Michael Kleeberg Der König von Korsika (The King of Corsica) Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, August 2001, 380pp. ISBN: 3-421-05448-7 'Mind your own affairs, and leave the Corsicans to theirs', was the advice of Doctor Johnson to his future biographer James Boswell. But here is a novel about a man who took the opposite view. He was Theodor, Baron Neuhoff, traveller, adventurer and diplomat, who visited Corsica in the mid-eighteenth century when it was still under Genoese rule, became, like Boswell, a partisan in its political struggles, and convinced the inhabitants that he could help them towards independence if they, in return, would make him king. This they did and through his diplomatic connections he managed to procure the rebels some support. It was short-lived, however, and he had to leave the island even more rapidly than he had arrived. His wife died, he was imprisoned in England for debt, and ended up wandering the streets of London, penniless, starving and alone. No matter if you have never heard of him before. His life makes a wonderful tale, and not only the Corsican part. Indeed, his childhood and upbringing are just as fascinating. The son of a feckless father who died when he was still young, he none the less had a happy childhood, brought up by wealthy benefactors with his beloved sister Amélie. He was bad at lessons, seeing no point in knowledge except in so far as it could benefit him personally. Nevertheless he managed to become a page at Versailles, then moved on to Paris and studied at the Sorbonne. He is depicted in these pages as a naive and superficial young man, easily influenced by what he perceives to be great thoughts and important ideals but even more governed by his ideas of his own self-worth, and it is this complexity of character that makes him interesting. This is a beautifully written book with prose so rhythmical as to be almost hypnotic. Yet there is plenty of excitement - sex, violence, battles and blood. An original treatment of an unusual theme.