Anyone interested in the Napoleonic era might enjoy this look at the personalities gathered at the Congress of Vienna over the latter part of 1814 through early 1815, when the protracted (and killingly expensive) gaieties were summarily interrupted by Napoleon's escape from Elba.

It was amusing to recognize bits from this or that memoir or set of letters, however unlike those, King navigates between the Scylla of unreliable narrators (and the memoirists are all more or less unreliable in that they all wrote with an intention, often to paper over their own shortcomings and affairs de coeur with penetrating hindsight and noble patriotism, or to slander an enemy)and the Charybdis of nineteenth and early twentieth century whitewashing.

So we know who was sleeping with whom (including proof of one of Metternich's more important indiscretions, the letters illustrating which having lain secretly in a Swedish palace wall until 1989), who was friends or rivals with whom, peppered with the popular Prince de Ligne's wit. The man was not the least important in state affairs, but he knew everyone pretty much the entire century, and he had his refined finger on the pulse of society all his long life. And people knew it. It's just this sort of person who is usually excised from histories in favor or earnest politicians or determined military men, which robs a history of a sense of the time.

Most important, I think, King successfully demonstrates how (though we use the term "Napoleonic" for the era) Talleyrand was at least as influential, as powerful, and far, far more longsighted. Talleyrand never led armies to smite thousands of lives, but he was expert in shaping the fallout into a semblance of order, and then rejuggling as those statesmen and military leaders rushed about grabbing what they could.

Revolving like satellites are personalities like Alexander of Russia, and those who influenced him, including his mysterious sage. That's another thing I like: King does not leave out the women. Though they were kept from prominence in the legal sense, they had tremendous influence socially and intimately, which King demonstrates.

Finally, he illustrates what it was like for so many kings to live for this protracted time in close proximity--something that had never before occurred. He also illustrates what it was like to participate in inventing a government from afar (Louis XVIII's) and what happens when that government begins to disintegrate, and nobody knows what will happen next (the escape from Elba).

Finally, we get a succinct overview of Waterloo, and the desperate days of the Alliance. It ends shortly after Napoleon is sent off to St. Helena.

I would have liked more delving into Castlereagh, so conflicted and interesting a character, and a bit more focus on the Polish question and their remarkable champion, but this is a short book, and the writer must pick and choose.