“Frederick the Great: King of Prussia”, by David Fraser

720 pages, Fromm, ISBN-13: 978-0880642613

I have been a fan of Fred the Deuce since I saw Sir Alec Guinness in Hitler: The Last Ten Days and, while gazing at a portrait of a man whom I mistook for George Washington, mentioned that when he (Hitler) thought back on what Frederick the Great suffered, it gave him renewed strength to continue the struggle. With that, I just had to find out who this Great Fred was; I started with Frederick the Great: The Magnificent Enigma by Robert B. Asprey (reviewed on July 5th, 2017), moved on to The Army of Frederick the Great by Christopher Duffy (reviewed on February 25th, 2013), rounded it all out with Osprey Publishing books about his army (reviewed on September 1st, 2017), to say nothing of the several other biographies I have collected over the years that…I have yet to review. In due time, Dear Reader, in due time. And so, when I came across Frederick the Great: King of Prussia by David Fraser on my beloved Barnes & Noble overstock shelves, I snatched it up and dove right in…

…and let me tell ya, diving is the right metaphor for this book for, I have to say that, reading it felt at times like I was swimming against a current. First, a little background: David Fraser is in fact General Sir David William Fraser, GCB, OBE, who was, until his death in 2012, the son of Brigadier William Fraser (the younger son of the 19th Lord Saltoun) and Pamela Maude (widow of Billy Congreve, a Victoria Cross recipient, and daughter of actors Cyril Maude and Winifred Emery). He was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards as a second lieutenant in 1941 where he served in the European Theatre in World War II; after climbing the ladder of ranks, he became Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies from 1978 until his retirement from military service in 1980.

And even though he published over twenty books in his lifetime, I don’t believe he ever got the knack for writing, as this plodding pile of paper proves. Fraser’s sentences are often long – sometimes too long – and often tedious. The occasional awkward expressions don’t help, either, as when he refers to “auguries” instead of “signs”, or talks about “diplomatists” rather than “diplomats”, while throughout the book he uses French phrases, terms and titles in French and does NOT give the translation; I speak no French at all – désolé, mais c’est vrai – and found the untranslated French phrases very annoying. Now, Fraser is to be commended for giving a very detailed and generally unbiased account of one the greatest military commanders of all time. Frederick the Great was not only a great military tactician but also a true son of the Age of Enlightenment: poet, author, composer (well, kinda), philosopher, adept politician and administrator, were only some of the attributes of this great man. Frederick was a champion not only for the Prussian Army but of its people, as well. Attacked on all sides and constantly outnumbered by the French, Austrians, Russians, Saxons and Swedes, Frederick’s brilliant tactics and modernization of the Prussian Army was the undoing of many of his adversaries.

What was most impressive about this great man was the fact that, for the time, Prussian subjects enjoyed freedom of the press and religion, uncorrupted governmental administration, as well an independent judiciary. He believed he was a servant to Prussia and its people – the First Servant of the State, in his words. But Fraser ultimately admits that, for all of Frederick’s professed love of justice, there was the “conflict, never resolved, between his belief in the actual advantages of monarchical autocracy (in hands like his own) and his enduring belief – equally sincere – in the rights and dignity of man”. All of this is duly recorded by Fraser, but in the most turgid style imaginable…well, not the battles; the battles rock. But be prepared for a long, long swim should you crack the spine of this 700+ page behemoth; it shan’t be a wasted swim, but you no doubt will be left panting on the shore at the end of it.