All the King's Women [Import] [Paperback]

Derek Wilson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Pimlico; New Ed edition (June 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0712668020
• ISBN-13: 978-0712668026
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #811,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Merry Monarch's Merry and Vituperous Mistresses Galore!, April 13, 2004

By 

C. M Mills "Michael Mills" (Knoxville Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: All the King's Women (Hardcover)

Charles II returned to reign in England from 160-1685 after living several years abroad. Charles was forced to flee England during the reign of the Stuart's arch enemy Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentary army which executed Charles I in 1649 and for over a decade ran a nation deprived of a reigning monarch.
Folowing the death of Cromwell the leaders of the land proclaimed Charles II the king. The Merry Monarch was vain,
self-indulgent, a womanizer extraordinaire and intellectually l;azy. During his reign London underwent the plague, the Great Fire as the Protestants and Catholics waged war to reign in the land of Albion.
Many women contributed to the telling of this tale. Charles domineering and strong French mother Henrietta Marie; his longtime mistress Diana Villiers, his French favorite the coquettish Louise Keroualle and my favorite one of all-the Cockney actress Nell Gwynn.
Wilson is British and assumes the reader to be well acquainted with seventeenth century politics. It is hard to keep all the many players in this drama straight at times. The book is not a lascivious laying out of the king's countless love affairs but is a judicious appraisal of the Stuart king's reign.
Many American readers will find the book dull and slow moving. The book lacks maps but has several fine reproductions of cartoons and art work from the period under scrutiny.
Wilson has written a book which will inform the reader but for my shekels the money is on the better biograpy of Charles II
written by Antonia Fraser.