One of Washington Independent Review of Books’ 50 Favorite Books of 2018 * A Buzzfeed Best Book of 2018 “Morbidly witty.” –Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times “A heady mix of erudite history and delicious gossip.” –Aja Raden, author of Stoned Hugely entertaining, a work of pop history that traces the use of poison as a political–and cosmetic–tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from … political–and cosmetic–tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today
The story of poison is the story of power. For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns, and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family’s spoons, tried on their underpants and tested their chamber pots.
Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications, and filthy living conditions. Women wore makeup made with mercury and lead. Men rubbed turds on their bald spots. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings, and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. The most gorgeous palaces were little better than filthy latrines. Gazing at gorgeous portraits of centuries past, we don’t see what lies beneath the royal robes and the stench of unwashed bodies; the lice feasting on private parts; and worms nesting in the intestines.
In The Royal Art of Poison, Eleanor Herman combines her unique access to royal archives with cutting-edge forensic discoveries to tell the true story of Europe’s glittering palaces: one of medical bafflement, poisonous cosmetics, ever-present excrement, festering natural illness, and, sometimes, murder.
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I thank the Author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the privilege of reading this book early and have preordered my own hardcover copy. This historical nonfiction book reads as easily as fiction. As a medical professional the title and blurb immediately interested me. The Royal Art of Poison reveals so much more than what I thought of as poison. The author delves into poison for murder, accidental poisoning, poison in medical treatments, poisons in daily skin care and poisons in clothing. Death by deplorable heath care, poor hygiene, putrid water and sewer systems. A must read book for anyone who loves history, mysteries, and medicine. Eleanor Herman is an excellent author and I look forward to reading more of her books.
I love when non-fiction is written so well that it reads like a novel. I will now be that insufferable person at dinner parties (when we can have dinner parties again) who throws in random facts. Although facts about poison may not be welcome at dinner!
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. Much to my surprise, this book immediately rose to the top of my pile; like sticky candy, I couldn’t put it down. Yes I admit to a guilty curiosity about nasty murders and suspicious intrigues; this book satisfied my curiosity and much more. I was familiar with many of the historical victims, though I was not as familiar with the “true” story behind their deaths. For instance, I knew that King Edward VI died a painful and lingering death; in a movie I remember that the Duke of Northumberland was depicted as prolonging the boy’s life with painful medication until his plot to gain control had ripened. What I didn’t know was that modern interpretation attributes his death to a probable childhood case of latent tuberculosis (a contemporary postmortem revealed putrefied ulcers in his lungs) which could have been reactivated by a case of measles.
Not only do we learn about famous deaths and poisonings, we get a primer on late medieval customs that were toxic, such as the use of arsenic, lead, and mercury in medicines—not to mention the fact that medieval doctors practiced horrible procedures on their royal patients that were much worse than the diseases. For instance, there was poor George III, who refused to take his medicine until he became too ill to object. “The doctors diagnosed an improper flow of bile. To correct the humoral imbalance, they gave him medicine to bring on projectile vomiting and diarrhea. They also blistered his scalp and applied leeches to his forehead to draw the evil humors out of his brain, and blistered his legs to pull the humors downward. Within twenty-four hours of his first treatment, the king was feverish, his urine brown, his feet swollen, his eyeballs yellow, and his blisters festering and oozing pus. Even worse, his mental state deteriorated rapidly.” No wonder!
As you might expect, the subject matter is not exactly for the faint-hearted (pardon the pun). There is plenty of bile, putrefaction, bloodletting, puss, and hair loss to turn the strongest stomach, but the author manages to deliver the information in such a light-hearted style that she entertains while informing. While talking about Elizabeth I and her refusal to allow an autopsy and embalming procedure, Herman tells us that “Her wishes regarding embalming were overruled, however, given that she would not be buried in a timely manner. Six of her ladies-in-waiting had to sit next to the coffin in shifts, twenty-four hours a day, for over a month…One night an explosion ripped open the casket with a deafening crack, spewing foul-smelling gases and sending the women screaming from the room. To put a positive spin on the situation, they agreed ‘that if she had not been opened, the breath of her body would have been much worse.’” The book is full of this kind of imagery, delivered almost tongue-in-cheek nearly all the way to the end. Alas, when we get to the modern-day stuff (mostly about Putin and Russia), the prose turns cold and sterile, as though not enough time has passed to treat the events with detachment like we see in earlier chapters. Although interesting, it changes the tone and ends on a pretty somber note. I think the book would have been better off to retain its historical flavor rather than bringing us into the 21st century. There was an extensive bibliography—much more than I would have expected from a “pop history” like it says on the back cover—but no footnotes, which I would have appreciated. Nonetheless, I found this book to be a useful addition to my library and it was full of many interesting surprises.
This is a fascinating volume filled with death, both by murder or accident, caused by poison. No stone has been left unturned in the research & Herman presents us with the ghastly horrors endured by our ancestors in full colourful (and sometimes graphic) detail. Who knew that there could be so many treacherous foul deeds plotted by spiking food with arsenic, or that ladies unwittingly were poisoning themselves in the name of vanity. I’ve enjoyed every chapter & hope that this author has more historical gems to offer.
Very interesting reading that reveals the terrible conditions that even royalty lived in. As many people died from medical treatment as from poison or illness.
Fascinating!