Overview

The first complete account of Emperor Joseph II’s undercover journey through his kingdom It is the middle of the eighteenth century, and across Europe signs of crisis are everywhere. Travelling incognito, and without the customary pomp and entourage, the young emperor Joseph II journeys through the Holy Roman Empire and his Habsburg lands to see with his own eyes how his subjects live, suffer, and starve. Moving between the world of kings and queens and that of ordinary people in their hospitals and factories, he is persuaded by Enlightenment ideas of progress and liberty. Visiting his sister, Marie Antoinette in Versailles, he senses the French Revolution looming and realises that reform is imperative if he is to build a modern state. The Emperor Incognito tells the story of an extraordinary man in an age of great upheaval, who spent a quarter of his twenty-five-year reign on the road. The result of his radical ambition and titanic efforts, despite his own admission (as inscribed on his tombstone) that he ‘failed in everything he undertook’, was the foundation of a more modern Austrian monarchy, in a Europe in which progress would no longer be determined solely by its rulers.

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9781914979439

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Reviews

""A vivid portrait of the eighteenth century.""-- ""ORF"" ""By choosing a figure such as Emperor Joseph II, Monika Czernin'swork fits in perfectly with our era, in which the political Europe of Nations is part of our daily lives. Whether we criticiseit or not, we can no longer deny it or do without it. [...] Monika Czernintakes us through all his journeys in Central and Western Europe, combining pure historicity with an exciting account of life and realism. [...] A translation of Monika Czernin'sDer Kaiser ReistIncognitointo the main languages of the Europe of the Enlightenment, such as French and/or English, will be an undeniable cultural enrichment for all speakers. Joseph II, always ahead of his time, clearly understood that Europe can only function through the diversity and complementarity of its states.""-- ""Jean-Pierre Lavandier, University of Bordeaux"" ""Czernin confidently and vividly traces Joseph II's expeditions, smoothly interweaving them with a biography of one of the key figures of the Habsburg dynasty [...].""-- ""Deutschlandfunk"" ""Czernin's descriptions of [his] journeys, long stretches of which read almost like adventure stories, allow the reader to travel far and wide throughout the empire. A panorama of Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.""-- ""Die Zeit"" ""This book, receiving the Friedrich Schiedel Literature Prize in 2023, is at the interface of historical scholarship and literary fiction, where it impressively fulfills the author's goal of conveying well-founded European history with that of an engaging 'story' in novelistic form, in which the various figures are allowed to voice their experiences by means of direct fictional dialogue. [...] In addition, the author skillfully illustrates the degree to which the historical developments of Europe had become interlaced in that period, and she explores the sources from which our current political thought derives. The book, along with being highly readable, is an essential contribution to our understanding of contemporary Europe.""-- ""Brigitte Mazohl, University of Innsbruck""

Czernin's descriptions of [his] journeys, long stretches of which read almost like adventure stories, allow the reader to travel far and wide throughout the empire. A panorama of Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.” Die Zeit “Czernin confidently and vividly traces Joseph II’s expeditions, smoothly interweaving them with a biography of one of the key figures of the Habsburg dynasty [...].” Deutschlandfunk A vivid portrait of the eighteenth century.” ORF

Czernin's descriptions of [his] journeys, long stretches of which read almost like adventure stories, allow the reader to travel far and wide throughout the empire. A panorama of Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.” Die Zeit “Czernin confidently and vividly traces Joseph II’s expeditions, smoothly interweaving them with a biography of one of the key figures of the Habsburg dynasty [...].” Deutschlandfunk A vivid portrait of the eighteenth century.” ORF

Author Information

Monika Czernin is an internationally renowned author and filmmaker. She has a special interest in the key figures and turning points of European history, and her most recent book, Anna Sacher and Her Hotel, spent many weeks on the bestseller lists. Dominic Lieven is currently a visiting professor in the Department of International History at LSE, London. His most recent book is Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia. Jamie Bulloch is a historian and has worked as a professional translator from German since 2001. He has been shortlisted for the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for translation from the German six times, winning in 2014 for Birgit Vanderbeke’s The Mussel Feast and in 2023 for Arno Geiger’s Hinterland.

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