Golden Fleece: The Story of Franz Joseph and Elizabeth of Austria

This gem by Bertita Harding helped tie together a lot of loose strings in my understanding of Austria and Austria-Hungary in the 19th century.

I was intrigued by the fact it was written by Harding, a German-American woman, in the 1930s, and I'm happy that I selected it over perhaps more scholarly works on Sisi.  Harding's easy flowing style made for a quick and enjoyable read.

We had watched a mini-series on PBS recently about Sisi and decided to dig deeper with this book.  And although it devoted a larger share of the work to Sisi than Joseph, it painted a robust picture of the long rein of Joseph and the final decades of Hapsburg rule.

Best of all, we will find ourselves in Vienna just five weeks from tomorrow!