Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Countess of Rudolstadt, Vol. 1 of 2: Being a Sequel to "Consuelo"
Every one knows the praise which Voltaire, during the early part of his residence at Berlin, lavished upon the splendours of the court of the Solomon of the North. Disdained by Louis XV., neglected by his protector, Madame de Pompadour, persecuted by the Jesuits, and hissed at the theatre-francais, he had come, in a moment of disgust, to enjoy hon ours, emoluments, the title of Chamberlain, a grand cross and, what was more flattering in his eyes than all the rest, the intimate friendship of a philosopher king. Like a great baby, the great Voltaire was in a huff with France, and fancied that he was making his ungrateful countrymen die with annoyance. He was consequently a little intoxicated with his new glory when he wrote that Berlin was quite as good as Ver sailles, that the opera of Phaeton was the finest thing that could be seen, and that the prima-donna had the most beautiful voice in Europe. However, at the period when we resume our story (and, to save our readers trouble, we will inform them that nearly a year had elapsed since Con suelo's last adventures), as winter was beginning to be felt at Berlin in all its sharpness, and as the great king had shown himself a little in his true light. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
