Ludwig II

One man and his dream... There has never been a man quite like the lonely and introverted King Ludwig II; never a man who quite so dramatically realised the extraordinary products of his imagination. Don McLean might have sung about castles in the air; Ludwig would bring out the ground plans and start digging. This is the man whom only someone like Helmut Berger could play (and did, in Visconti's epic biopic). After Ludwig, it was all concrete, suits and straight lines, but during his time public life was tuned to a different pitch, poeticized and lyrical. High praise maybe, but higher buildings: sublime and dizzying edifices that embody the best of German Romantic Architecture. Wagnerian in their scope, a translation of nature's majesty into art, they remain unique constructions, sculptures in stone and light as courageous, fascinating and visionary as their maker. From the grotto at Linderhof to Neuschwanstein, this important book presents artworks, draughtsman's drawings, and both interior and exterior photography to suggest the full range of Ludwig's achievement. Now, 100 years after his mysterious and tragic death, this enigmatic man continues to move us, a man as at odds with his time as his castles are with ours.