“However it may appear, no human happening is really sudden. Life is incontestably continuous and the outward manifestation has long been prepared for by foreshadowings unnoted, unseen, perhaps as they arrived, almost unseeable. An event, often quite trivial, occurs and the secret, long-nourished heroisms or abasements suddenly stand forth in stark reality” - Desmond Chapman-Huston.

He was born in 1845 and succeeded to the throne of Bavaria in 1864. He was king for just over twenty years. He was the patron of Richard Wagner for whom he built the magnificent theater at Bayreuth where the first complete performance of Der Ring des Nibelugen was staged. His mania for building has left Bavaria with structures that to this day are tourist attractions. In 1886 he was declared insane, and soon after he was found drowned in Lake Stainberg.

For this balanced and sympathetic biography of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Desmond Chapman-Huston was given the complete freedom of the secret Archives of the Royal House of Wittelsbach. He had access to all documents, diaries, memoranda and all letters to and from King Ludwig II preserved in the secret House Archives, and was allowed to use them as he wished. The result is no less than the definitive biography of King Ludwig II based entirely on first hand material. Mr. Chapman-Huston quotes extensively from this material, and to the greatest extent possible Ludwig writes his own life in his own words, and stands revealed to the modern reader as both man and king.

This copy is in Good Condition with the dust-jacket fully in-tact, with some bumps and signs of wear.