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The Royal Art of Poison
- Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul
- Narrated by: Susie Berneis
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
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Publisher's summary
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.
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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Boring Toilet Humor
- By Nemo on 01-30-20
By: Thomas Morris
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Princesses Behaving Badly
- Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings
- By: Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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You think you know her story. You've read the Brothers Grimm, you've watched the Disney cartoons, you cheered as these virtuous women lived happily ever after. But the lives of real princesses couldn't be more different. Sure, many were graceful and benevolent leaders - but just as many were ruthless in their quest for power, and all of them had skeletons rattling in their royal closets.
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Princesses Researched Well
- By Mary Elizabeth Reynolds on 04-14-14
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City of Light, City of Poison
- Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris
- By: Holly Tucker
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
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Appointed to conquer the "crime capital of the world", the first police chief of Paris faces an epidemic of murder in the late 1600s. Assigned by Louis XIV, Nicolas de La Reynie begins by clearing the streets of filth and installing lanterns throughout Paris, turning it into the City of Light. The fearless La Reynie pursues criminals through the labyrinthine neighborhoods of the city. He unearths a tightly knit cabal of poisoners, witches, and renegade priests.
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Great historic non-fiction
- By Josette Luvmour on 07-01-17
By: Holly Tucker
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The Poisoner's Handbook
- Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
- By: Deborah Blum
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Poisoner's Handbook, Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.
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Fascinating book marred by production errors
- By Reagan Kelly on 03-02-10
By: Deborah Blum
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The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
- A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat? Ian Mortimer shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. He sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you to the Middle Ages. The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: evolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail.
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Detailed, Interesting and Entertaining
- By Marc-Andr? on 05-13-10
By: Ian Mortimer
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Lives of Extraordinary Women
- Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought)
- By: Kathleen Krull
- Narrated by: Melissa Hughes
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
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Lives of Extraordinary Women turns the spotlight on the women who have wielded power, revealing their feats - and flaws - for all the world to see. You'll hear about 20 of the most influential women in history: queens, warriors, prime ministers, first ladies, revolutionary leaders. Some are revered. Others are notorious. And what were they really like?
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Very disappointing
- By Leerkkee on 01-14-05
By: Kathleen Krull
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In the Name of the Family
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Dunant
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
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It is 1502, and Rodrigo Borgia, a self-confessed womanizer and master of political corruption, is now on the papal throne as Alexander VI. His daughter Lucrezia, age 22 - already three times married and a pawn in her father's plans - is discovering her own power. And then there is his son Cesare Borgia, brilliant, ruthless, and increasingly unstable; it is his relationship with Machiavelli that gives the Florentine diplomat a master class in the dark arts of power and politics.
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One of the best historical fiction novels
- By GrandmaNurseHeather on 04-13-17
By: Sarah Dunant
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Under the Knife
- A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations
- By: Arnold van de Laar, Andy Brown - translator
- Narrated by: Rich Keeble
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
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From the story of the desperate man from 17th-century Amsterdam who grimly cut a stone out of his own bladder to Bob Marley's deadly toe, Under the Knife offers a wealth of fascinating and unforgettable insights into medicine and history via the operating room. What happens during an operation? How does the human body respond to being attacked by a knife, a bacterium, a cancer cell, or a bullet? And, as medical advances continuously push the boundaries of what medicine can cure, what are the limits of surgery?
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Why did a surgeon need a fast horse?
- By India Clamp on 10-18-18
By: Arnold van de Laar, and others
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The Knife Man
- The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery
- By: Wendy Moore
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Knife Man, Wendy Moore unveils John Hunter's murky and macabre world - a world characterized by public hangings, secret expeditions to dank churchyards, and gruesome human dissections in pungent attic rooms. This is a fascinating portrait of a remarkable pioneer and his determined struggle to haul surgery out of the realms of meaningless superstitious ritual and into the dawn of modern medicine.
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Brilliant
- By Bird on 12-02-15
By: Wendy Moore
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The Family That Couldn't Sleep
- A Medical Mystery
- By: D.T. Max
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For 200 years, a noble Venetian family has suffered from an inherited disease that strikes their members in middle age, stealing their sleep, eating holes in their brains, and ending their lives in a matter of months. In Papua New Guinea, a primitive tribe is nearly obliterated by a sickness whose chief symptom is uncontrollable laughter. Across Europe, millions of sheep rub their fleeces raw before collapsing. What these strange conditions share is their cause: prions.
