The Grey Eminence of Europe: A Memoir – Talleyrand Charles Maurice de – Eksmo – 2026 – ISBN 978-5-04-246991-6
The Grey Eminence of Europe: A Memoir
29.99 €
In stock
The Grey Eminence of Europe: A Memoir
29.99 €
For two centuries, diplomats and statesmen have studied the experience of a man who managed the impossible: remaining at the pinnacle of power under six successive and warring French regimes, from the final years of Louis XVI's monarchy through the Revolution and the Directory to Napoleon's Empire and the Bourbon Restoration. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord inspired both fear and admiration in his contemporaries, and Napoleon, who called him "shit in silk stockings," could never do without his services in any significant matter of his reign. When France suffered military defeat, it was through Talleyrand's efforts at the Congress of Vienna that the defeated country found itself at the same table with the victorious powers, a case never seen before in the history of European diplomacy.
Talleyrand's memoirs constitute a kind of practical guide to power and influence, written by a man who applied its rules for nearly half a century without ever suffering definitive defeat. While Niccolò Machiavelli described the structure of power and the man who could navigate it, Talleyrand demonstrated through his own example the art of maintaining power for decades, relying on precisely chosen words, the right intonation, and cold calculation at moments when his opponents literally lost their heads.
Talleyrand's memoirs constitute a kind of practical guide to power and influence, written by a man who applied its rules for nearly half a century without ever suffering definitive defeat. While Niccolò Machiavelli described the structure of power and the man who could navigate it, Talleyrand demonstrated through his own example the art of maintaining power for decades, relying on precisely chosen words, the right intonation, and cold calculation at moments when his opponents literally lost their heads.
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series Gift editions. Eksmo