With grisly enthusiasm, the author has devoured medical journals, autopsy reports, papers from the University of Maryland’s annual Historical Clinicopathological Conference and tomes bearing such tiles as The History of Corpse Medicine. The resulting harvest is a collection of stories about powerful people cut down before their time ... Some of the most fascinating chapters are devoted to scientific explanations to the mysterious deaths of Edward VI, Caravaggio, Mozart and Napoleon. Lesser-known characters are also given their due ... Certainly the most chilling are the contemporary stories of political poisoning, such as the mysterious fate of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un ... The most satanic are the lethal methods used against anti-Putin activists ... As a writer, Eleanor Herman has a British sensibility in her choice of metaphor or quirky oddity. She writes vividly and with great humor, combining detailed research with easy narrative, making her book both enthralling and sinister.
This fantastic work combines morbid curiosity and royal gossip. In it, readers will not only find out about who could’ve poisoned whom, but also why and with what. Lovers of Tudor history, costume dramas, and high fantasy will rejoice. Even with all of this glamour, however, this is not a book for the squeamish. Along with poisons, it covers many of the terrifying things royals once put on—and in—their bodies ... Not to mention the actual living conditions of the Renaissance royals, which were so filthy that even the peasants in a Monty Python film would’ve found them disgusting. Still, if, like me, you love dirty details, this isn’t a book to pass up ... Whereas some historians might hide behind their primary-source documents and academic vocabulary, Eleanor Herman is here to show us the naughty bits with tongue-and-cheek humor. The Royal Art of Poison is sure to make the perfect beach read, poolside pleasure, or bedside treat.
Eleanor Herman writes of gruesome events with wit and style. I found it engaging and descriptive—a rarity in the nonfiction genre. It’s truly a delight for history fans and writers alike. The Royal Art of Poison is a fantastic resource with a bulging bibliography and a wonderful little dictionary in the back matter ... Herman has written a solid, informative book, clearly delighting in her subject matter. It’s grotesque but fascinating and a welcome addition to my reference shelves. I look forward to further nonfiction works by Eleanor Herman.
So you think, with all those names and dates, that history can be stuffy? Not so much when murder is afoot and The Royal Art of Poison is in your hands. But this book isn’t all about murder—or history, for that matter. Author Eleanor Herman spends a good amount of time telling about Royal as well as everyday lives and how people lived in the 14th through 18th centuries. She then explains how we know what we know now, and why the heyday of poison, if you will, ended. Or did it? ... Be aware that this book is filled with blood and guts and other unsavory things, so it’s not for the squeamish. Curious folks will love it, though, and European history lovers won’t want to pass on The Royal Art of Poison.
This three-part, Eurocentric history opens with an eye-opening look at once-common precautions taken to protect royal families, which run the gamut from food tasters to unicorn horn poison detectors, though their horrendous hygiene didn’t do them any favors ... She concludes each profile with a contemporary postmortem and modern analysis of the death. A final section on modern-day poisonings shows this deadly tradition is alive and well. A pernicious history that will make jaws drop and pages fly.
History is rife with tales of poison, as Herman...shows in her rip-roaring pop history of the role poison played in the royal courts of Western Europe ... By turns fascinating and stomach-churning, the book’s detailed descriptions of different types of poisons will both shock and delight history buffs and enthusiasts of the macabre.
