A German Pompadour

A stormy November evening in 1705 brings four anxious people together at the Neuhaus, a country house near Stuttgart. Debts, gambling and the cost of maintaining a court appointment drive their conversation. From these private pressures, Marie Hay develops a historical novel about Wilhelmine von Grävenitz and her influence over Eberhard Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg. The setting places personal ambition within the elaborate social world of an eighteenth-century German court.

Ceremony becomes a means of displaying power as Wilhelmine enters a formal gathering beside the Duke, dressed in gold and wearing jewels associated with the Duchess. Courtiers weigh their resentment against the possible cost of giving offence. Hay pays close attention to clothes, gestures, music and carefully managed introductions, showing how public deference can coexist with private hostility. Readers interested in court politics and historical romance will find a story concerned with the uneasy connection between affection, money and rank.