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Maxims of a Queen, Christina of Sweden (1626-89)
Excerpt from Maxims of a Queen, Christina of Sweden (1626-89)
Noble or innocent they be. Help me to abandon this my work to Thee and Thee only, as well as my life and my death for time and for eternity.'
Noble or innocent they be. Help me to abandon this my work to Thee and Thee only, as well as my life and my death for time and for eternity.'
45 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1680
60 people want to read
About the author
Christina of Sweden
18 books2 followersChristina, Queen of Sweden (Drottning Kristina). A member of the House of Vasa, she succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav II Adolf) of Sweden at the age of five.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 24, 2014
This is a very short book, but as someone who loves Queen Christina, I found it totally enjoyable. As the title makes clear, it's simply a series of "maxims" -- short reminders to herself and statements of belief -- but together they portray a woman who takes her sovereignty, her faith, her duty, and the pursuit of excellence with great seriousness.
Christina has often been portrayed as flighty and/or a deeply romantic figure. The real queen may have been eccentric and unorthodox in many ways -- but she was also a woman of serious intellectual and religious thought.
Christina has often been portrayed as flighty and/or a deeply romantic figure. The real queen may have been eccentric and unorthodox in many ways -- but she was also a woman of serious intellectual and religious thought.
October 23, 2021
A Sapphic, androgynous, a-spec scholar who tried to end wars so she could open a bunch of art venues, and eventually abdicated to start a book club in Rome--she seemed like my kind of gal, and she absolutely is. Plus, she'd probably listen to Swedish death metal like Katatonia and Opeth if she were alive today which makes my heart flutter!
I just wish more primary sources of hers were translated into English; maybe when I grow old in some cloister I'll learn one of her languages, and read about how, in her Autobiography, she celebrated being queer.
These Maxims are a compilation of her aphorisms, only some of which survive after (like Kafka) she ordered them in her will to be burned. Many of the ideas are contradictory, but you get a sense of her thoughts changing according to the events around her--her nervous breakdown, her public shaming for being an autism-spectrum intersex lesbian pacifist, her conversion, her debates with such figures as Descartes who flocked to her and not vise versa--as she abandons certain ideas or doubles down on others. It's touching, and I plan on revisiting them to save some choice quotes in my archive: it's just not what I was looking for.
I just wish more primary sources of hers were translated into English; maybe when I grow old in some cloister I'll learn one of her languages, and read about how, in her Autobiography, she celebrated being queer.
These Maxims are a compilation of her aphorisms, only some of which survive after (like Kafka) she ordered them in her will to be burned. Many of the ideas are contradictory, but you get a sense of her thoughts changing according to the events around her--her nervous breakdown, her public shaming for being an autism-spectrum intersex lesbian pacifist, her conversion, her debates with such figures as Descartes who flocked to her and not vise versa--as she abandons certain ideas or doubles down on others. It's touching, and I plan on revisiting them to save some choice quotes in my archive: it's just not what I was looking for.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews