Skip to content
The Puppet Crown — cover
Get your copy
Aeneas Press edition Edwardian

The Puppet Crown

by Harold MacGrath 1871–1932

The book, and the century it came out of.

A small European kingdom, a dying king, a duchess who wants the throne for her line, an Austrian loan falling due, and an American who happens to be in the capital. MacGrath was a Syracuse newspaperman who became one of the best-paid novelists of his day and among the first to write seriously for the screen; this 1901 romance is briskly cynical about how kingdoms are actually disposed of — by bankers. Illustrated with 59 full-page plates — paintings by Lipps, Roumens and Tournon among them.

A note on this edition

The Puppet Crown, by Harold MacGrath, 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 320 pages
Reading time
about 6 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486581212
The plates

59 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.

Street in Grins at Arlberg, Richard Lipps
Street in Grins at Arlberg Richard Lipps 1900
L’Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, Louis Claude Paviot
L’Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile Louis Claude Paviot 1900
The Coronation of Edward VII, study of Westminster Abbey Interior, Edwin Austin Abbey
The Coronation of Edward VII, study of Westminster Abbey Interior Edwin Austin Abbey 1902
Interior from Copenhagen, Thorvald Erichsen
Interior from Copenhagen Thorvald Erichsen 1900
Cerf aux abois, Jules Gélibert
Cerf aux abois Jules Gélibert 1900
Autumn landscape, Józef Chełmoński
Autumn landscape Józef Chełmoński 1900
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 The Puppet Crown as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Puppet Crown as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Puppet Crown, 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, 9785486581212, 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 The Puppet Crown?
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. Harold MacGrath'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 320 pages, which is roughly about 6 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
The Puppet Crown
$6.99
Buy the ebook