Description

Nathaniel Wraxall (1751-1831) worked for the East India Company before becoming an MP in 1780. He travelled extensively in Europe and moved in royal and diplomatic circles, collecting anecdotes which later made their way into several popular travel narratives and memoirs that were to bring him great fame. In this work, published in two volumes in 1799 and using an epistolary form, Wraxall gives his impressions of a number of European courts that he visited in the late 1770s. In Volume 1 the author gives an account of the tragic destiny of Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark (the sister of George III of Great Britain) who was exiled to Celle in Germany after an extra-marital affair with her husband's doctor and counsellor. Volume 2 describes Poland, seen as a country in decline, and makes acute and entertaining observations on Austro-Hungarian high society.