TY  - BOOK
AU  - Zamoyski,Adam
TI  - The last king of Poland
SN  - 9781474615198
PY  - 2020///
CY  - London
PB  - Weidenfeld & Nicolson
KW  - Stanisław
KW  - Poland
KW  - Kings and rulers
KW  - Biography
KW  - History
KW  - Partition period, 1763-1796
KW  - Stanislaus II Augustus, 1764-1795
KW  - Biographies
KW  - lcgft
N1  - Originally published: Jonathan Cape, 1993; Includes bibliographical references and index
N2  - The last king of Poland owed his throne largely to his youthful romance with the future Catherine the Great of Russia. But Stanislaw Augustus was nobody's pawn. He was an ambitious, highly intelligent and complex character, a dashing figure in the finest eighteenth-century tradition. A great believer in art and education, he spent fortunes on cultural projects, and finding that he was blocked politically by Catherine, he put his energies into a programme of social and artistic regeneration. He transformed the mood of his country and brought it to a new phase of reform and independence. Poland's neighbours, however, viewed this beacon of liberty in their midst with alarm, and as they invaded and partitioned it, Stanislaw saw the destruction of his life's work, and ultimately was forced to abdicate, a broken man, deceived and disillusioned
ER  -