The 'ugly' Duchess explained (apparently).

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Sat October 11th, 2008, 4:11 pm

Just seen this on another list

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... sease.html

donroc · Post by **donroc** » Sat October 11th, 2008, 4:15 pm

Lion Feuchtwanger wrote a novel titled The Ugly Duchress.

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Sat October 11th, 2008, 4:22 pm

[quote=""donroc""]Lion Feuchtwanger wrote a novel titled The Ugly Duchress.[/quote]

I've not heard of that one Donroc. From what I can gather no-one knows who she was. I think she would indeed make an interesting subject for a novel.

donroc · Post by **donroc** » Sat October 11th, 2008, 4:39 pm

Yes, and I wish I had read it as well. His novels are now difficult to find, and when successful, I find the prices dear.

He must have had access to valuable sources while he still lived in Weimar Germany. As an aside, the Nazis twisted his novel Jew Süss into an anti-semitic film.

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Sat October 11th, 2008, 5:22 pm

how sad. Her life must have been extremly hard. Or so I would imagine.

annis · Post by **annis** » Sat October 11th, 2008, 7:42 pm

I haven't had a chance to read Lion Feuchtwanger's novel "The Ugly Duchess", Donroc, but apparently the duchess of the title is Margarete of Tyrol, and it's generally assumed that she was the subject of Metsys' painting, but that does seem rather unlikely given that it was painted many years after her death. I have to say that she doesn't look so bad in the painting from the Wiki article, but maybe it was an idealised one- in fact I see it described as a mock portrait.

< Margarete is the central figure of this historical novel set in medieval Europe, a woman whom "God had deprived of feminine charm so that she might sink all the woman in the ruler." She was inherently good and of tremendous governing ability, but her reign was still one of persecution and terror. Her own ugliness and the contrasting beauty of her enemy, the courtesan Agnes von Flavon, conspired to turn each good deed into a tragedy. Her courtiers mocked her, her people distrusted her, her lovers sought her only for self-advancement.> Publisher's summary.

It certainly sounds as if her life was not a happy one.

Just came across this article, which gives quite a bit more information about the novel:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -3,00.html