Cecil Rhodes Man and Empire-maker

by Catherine Radziwill

Princess Catherine Radziwill (30 March 1858 - 12 May 1941) was a Polish princess from a famous Polish-Lithuanian aristocratic family. She was possibly the author of a book gossiping about the German Emperor William II and Berlin society in 1884 under the pseudonym Paul Vasili. She stalked the English-born South African politician Cecil Rhodes. After she asked him to marry her and he refused, she sought revenge by forging his name on a promissory note. Radziwill was convicted of forging Rhodes' signature and spent time in a South African jail. This account of a turbulent time in South Africa's history is made more interesting by the relationship of Catherine to Cecil Rhodes.

Genres: Biography, History

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Wrote under the pseudonym Count Paul Vasili.

Princess Catherine Radziwiłł (Polish: Katarzyna Radziwiłłowa; 30 March 1858 – 12 May 1941) was a notable Polish aristocrat. Born in Russia into the House of Rzewuski, her maternal family was the illustrious Dashkov-Vorontsov. Carefully educated, in 1873 she married the Polish Prince Wilhelm Radziwiłł.

She became a prominent figure at the Imperial courts in Germany and Russia, but became involved in a series of scandals. She combined her love for the luxury of the courts, social life, gossip and intrigue with her literary talent and she is notable as the author of two dozen books on European royalty and the Russian court in particular most notably: Behind the Veil at the Russian Court (1914) and her autobiography It Really Happened (1932).

Reviews

[Nyna · Rating 1 out of 5]

On the tails of reading of Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa, I read this book, Cecil Rhodes: Man and Empire-Maker by my favorite little gossip girl, Princess Catherine Radziwill. This time, her writing missed the mark. She is obviously painting Rhodes in unflattering terms with innuendo and damning flattery, while dancing around direct criticism by blaming any of his faults on those around him. In “Diamonds, Gold, and War. . .,” an entire chapter was devoted to her romantic pursuit of Rhodes, then her forging of documents to escape her bills. There is not a whisper of any of that in her own book. Even her reporting of the prisoner camps and concentration camps, contains misinformation. At one point, she lists the provisions provided to the prisoners on a daily basis, including: 1¼ lb. bread; 1 lb. meat; 3 oz. sugar; ½ lb. vegetables; and ¼ lb. jam or 6 oz. of vegetables in lieu. She then insists that it can reasonably be assumed that the concentration camps received similar quantities of food, and yet 27,927 people died in those camps, 22,074 of them children under age 16. If I hadn’t just read the other book, I would have had a difficult time knowing who the people she talks about were. All and all, it is a real failure of a book.

[Ron Me]

Not a history nor a biography, the author says it is a book of recollections, apparently of someone who knew Rhodes fairly well. He appears to have been a prototype fascist, seeking power and closely aligned with capital, but he was a little too English to make it as big as, say, Franco. For which thank goodness.

[Karen]

Cecil John Rhodes (1853 - 1902) was a British-born South African businessman, mining magnate, and a politician. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today controls 60% of the world's diamonds and at one time, 90%. #biography #memoir

[Mike Wigal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drivel.