Ian Dunlop for Pimlico This is old-fashioned narrative history-cum-biography with a very deep knowledge of the topic. Dunlop clearly respects, possibly even likes, Louis but he admits that he does not know the man. He interfaces the life with the economic, diplomatic and military events but avoids (it seems to me) the shrill denouncement of actions shown to be wrong with hindsight. (His comments on teaching methods and on the Huguenots come close to criticism). This may or may not be a good thing but it gives one a view of Louis closer to that of the contemporary than in many other works. Full of witty sayings and amusing anecdotes this is a pleasure to read. As ever one can have difficulty remembering who was Monsieur and who was the Grand Dauphin. The Galsworthy saga of the Bourbons. Old Duffer's Book Corner Book Reviews The Punic Wars The Northern Wars 1558-1721 1688: A Global History Richelieu And Olivares Warfare At Sea 1500-1650 Louis XIV The Renaissance At War The Great War and Modern Memory Battles of the Greek And Roman Worlds Histoire Militaire des Guerres Puniques Dictionnaire des Maréchaux de France The War The Infantry Knew 1914-1919 The Great War The Byzantine Wars The French Civil Wars The Somme The Myth of the Great War The Wars Of The Ancient Greeks Histoire de l'armée française de 1914 à nos jours To The Last Man: Spring 1918 Flodden 1513 Verdun 1916 The Mediterranean In The Ancient World The National Army Museum Book Of The Boer War La Bataille d'Abbeville Soldier Sahibs The Celtic Empire The Imperial War Museum Book of 1918 War And The World: Military Power And The Fate of Continents Back to Perfidious Albion #103 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com