishwoman attatched to the household of Archduke Karl Stefan a senior relative of the Emperor Franz Josef. Although she never tells us in what capacity she was so attatched, she did quite a bit of traveling with him & his family,including sojourns on the Imperial [Habsburg] yacht "Waturus".
A Royalty Digest reprint, it was published originally in 1915, by The Bodley Head. Keeping that in mind,Britain was at war with Austria,yet she has nothing but praise for the Habsburgs [for the most part]. A sort of gossip & travel book, her views seem a bit odd in retrosppect.
She is an ardent supporter of the claims of Caroline,Countess Landi being the youngest daughter of the Empress Elizabeth. She goes along with the story of Archduke Rudolf being murdered as opposed to suicide and practically worships the soon-to-be emperor Karl.
On the other hand, she has nothing but contempt for the Kaiser. Indeed, it would have taken a brave Englishman of any ilk to have anything but that at the time.
Her account of the Habsburg family visit to St. Petersburg is even more curious: Alexei's fragile state is due to an attack by "Nihilists" while aboard the yacht [Standardt,presumably], a suicide attempt by Alexandra and Nicholas'  'painfully nervous, and ill at ease, and his countenance of an ashen hue".
She tells of "6 men dressed exactly like the Czar" at all times and then goes on to say  "now Nicholas takes a train journey like an ordinary man" [!!!] and "the Empress and her daughters wander freely forth" and "there is no danger for them in Russia today"  [???].
Nellie Ryan seemed to have the vast and complicated Habsburg genealogy mastered and without my own charts at home in SF I did tend to get a bit confused trying to follow just who was related to whom and how. But,still entertaining for the time and most of the family is accounted for.
Unless I missed some brief mention however,there is nothing at all about any of the British royals.
A lovely way to pass the time by the fire in this lovely [yet uneventful] little village of Caddington where I am spending the .
holidays
Cheers and Happy Holidays, everyone,
Robert

[Martyn]

Hi Robert.  Since we spoke on the phone the other day I have been thinking about this book.  Sounds like a good read, but how much fantasy do you think is interjected therein?
Is there any way of finding out more about this woman?  Do you think that Nellie Ryan (sounds more like an actress than an attendant) was a pseudonym?

[Robert_Hall]

I know nothing other than what I mentioned and there is really no detail about her or her position in the book.  I would have to go through back issues of RD to see what they might have said. You are right,she does sound a bit of a "syage personna"  if even a backstage backdoor one.
Her comments arevery gossipy,but not as nasty as Radziwell.

[Martyn]

Sounds like my kind of book!

[Teddy]

Are there coffee table books, about the Habsburges?

[Robert_Hall]

YES ! But the ones I have are in German;
OTTO VON HABSBURG  by Erich Feige
ELISABETH by Brigitte Hamann
RUDOLF by same author. This in German & English
 and in French-
SUR LES PAYS DE SISI by Jean des Cars
 There are also large coffee table books on the Hofburg and Schoenbrunn, but they are not handy to me at the moment. I also have a massive genealogical book on the Hbasburgs, but there are no illustrations, so I guess it really does not qualify.
 Cheers !

[Silja]

Are there coffee table books, about the Habsburges?

Brigitte Hamann, Elisabeth. [i]Portraits of an Empress [/i] (the one Robert Hall mentioned I assume)
Gabriele Praschl-Bichler, Das Familienalbum von Kaiser Franz-Joseph und  Elisabeth (out of print)
Gabriele Praschl-Bichler, Das Familienalbum von Kaiser Karl und Kaiserin Zita
Gabriele Praschl-Bichler, Historische Photographien aus den Alben des Kaiserbruders Erzherzog Ludwig Viktor
Johannes Thiele, Elisabeth - Bilder ihres Lebens
Hellmut Andics, Die Frauen der Habsburger
Helfried Seemann, Christian Lunzer, Das österreichisch-ungarische Kaiserhaus 1860-1918
Gerda Mraz, Ulla Fischer-Westhauser, Elisabeth-Wumschbilder oder die Kunst der Retouche
Brigitte Vachta, Die Habsburger. Eine europäische Familiengeschichte.
Karl Vocelka, Lynn Heller, Die private Welt der Habsburger. Leben und Alltag einer Familie
Karl Vocelka, Lynn Heller, Die Lebenswelt der Habsburger. Kultur-und Mentalitätsgeschichte einer Familie

[britt.25]

Thanks for this interesting info. A pity that some are already out of print, but many of them I did not know!

[Gretchen]

Helfried Seemann, Christian Lunzer, Das österreichisch-ungarische Kaiserhaus 1860-1918

I own Elisabeth, Kaiserin von Österreich, Königin von Ungarn by the same authors - a very beautiful book! They recently published a coffee table book about Crown Prince Rudolf too, although it´s rather thin.

[Robert_Hall]

You might try Ebay.de.  I imagine they would show up on the German  site.

[Marie Valerie]

Don't forget:

"Ein Photoalbum aus dem Hause Habsburg" by Vilmos Heiszler 

"Der Kaiser Franz Joseph I. Bilder und Dokumente" by Georg Markus

[Svetabel]

I have Franz Joseph and Elisabeth by Georg Kugler. Nice book.

[Gretchen]

Gabriele Praschl-Bichler, Das Familienalbum von Kaiser Franz-Joseph und  Elisabeth (out of print)

It´s such a pity that this book is out of print as I have heared that it´s the best of it´s kind. One can not even find one single second hand copy on sites like bookfinder, abebooks, etc. Does anybody know some secret source?

[MarieCharlotte]

It´s such a pity that this book is out of print as I have heared that it´s the best of it´s kind. One can not even find one single second hand copy on sites like bookfinder, abebooks, etc. Does anybody know some secret source?

At the moment, the book is for sell in the so-called "Halbpreis-Buchhandlung" near the Westbahnhof in Vienna for only 10 Euros. So ... let's go to Ösi-Land, my dear Linnea. 

[Gretchen]

It´s such a pity that this book is out of print as I have heared that it´s the best of it´s kind. One can not even find one single second hand copy on sites like bookfinder, abebooks, etc. Does anybody know some secret source?

At the moment, the book is for sell in the so-called "Halbpreis-Buchhandlung" near the Westbahnhof in Vienna for only 10 Euros. So ... let's go to Ösi-Land, my dear Linnea. 

Oh, that´s soo unfair! Vienna is too far away for a short shopping-trip... But maybe they do have a homepage, Marie?