I've never read anything else by him but this is supposed to be unlike all his other fiction. A quick, short read: Umberto I of Italy is fed up with his work and his role and takes an incognito "vacation" in Switzerland. That's it. It's light as air...a "confection" as they say. But the writing is brilliant. Read this for the writing--and, I suppose, the message. The back of the jacket copy compared it to Richard's Strauss's Rosenkavalier in its depiction of a world about to be lost forever. I think that's a bit overdrawn, but it is very Belle Epoque and just a delight to read. Lovely. ( )