The Empress is a historical love story by Gigi Griffis about Elisabeth meeting the Austrian Emperor Franz in 1853. The Emperor is supposed to Mary Elisabeth’s sister Helene but when Franz meets Elisabeth in the gardens everything changes.
The book starts with some idyllic views of the girls childhood together and tales of their closeness and bond. Helene worries about her sister and what will happen when she marries the emperor. Helene is the sensible one, exactly what an Empress should be. She’s been training for a good marriage for years and this match exceeds everyone’s expectations. Helene is delighted and excited and sighs over Franz’s portrait. Elisabeth is determined to marry only for love. She does not believe in duty and finds it restrictive to even wear shoes.
Both sisters once close are finding it difficult to relate to one another anymore now that they are both becoming young women. Elisabeth doesn’t want to be called by her nickname Sisi anymore as it makes her feel too young and childish but Helene doesn’t really understand. She wants to protect her little sister for as long as she can.
It is Helene’s idea to bring her sister along with her to meet the Emperor for the first time. It would suit Helene perfectly if she could make a match between her sister and one of the emperor’s brothers so that they could start their new life at court together. She tells her sister nothing of this plan hoping to surprise her later.
When they first arrive at court there is a mix up with the clothes on the journey and Helene is upset that her clothes have been lost and that she must meet the Emperor for the first time in funeral clothes a day old for his birthday celebrations. While her sister and mother fuss over the dresses Elisabeth slips quietly out into the garden.
In the garden Franz and Elisabeth meet and their connection is instant. Everyone surrounding Franz is so serious and here is a young woman not afraid to speak her mind who is so refreshingly honest. She makes him laugh for the first time in a very long time. Their love of nature gives them a shared interest and who could resist this sweet girl barefoot in the gardens?
This is when I found I got a bit mad at the story. It’s picture perfect romance of course and we are to believe they are swept up in love and things escalate as they tend to do. But really I was pretty annoyed with them both. Franz doesn’t seem to spare Helene’s feelings or particularly try to get to know her as he is doing with her sister. Elisabeth makes a few attempts at virtuously turning down her sister’s intended but she also makes several choices that she knows will make it worse. I’m sure many readers won’t feel this way and will enjoy the love story fully. I feel like more people become hurt than are perhaps necessary if things had been done differently. But then perhaps there would be no book.
It’s a perfectly nice romance story in a historical setting. For me it felt like a lot of modern views had been placed on the characters and I’m not sure if that is really how those historical figures would have felt in their own time periods. But it was a light and fun read. I have read better historical fiction but I have also read worse. This falls somewhere in the middle for me.
It did make me want to walk through the gardens of a grand home and who wouldn’t like to see the kind of lavish lifestyle where the Empress only wears shoes for a single day and then throws them out? It would be interesting to experience for a day though far too much pomp and rules for normal life as Elisabeth and Franz come to find in the book. They would both be happier with a simple life.
The story is available on Netflix with the book interestingly publishing only two days before the series was made available on the streaming service.
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