Buy this book with A Treasury of Great American Scandals: Tantalizing True Tales of Historic Misbehavior by the Founding Fathers and Others Who Let Freedom Swing by Michael Farquhar today!

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A Treasury of Deception: Liars, Misleaders, Hoodwinkers, and the Extraordinary True Stories of History's Greatest Hoaxes, Fakes and Frauds by Michael Farquhar  (8)  $10.50

Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty by Karl Shaw  (34)  $10.17

Royalty's Strangest Characters: Extraordinary But True Tales from 2,000 Years of Mad Monarchs and Raving Rulers (Strangest series) by Geoff Tibballs  (5)  $9.62

Sex with Kings : 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge (P.S.) by Eleanor Herman  (53)

The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy by Rick Beyer  (28)  $12.89

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From Publishers Weekly
In another royal exposé, Farquhar, a writer at the Washington Post, duplicates some of the ground covered in Karl Shaw's Royal Babylon, such as Peter the Great's delight in administering torture (he had his son lashed to death) and the way Britain's Queen Mary cajoled her subjects into giving her their household treasures ("I am caressing it with my eyes," she would coyly coo). Written in a provocative tabloid style (with headings like "We Are Not Abused. We Are Abusive," "A Son Should Love His Mother, But..." and "All the Holiness Money Can Buy"), Farquhar publicly washes the dirty laundry of not only European royalty, but also of Roman emperors and popes. Murderers and torturers who slept with their siblings (and other relatives), the emperors of Rome excelled at corruption. The maniacal pedophile Tiberius Caesar (A.D. 14-37) left the corpses of his many victims to rot on the Gemonian Steps, which descended from the Capitol to the Forum, or alternatively enjoyed watching them being thrown from a cliff ("A contingent of soldiers was stationed below to whack them with oars and boat hooks just in case the fall failed to do the trick"). Many popes were no better. Not content with just rooting out Christian heretics by launching a bloody crusade against the Cathars in southern France, Innocent III (1160-1216) declared himself ruler of the world. He sacked Constantinople and massacred every Muslim he could find. Like Royal Babylon, this gossipy string of anecdotes is a popularized rather than an authoritative history and perfect for travel reading.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Designed for lovers of the curious and bizarre, this choice collection of true stories spans more than a millennium of European history. Farquhar includes the debauchery and cruelty of Roman Emperors like Tiberius and Caligula, the lusty personal life of Catherine the Great, and a number of the depraved popes who reigned between 800 and 1200. The author's anecdotal style creates a popularized tabloid history. A Treasury of Royal Scandals is entertaining and warns against the excesses of power as narrator Johnny Heller leads the listener on a roller coaster ride.
James Dudley, Westhampton, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

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Anne Boleyn, King George, King Henry, Tower of London, Katherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Don Carlos, Katherine Parr, King Philip, Pope John, Catherine Howard, Jane Grey, Joanna the Mad, Katherine Grey, King James, Prince George, Queen Anne, Queen Margaret, Wars of the Roses, Windsor Castle, Anne of Cleves, Catherine de Medici, Edward Seymour New!
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