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by C. M. Mayo
A sweeping historical novel of Mexico during the short, tragic, at times surreal, reign of Emperor Maximilian and his court.
Even as the American Civil War raged north of the border, a clique of Mexican conservative exiles and clergy convinced Louis Napoleon to invade Mexico and install the Archduke of Austria, Maximilian von Habsburg, as Emperor. A year later, the childless Maximilian took custody of the two year old, half-American, Prince Agustan de Iturbide y Green, making the toddler the Heir Presumptive. Maximilian's reluctance to return the child to his distraught parents, even as his empire began to fall, and the Empress Carlota descent into madness, ignited an international scandal.
This lush, grand read is based on the true story and illuminates both the cultural roots of Mexico and the political development of the Americas. But it is made all the more captivating by the depth of Mayo s writing and her understanding of the pressures and influences on these all too human players. Her prose makes the reader taste the foods, smell the spices and flowers and feel the heat of Mexico. Mayo writes for the senses. And for the ages.
The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire is a story both sweeping and intimate, of geopolitics, the glamor of royalty, and the grit of military command, of the arrogance of power, the dark labyrinths of ambition, and, above all, of a child who was not, in the end, a prince, but a little boy who belonged to his parents.
"Lengthy, expository, meandering and grandiose, Mayo's reanimation of a crucial period in Mexican history should satisfy history buffs and those in the mood for an engaging story brimming with majestic ambition." - Publishers Weekly
"[The] narrative suffers from overtelling at the expense of showing but, for the most part, Mayo comfortably blends fiction with fact while illuminating a dark corner of North American history." - Booklist
"[A] fine historical lesson about why Maximilian’s paternalistic adventure in a country that did not want him was doomed from the start." - Latin American Review of Books
This information about The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
C. M. Mayo has been living in and writing about Mexico for many years. Her story collection, Sky Over El Nido, won the Flannery O Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is also the author of a travel memoir and is an avid translator and editor of contemporary Mexican literature.
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