About this title: What does Camilla see in Charles? Did the Duchess of Windsor REALLY think she was going to get the crown of England? Learn the scandalous truth about the illicit relationships of some of history's most powerful men-and the women who slept with them to get to the top. SEX WITH KINGS is the perfect book for anyone who revels in the scandalous goings ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060585433ISBN:0060585439
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Line new! Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 287 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Dust Cover Missing. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780965918558ISBN:0965918556
Description: Good. Minimal damage to the cover, dust jacket not necessarily included minimal wear to binding, majority of pages undamaged, minimal to no highlighting/underlining of text, no missing p. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780060585440ISBN:0060585447
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Cover has wear and has a small tear repaired with tape. Has some dog-earred pages. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 320 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780060585440ISBN:0060585447
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 320 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 287 pgs plus insights, interviews and author section in vg condition w/slight wear on bottom edges; cover has slight wear on edges. read more
"This book was a disappointment overall. Herman takes a fascinating topic and reduces it to a gossipy, disorganized read, largely judging the women discussed based on their looks and weight. Though I certainly learned a lot of historical information from this book, it seemed to exaggerate and scandalize many events of history, as if listening to a jealous woman at court discuss these subjects rather than an objective contemporary "historian". At times, the author seemed downright catty in discussing the merits or lack thereof of women who lived hundreds of years ago. I also found the structure of the book to be confusing as Herman jumps around between women and kings, centuries, and countries, returning to the same few women over an over again, often contradicting herself. It seems as though it would have been far more logical to organize this book in chronological order, as most history is reported, telling the entire story of a mistress and her king at once, rather than bouncing back and forth.
I should have anticipated that this book may read like a historical tabloid when I saw Herman's author's picture on the back cover. In it she is dressed like a 16th century princess, complete with a crown. This leads me to believe that Herman's interest in her subject may not stem from a desire to tell the female side of history rather than from a bizarre wish to live in the past."
"I'm kind of amazed how listlessly I read this book, for Herman certainly found a wonderful angle of history to examine--the complicated relationships among the royal court and the king's mistress--but the approach in this book became rather unappealing at times. The chapters here are set up thematically, and so some names recur through a lot of these chapters, but I think I might have found more compelling an approach that took one or two telling examples to examine more linearly to then connect to the more haphazard mishmash of various mistresses and the tales involved. The tales here are wonderful, though I must admit that I wondered at time how much of Herman's research was reliable and not just 16th century gossip rags. The politics among royalty, the wonderful paradox of leaders who are chained down by traidition rather than the creators of it, and just the wonderfully deep-seeded wackiness of royals who will have peasants beheaded so that royal doctors would have some samples to find a way to fix the king's injured eye, and of course the sexual proclivities galore, make for great stuff for Herman to write about, but the structure of the book became very weary at times.
One of the real highlights of this book is the examination of Prince Charles and Camilla in the light of the tradition of royal concubines. This makes for a highly new view of the 'scandal' of Charlie talking dirty on a cell phone, but Herman's conclusion to this book is highly weak and makes me wonder how much insight she had overall to the subject matter, or if this book was just a slapdash of more serious work she has done."
"The information is interesting and informative....but Herman's writing style SSSSTINKS! The book is full of random bits of information that are loosely connected to the theme. The entire book a classic example of "info-dumping". Herman changes subjects every paragraph.
With the exception of Madames de Pompadour and de Montespan, the reader can hardly keep anyone straight.
I spent the first half of the book flipping to the picture section in the middle of the book. As for the last half of the book? ....I gave up. I finished the book, but instead of feeling more informed, I feel as if I've read an 18th C. version of The Enquirer. *bleck* How can I hope for _Sex with the Queen_ to be any better? *bah*"
"With a detailed look into the lives of royal mistresses, Eleanor Herman's book really opens your eyes to the scandalous position. Not all about the sex, the role of royal mistress was demanding physically, sexually and intellectually. Not only did a mistress bear SCADS of royal bastards and have to constantly be ready and willing to please the king, she helped guide his politics, kept the king in control, worked tirelessly, (and often to her own detriment), on her appearance all for the chance to be the "chosen" one. The book details the role of mistress in the courts, outlining the different aspects of mistress-hood.
I'm a history geek- and I really enjoyed this little glimpse into the lives of many mistresses that graced the courts of Versailles and England as well as even a few comments about more recent courts. Although the book mostly focuses on the courts in France and England, it does also spend time on other nations such as the Austro-Prussian Empire, Spain etc. Not only was it a fascinating read, but it also was an exceptionally easy historical read, (why didn't they teach THIS in my history classes?), and I was able to retain a fair amount of information.
My one complaint about this book is the way its laid out. This book had the potential to be pretty great, (sex, lies, cat fights and royalty--- HELLO SMUT!), but it's easy to confuse who's sleeping with whom. Instead of focusing on one king and his lady loves, it chooses to separate chapters by aspects of the mistress-hood, (social conception, bastards, gifts, deaths, etc) and so it's very easy to get Louis 14th mixed up with Louis 12th and easy to get mixed up which mistress was doing what when. The time line gets quite jumbled and I'll admit I'd be pretty confused at times. Also, very little mention of Henry the 8th and his Harem of ladies, although I suppose one can devote an entire book to that debacle.
Did I have a favorite mistress? Probably Nell Gwyn- who was one of two mistresses at the time. (Although my memory fails me as to whom she belonged to.) Nell was a protestant and the other mistress was a devout catholic. During a revolt when the people started to attack her- she reminded them she was the "Protestant Whore" and that they were angry at the catholic church and therefore should find the "Catholic Whore". Heee. Protestant Whore has a nice ring to it.
Overall I enjoyed this book- and I'd give it a 7/10- recommended to my fellow history geeks and those who get a kick out of Royal scandal of any kind."
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