The people really jump out at you and you get a clear idea of who Louis XIV was as a leader, a patron of the arts, and as a person. Even though it's non-fiction (and my Professor said it's probably one of the most fair accounts of Louis - he was a reasonably controversial monarch) it reads like historical fiction at times. I read this book for a seminar I took on Louis XIV, but honestly the book is great anyway. He presents the king as he appeared to his ministers, his diplomats, and his soldiers, rather than to the gossips of his court. Wolf, challenging the myths and biases, has based this important study on Louis’ own documents, his diaries, decrees, and hundreds of the king’s letters from the archives at Vincennes (hereto-fore almost unexploited). The memorists, particularly Saint-Simon, have “fixed” the traditional image of Louis so firmly it is difficult to see him in any other light.

Although Louis XIV was a vitally important figure in European history, he has found no satisfactory biographer until now. Without ignoring the fact that Louis was also a son, husband, lover, and father―as well as king―he gives us a striking new image of Louis as “soldier administrator” and a vivid, accurate picture of the king’s impact on the military machine after 1691, his part in the drama of war and in the emergence of a new Europe. Professor Wolf focuses on the problems of high politics and war, which intrigued Louis and were his instruments of power.

Louis XIV by John B. Wolf