Gli Asburgo Da Sissi a Zita by Raffaella Ranise
is a new stunning book on one of the most known and beloved european royal families.
Ranise with the same agility used for the story of the Romanov, analyzes here, the existence of Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Elisabetta,called by everyone Sisi, or as we italians tend to say: Sissi. It's a story pretty tragic. The little girl just 15 years, wasn't ready for a role like the one that she should have played in the rigid austriac court. Grown-up informally and without too much appreciation for books or culture when little, Sissi found a hostile place in the royal palace of Wien: Franz Joseph, simply fell in love for her: it was a love at first sight. Sure, Sissi, as well loved Franz Joseph and Franz Joseph adored her but from the poems she wrote, she talked of lack of freedom at court and the sensation that she was living in a cage in that distant and cold place that she couldn't call home.
Elisabetta and Franz Joseph have had several children although they lost one of them pretty soon. If Sissi sounded electrified by Hunghary with which she experienced a priviledged love, she later lived an existence completely disconnected by Wien, travelling in the world, and, constantly peaceless.
Many terrible deaths surrounded Sissi. The death of Ludwig, her beloved cousin, then the tragic end of Rodolfo, the son who had to become king once his father dead, meant to her a lot in terms of mental stability. She constricted herself to travel much more. At the same time the Emperor had some love-affairs with several ladies, and one of them an actress, Katharina Schratt, appreciated by the Emperess. Sissi loved sport: she followed powerful diets to mantain a beautiful body and wonderful hair. Tall 1,72 her weight was just of 50 kilos.
She died tragically but without any idea that she was dying murdered by a man, an italian, who just wanted to kill a king, a queen or anyway someone of that environment. When he discovered that Sissi was in Ginevra he decided that, simply she would have been the victim. Irony is that Sissi didn't like italians at all, and she was killed by an italian.
To the Emperor, who had just completed a letter to her beloved Sissi, this news meant to him a profound sufferance. The Emperor was a solid man a devoted of work. He lived a long existence.He worked also the last day of his existence, with a pneumonia, high fever, and remembering to the man close to him of calling him at 3 o'clock in the morning because he needed to recuperate what he hadn't been in grade to do the previous day because of weakness and fever. But that night, he died. 1916.
Francesco Ferdinando, the one who had to take his place once Franz Joseph dead or too old, couldn't wait for that moment. Franz Joseph couldn't see Francesco Ferdinando. He didn't like his ideas. The tragic death of Francesco Ferdinando and the wife Sophie, at Sarajevo, in 1914, is moving. The two were arrived that morning and had escaped another terrorist attack: the fatal one reached Sophie in the belly and Francesco Ferdinando in the throat. Desperate, Francesco Ferdinando cried to his wife: "Please, don't die. Stay alive for our chilldren" adding that what happened wasn't remarkably important, while he was dying. After these tragic events the last Emperor was Carlo with his beloved wife Zita, of italian origin.
Just, they tried all their best: they tried to restore peace, in every possible way and let's put things in this way, they ruined the situation and the Emperor had to go away. Carlo was very sad. In 1919 he had also catched the Spanish flu. He recovered but he didn't live at long. Once, when in exhile one day he went to the nearest town for buying some toys to the children. He returned sick and thanks to a pneumonia, died.
Zita lived a long life surrounded by many children,one still in her belly when Carlo died and for both of them the Vatican has started a process of beatification, completed in the case of Carlo and still in process for Zita.
Beautiful and touching book.
Being a fan of Sissi, I appreciated it a lot!
Highly recommended.
I thank Marsilio for the physical copy of the book.
Anna Maria Polidori
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