Napoleon's Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: New York, United States, Civil War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A terrifically funny writer; this history-cum-travelogue is as enjoyable as it is informative and twice as quirky." (Boston Globe on Pagan Holiday )

"Brimming with humor, adventure, anecdotal tidbits, and fascinating historical information, this delightful travelogue offers a unique twist on some classic journeys." (Booklist on Pagan Holiday )

"A fascinating and often humorous look at a world long gone and the tourist culture that has grown up around it. Perrottet's writing sparkles with descriptions of modern and ancient misadventures." (Library Journal on Pagan Holiday )

"Brimming with humor, adventure, anecdotal tidbits, and fascinating historical information." (Booklist on Pagan Holiday )

"This lively account of the classical Olympics portrays them as "the Woodstock of antiquity," and claims that the Games, while taken seriously, were also where Greeks gathered for a five-day debauch." (The New Yorker on The Naked Olympics )

"An appealing...mix of the zany and the arcane." (New York Times on Pagan Holiday )

"A whimsical trek through classical history, famous sites and arcane trivia." (Washington Post on Pagan Holiday )

"Tony Perrottet's sinfully entertaining survey of perversion." (Salon.com )

"It's refreshing to find such an entertaining writer whose history is also meticulously researched. Perrottet's take on the past is erudite, original and witty -- even, frequently, hilarious." (Paul Cartledge, Professor of Classics, Cambridge University )

"Combining a wealth of vivid details with a knack for narrative pacing and subtle humor, Perrottet (Pagan Holiday) renders a striking portrayal of the Greek Olympics and their role in the ancient world.It's an entertaining, edifying account that puts a human face on one of humanity's most remarkable spectacles." (Publishers Weekly on The Naked Olympics )

"Required reading...a charming popular history of ancient Roman sight-seeing." (Forbes on Pagan Holiday )

"The Naked Olympics presents the Greeks in all their glory, brutality, and vulgarity. It is a fascinating picture and popular history at its best." (Norman Cantor, Professor Emeritus, New York University, and author of Antiquity: The Civilization of the Ancient World )

Product Description

When Tony Perrottet heard that Napoleon's "baguette" had been stolen by his disgruntled doctor a few days after the Emperor's death, he rushed out to New Jersey. Why? Because that's where an eccentric American collector who had purchased Napoleon's member at a Parisian auction now kept the actual relic in an old suitcase under his bed.

The story of Napoleon's privates triggered Perrottet's quest to research other such exotic sagas from history, to discover the actual evidence behind the most famous age-old mysteries: Did Churchill really send condoms of a surprising size to Stalin? Were champagne glasses really molded upon Marie Antoinette's breasts? What was JFK's real secret service? What were Casanova's best pickup lines? Napoleon's Privates is filled with offbeat, riotously entertaining anecdotes that are guaranteed to amaze, shock, and enliven any dinner party.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: It Books; 1 edition (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061257281
• ISBN-13: 978-0061257285
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #193,865 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This one will keep you reading well into the night, probably either stunned or flabbergasted. , July 22, 2008

By	Norman Goldman "Editor of Bookpleasures.com" (Montreal) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Not many of us have ever heard of the "Secret Cabinets" let alone visited special places that were designated rooms within the great museums of Europe as the Louvre, the Prado, the British Museum, and the Museo Nazionale in Naples. It is within the walls of these chambers where anything that was deemed shocking and immoral was kept hidden, and if you wished to have access or a viewing you had to fill out an application or bribe the security guard.

Historian and author Tony Perrottet in his Napoleon's Privates: 2, 500 Years of History Unzipped has now opened the door to a candy store of delightful and titillating stories that resemble some of the goodies that would have been found in these secret cabinets. As he states in his introduction, "a collection of the choicest morsels culled from the dark recesses of Western History, for the edification of the curious." After reading these tidbits, if you still believe history is boring, then I am afraid nothing will change your mind.

How about this little morsel? On May 8th, 1945 Dr. Faust Shkaravaski found, after performing an autopsy on Hitler, that his scrotum sack had survived the botched SS cremation intact-"singed but preserved-but was definitely minus a bollock." Stalin kept this news from the Allies and only in 1968 did the news leak out in the West. As a result, there was a swarm of all kinds of theories and explanations that kept historians quite busy. The three principal theories were Hitler was born that way; it was an old war wound and the Soviets made the whole thing up.
Ron Rosenbaum author of Explaining Hitler, who has apparently spent a great deal of time and effort in researching the subject matter, has concluded that it was all one big practical joke contrived by the Soviets in order to mess with Western minds.

Just as Aids today has taken on epidemic proportions, so too was syphilis and other venereal diseases in Paris of the 1890s. At the time, Paris was considered to be the sex capital of the world and one authority on sexually transmitted diseases estimated that fifteen percent of the city's adult population was infected. Among the well-known celebrities who contacted syphilis were Gustave Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire, Guy de Maupassant, Edouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Paul Gaugin.

If you are wondering about the title of the book and if there is a story about Napoleon's privates, yes, there is a very interesting one.
It seems that Napoleon's penis had drifted around Europe and the United States since the emperor's demise in 1821 and as described, "dried out like beef jerky and kept in a leather presentation box adorned with a gold-embossed crown." I guess what most irks the French is that it presently has found a home in a suitcase under a bed in suburban New Jersey. How can this have occurred? Read the book to find out?

Perrottet also reveals some delectable and irreverent tales about Cleopatra, Casanova, Thomas Jefferson, Columbus, Alexander the Great, George Washington, John F. Kennedy, Catherine the Great, Hercules, Abe Lincoln, the Marquis de Sade's mother-in-law, the Vatican Hall of Shame, and many more that will keep you reading well into the night, probably either stunned or flabbergasted.

Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An easy and fun read, history fan or not..., July 14, 2008

By	tredog1 "stickler for details" - See all my reviews

Great compilation of interesting tid bits, although some are more appealing than others. As a History major I enjoyed the historical accuracy vs. urban legend aspect of the essays. Most of them did make for great conversation with others and it was fun to throw around some facts about the more absurd, perverse or taboo pieces of world history.

Also I must note that I appreciate that the essays involving homosexual history have no tinge of judgment or repugnance hidden in them (as some other similar collections have). So thank you for that Perrottet.

Good use of references as well, you can tell the author did his research. And it prompted me to pick up some more reading material so I may further delve into some of the topics that Perrottet just touched upon briefly.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Beach Read!, July 13, 2008

By	George Eliot (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

I picked up this book the other day and found it a real page turner. It's broken up into short chapters, each one about the right length for lying on the beach (even some funny charts). My favorites: how Napoleon's penis was stolen as a souvenir during his autopsy; how Hitler's ball mysteriously went missing; how French men had to prove their potency in public trials; how Italian castrati had the sex appeal of modern rock stars; how Victorian nunneries operated like brothels; how anorexics were canonized as saints because of their "purity." Lots of dirty little secrets that make history fresh and funny. Way more titillating than any chick-lit book out this summer!