Royal Babylon- The alarming history of European Royalty, Karl Shaw
#bookreview.
So we recently hosted the pesky Omicron at our place.
Apart from the more well known symptoms, it seems to have also caused a whole host of rather baffling side effects .
For example, I have been playing arcade games (not a big fan) or listening to indipop after 25 years ( not 'Made in India', but a very close shave) and reading books by Karl Shaw( and now Michael Farquhar) rather obsessively.
Nothing wrong with these books but well after decades of
a) Not being even remotely interested in monarchy-( I've have zero POV on Marklegate or Epstein saga except vaguely registering it somewhere)
b) Not being at all princessy(much to my 6yo's annoyance)
c) Or particularly interested in reading history per se (too many uncomfortable memories of school report days and the History teachers despairing looks)
So cannot explain this weird recent interest with the gallivanting Georges or the Henry of the Head-detaching fame.
So coming to the book - Royal Babylon. I'm not quite sure what is the correct adjective is for this book. It's.... illuminating?
We have all been brought up on a diet of fairly tales and the Disney Prince charming and dainty, delicate Princesses so the reality is like a bucket, nay a waterfall, of ice cold water.
The monarchy has not been described as any of those - rather it's scheming, sybiatric, sadistic and syphilitic. The princesses are anything but delicate - variously described as dwarfish, nymphomaniac, kleptomaniac, with raging affairs and just rage.
Most of the king's have been described as insane (whether it's George III or Ludwig of Bavaria (ironically he's the one who built Neuschwanstein the inspiration for the Disney castle)) or psychopathic.
You have that charming royal who thought it would be interesting to pickle his wifes lover in a jar and keep it on her bedside table, or the other who thought getting an courtier to bite a corpse would be a fun party trick.
But, the writing. I don't know whether it was because I was fevered but it seemed rather disjointed - going back and forth, erratic and jumpy which didn't make for particularly good reading. It was funny in bits but seemed forced and quite cringey in many other places.
At some points it looked very vindictive, rather below-the-belt tabloidisque rant rather than well researched history. But to be fair, I believe that this was one of his earlier books, I've just started Bad, mad and dangerous to know which seems a tad more put together.
So in conclusion?
3/5 if you have covid and need something to read which doesn't require you to follow any plotline or you know, use your brains.
1.5/5 otherwise
P.S. Have a feeling this post is as disjointed as the book it is critiquing. Pliss excuseh
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