Skip to content
Frederick the Great and His Court — cover
Get your copy
Aeneas Press edition Victorian

Frederick the Great and His Court

by Luise Mühlbach 1814–1873

The book, and the century it came out of.

Berlin, 1740: the old king dies, and the son he beat, imprisoned and forced to watch his friend beheaded takes the throne — and within months has invaded Silesia. Mühlbach was Klara Mundt, who wrote nearly three hundred volumes and poured the courts of Europe into them; she is a gossip with archives, and her Frederick — flute, French verses, cold contempt — is the one the nineteenth century believed. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Watteau, Lancret and Pater among them.

The palace glittered with light and splendor; the servants ran here and there, arranging the sofas and chairs; the court gardener cast a searching glance at the groups of flowers which he had placed in the saloons; and the major domo superintended the tables in the picture gallery.
The first sentence of Frederick the Great and His Court
A note on this edition

Frederick the Great and His Court, by Luise Mühlbach, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 416 pages
Reading time
about 8 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486762734
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

The Embarkation for Cythera, Jean-Antoine Watteau
The Embarkation for Cythera Jean-Antoine Watteau 1719
The Shop Sign of Gersaint, Jean-Antoine Watteau
The Shop Sign of Gersaint Jean-Antoine Watteau 1720
Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin 1737
Young Man Presenting a Rose to a Young Woman, Q1702971
Young Man Presenting a Rose to a Young Woman Q1702971 1717
Landscape with a fordable place in a brook with peasants and cattle, Christian Hilfgott Brand
Landscape with a fordable place in a brook with peasants and cattle Christian Hilfgott Brand 1746
A Wooded Landscape with Figures, Jan Frans van Bloemen
A Wooded Landscape with Figures Jan Frans van Bloemen 1725
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Frederick the Great and His Court as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Frederick the Great and His Court as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Frederick the Great and His Court, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Adventure & the Sea shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486762734, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Frederick the Great and His Court?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Luise Mühlbach's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 416 pages, which is roughly about 8 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
Frederick the Great and His Court
$6.99
Buy the ebook