Sunday 11 December 2016

“The Dream King, Ludwig II of Bavaria,” Wilfrid Blunt

1970, The Viking Press, Inc. NY, USA

There have been two companies that released this book, the one above and by George Rainbird Limited for Hamish Hamilton, London. I have found one variation to these copies – one image has two different castles for the same image. This book is rich of primary sources and imagery but there is that problem of about two and a half inches of margin form the center to the text. If the margins were smaller where the was no images on the side a few pages could have been saved. It is a great source of information and has a chapter just on Tristan (one of Wagner's works). It a book that is useful when it comes to his life, Wagner and images of his castles. Though I have older versions/editions of the book and have not seen an edition that was recently released. The book does describe Ludwig's behaviour, hate, and at times uninterested in king even though he loved his country and people. All aspect that would have to disconnecting from it when times were unfavourable. The book is not fully depth of his life – at times more towards Wagner and the works.