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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Entertaining "Romp" Through History, November 8, 2009
This review is from: Royal Affairs: A Lusty Romp Through the Extramarital Adventures That Rocked the British Monarchy (Mass Market Paperback)
I've read both of Eleanor Herman's books ("Sex with Kings" and "Sex with the Queen"), as well as Michael Farquhar's book "A Treasury of Royal Scandals." Of all the books, I like Carroll's "Royal Affairs" the best. Why?
Although Herman gets points for the color photos in her books, and Farquhar has a very convenient timeline for reference in the back of his, overall I found Carroll's writing to be the most engaging and entertaining. Many passages are simply laugh-out-loud witty. For example, in referring to the Earl of Bothwell, Mary Queen of Scots's lover, Carroll describes him as "a somewhat simian-looking serial adulterer." Queen Caroline (married to George IV) she describes as although having a "pale, clear complexion that was much praised, she was also too fond of her rouge pot." Many of Carroll's descriptions give the reader an instant mental visual of what these people must have looked and acted like. There's not a dry or boring moment in this book.
I saw an earlier review that Carroll relies too much on web references. Although I had paid little attention to the bibliography when I read the book (I was reading for entertainment, not research), I did go back to see what the reviewer meant. Carroll's short list of web sites seems legitimate to me, since they are all either encyclopedic web sites or reputable British history sites. Carroll also cites 75+ other books and articles.
"Royal Affairs" is an exceedingly entertaining and quick read. I recommend it highly.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Royal Affairs is a randy romp through centuries of British monarchial sexual exploits, January 7, 2010
Royal Affairs is a 400 page book which discusses British monarchial infidelity from the medieval Angevin dynasty through the Plantagenets, Hanoverians, Saxe-Cothburgs to the present Windsor family. The author is Leslie Carroll who is capable of telling salacious anecdotes with humor, compassion and taste. Her book is sprinkled with witty and wise comments made by contemporaries commenting on the amorous goings on in high places.
She contains a bibliography which is made up of mainly secondary historical sources.
Among the book's many highlights were:
1. The long chapters devoted to Henry VIII and Charles II the two most interesting kings discussed in the book. Henry is notorious for wedding, bedding and beheading his wives. He sent Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard- to the bloody block. Henry's mistress Elizabeth Blount gave birth to Henry Fitzroy but the bastard died as a teenager. Henry's only legtitimate scion was Edward VI whose mother was the good queen Jane Seymour. Charles II (reigned from 1660-85) sired 17 illegitimate children by several high and low born women. His mistresses were fascinating and are well profiled by Carroll. These mistresses include the feisty English hussy Nell Gwynn, the sexy Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemain and Duchess of Cleveland and the cute French vixen Louise de Keroualle.
2. Even Queen Victoria who worshipped her spouse Albert had a male friend the Scottish gillie John Brown. Whether or not their friendship went beyond that is not certain.
2. Dorothy Jordan's life leaps off the page. She was an actress who lived with the man who became William IV for twenty years and gave him 10 children. He married another woman and left her to die in poverty in France in 1816.
3. Edward VIII who died in 1910 enjoyed a good cigar, horse racing, gambling, trips to gay Paree and conducting affairs with aristocratic married women. His two longest affairs were with Alice Keppel, Daisy Greville and the lovely Lily Langtry (the Jersey Lily).
4. Carroll recites the well known tabloid tales concerning the triangle of Charles and Di and Camilla. Nothing new here.
5. The Hanoverian Georges from Germany adored fat,foolish, fertile and ugly women who had body odor! Ugh!
6.Elizabeth I loved Robert Devereux and his wastrel son the Earl of Essex. She was also enchanted by Sir Walter Raleigh. We will never know if she died a virgin or not.
Royal Affairs can be read straight through or the reader can pick and choose chapters. The book shows the power of money, sex and the allure of royalty.
The author has written romance fiction but as a male I, nevertheless, enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It is well written and provides entertaining reading for a cold night before the fireplace. Readers have my permission to cast the tome aside, however, if someone as fetching as Lily Langtry walks in the door!
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Light historical non-fiction. Very light., April 23, 2009
This review is from: Royal Affairs: A Lusty Romp Through the Extramarital Adventures That Rocked the British Monarchy (Mass Market Paperback)
Leslie Carroll chose an interesting subject to publish a book about, and she put in a good effort for what would essentially be an easy, gossipy read. Unfortunately for Mrs. Carroll, I found too many very similar/directly lifted phrases and became suspicious enough to flip to the "selected biography". There is only one primary source among the list (written within the last two centuries no less), and she references sources such as "A Treasury of Royal Scandals" by Michael Farquar and Eleanor Herman's "Sex with..." collection. Any of these books are fantastic and highly recommended reading, but they do not make for serious citation sources. And while I have nothing against websites as a starting point, it's disconcerting to see an entire list of them as part of the final cut. History undergrads are held to far higher standards than this when writing basic term papers and I suspect that this book was published without comment because the publisher is Penguin (a trade press as opposed to an academic university press).
The tone of the book is awkwardly chatty, with random exclamation points and paragraph breaks that could have been more fluidly constructed. The information given is also rather superficial, and she takes liberties with her subjects. Her bits about Mary, Queen of Scots/Bothwell and Henry VIII and the wives were a couple of examples that really stood out to me. Both contained glaring errors that were a product of her trying to create a dramatic picture; sadly these were only two among many. You can read any one of Mrs. Carroll's bibliography sources to see in-the-moment done accurately without sacrificing the human factor.
I can't say this is a great book. I can say that I wish Mrs. Carroll the best of luck if she chooses to write another historical biography. Next time, delve deeper into the research rather than gleaming a surface view and merely reproducing what biographers before you have said. I'm giving this book two stars: one because I am giving this book away as soon as I am done, and one because I hope whoever finds and reads this book is intrigued enough to do their own further reading and discover the facts behind a cool new subject they would have never imagined liking to begin with.
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