Thursday, September 03, 2009

Booking Through Thursday: Biggest

Q: What’s the biggest book you’ve read recently? (Feel free to think “big” as size, or as popularity, or in any other way you care to interpret.)

A: I would have to say the book I am reading now is the biggest for one reason, that it is a nonfiction, and it is through the whole span of the British monarchs. It is "Royal Affairs", a lusty romp through the extramarital adventures that rocked the British Monarchy by sweetheart author Leslie Carroll. The reason it is big is it covers almost anything and everything that I ever had questions about. From Henry II and Rosamund de Clifford to present day Prince of Wales Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. I love this book for the fact that it is fact and that it is broken down by sections of royal houses. It is a great read for an ADD reader like myself. Even though I am not finished it is the biggest read because it covers all the dirty affairs through out history.

"Insatiable kings, lecherous queens, kissing cousins, and wanton consorts—history has never been so much fun.
Royal unions have always been the stuff of scintillating gossip, from the passionate Plantagenets to Henry VIII’s alarming head count of wives and mistresses, to the Sapphic crushes of Mary and Anne Stuart right on up through the scandal-blighted coupling of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Thrown into loveless, arranged marriages for political and economic gain, many royals were driven to indulge their pleasures outside the marital bed, engaging in delicious flirtations, lurid love letters, and rampant sex with voluptuous and willing partners."

"This nearly pathological lust made for some of the most titillating scandals in Great Britain’s history. Hardly harmless, these affairs have disrupted dynastic alliances, endangered lives, and most of all, fed the salacious curiosity of the public for centuries. Royal Affairs will satiate that curiosity by bringing this arousing history alive."

7 comments:

  1. This sounds like a wonderful book! Out of curiosity, how long is it?

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  2. 438 pages, I got it the 31st and I am on page 253. You would love it, it has a whole section on Charles II. I had gotten myself all confused on his mistresses with the sun Kings mistress Louise. I really enjoyed her chapter on Hortense Mancini Duchesse of Mazarin. I had been dying to find out more about her and Leslie has a whole section on her and Charles.

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  3. I'm SO delighted that you're enjoying the book, Lizzy! One thing that is fun about it is that it is organized by chronological chapters so if a reader goes from beginning to end, they get an unusual perspective on British history and the monarchy through the prism of some of the scandalous liaisons of its monarchs. Or, a reader could cherry-pick and read about their favorites, in whatever order they like. My mother immediately jumped to the end, with the chapters about Charles and Camilla and Diana and her lovers.

    I LOVE Hortense Mancini, by the way. I think she is SO interesting and I'm dying to write a novel about her. I'm hearing from editors that she's not a famous enough name to sell enough books, though. Drat!

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  4. I'll have to check that book out--looks intriguing!

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  5. Oh that sounds interesting!! I may have to look that one up!

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  6. I think Hortense is not famous enough becasue no one has done anything with her. Your book is the first that I have found that even touched on her. The perfect royal mistress barely mentioned her and that is where I first read about her.

    No cherry picking here! I stayed up way too late again last night reading it. Man that George IV he was bad, and very confusing. I had no idea about him.

    Trust me all if you love history you will love this book. It is going to have to be my "historical bible" from now on.

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