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A great scientific mystery
- By David on 11-04-06
By: D.T. Max
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Lady Killers
- Deadly Women Throughout History
- By: Tori Telfer
- Narrated by: Jaime Lamchick
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When you think of serial killers throughout history, the names that come to mind are ones like Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender? The narrative we’re comfortable with is the one where women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. In fact, serial killers are thought to be so universally, overwhelmingly male that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood infamously declared in a homicide conference, “There are no female serial killers.”
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An ode to arsenic
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 03-04-24
By: Tori Telfer
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Victoria: The Queen
- An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire
- By: Julia Baird
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 21 hrs and 8 mins
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When Victoria was born, in 1819, the world was a very different place. Revolution would threaten many of Europe’s monarchies in the coming decades. In Britain, a generation of royals had indulged their whims at the public’s expense, and republican sentiment was growing. The Industrial Revolution was transforming the landscape, and the British Empire was commanding ever larger tracts of the globe. In a world where women were often powerless, during a century roiling with change, Victoria went on to rule the most powerful country on earth with a decisive hand.
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Masterpiece!!
- By DKSTRYKER on 01-07-24
By: Julia Baird
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From the masters of storytelling-meets-science, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks—how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written in the authors’ lively style, chapters include gripping medical stories about a particular disease or virus—smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV—that combine “Patient Zero” narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.
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The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth
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A puzzling series of dental explosions beginning in the 19th century is just one of many strange tales that have long lain undiscovered in the pages of old medical journals. Award-winning medical historian Thomas Morris delivers one of the most remarkable, cringe-inducing collections of stories ever assembled.
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Boring Toilet Humor
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Quackery
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What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine - yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison - was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices.
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Computer-generated Narrator. Dated Humour.
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All That Remains
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Dame Sue Black is an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist. She has lived her life eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, and she writes vividly about it in this book, which is part primer on the basics of identifying human remains, part frank memoir of a woman whose first paying job as a schoolgirl was to apprentice in a butcher shop, and part no-nonsense but deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives. It is a treat for CSI junkies, murder mystery and thriller fans, and anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all.
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I wanted a science book about forensics. I got a mostly-memoir instead.
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Vital Organs
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The remarkable stories of the world's most famous body parts. All too often, historical figures feel distant and abstract; more myth and legend than real flesh and blood. These stories of bodies and its parts remind us that history's most-loved, and most-hated, were real breathing creatures who inhabited organs and limbs just like us - until they're cut off that is. Medical historian Dr Suzie Edge investigates over 40 cases of how we've used, abused, dug up, displayed, experimented on, and worshipped body parts.
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Interesting, Educational, and Occasionally Funny
- By Tricia A. Hamblin on 01-08-24
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Written in Bone
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In her memoir All That Remains, internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist Dame Sue Black recounted her life lived eye to eye with the Grim Reaper. During the course of it, she offered a primer on the basics of identifying human remains, plenty of insights into the fascinating processes of death, and a sober, compassionate understanding of its inescapable presence in our existence. Now in this book, Black builds on that memoir, taking us on a guided tour of the human skeleton and explaining how each person's life history is revealed in their bones.
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A very human story by a very believable human
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What listeners say about The Royal Art of Poison
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Julia
- 11-18-18
Fascinatingly GRIM
If you are looking for a morbid and fascinating read, this is definitely it. Not only does the author cover important poisoning, but also hygiene and palace filth. Wow. JUST WOW. If Dr. Who arrived in one of these locations, she/he would get out of the tardis, gag immediately from the stench, and get back in.
The only criticism I have is that toward the end of the book the case by case scenarios start out pretty engrossing, but then become a little dry. However, that could be because I listened to this book over the course of a long work day. Overall, completely cracking read.
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41 people found this helpful
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- Melissa Kaster
- 11-02-20
Very informative
Though it's long, I really enjoyed this book. For years I wasn't a non-fiction reader, but I find myself liking it more and more. My husband is a history buff and we both found everything interesting. I bookmarked several things for further exploration and I expect I'll use some of these facts in historical fiction when I write.
The narration was serviceable though not always my favorite. For a non-fiction book, I think it was just fine, though. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for an in-depth look at royal life, routines, and the bonkers things we used to do with poisons.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Kristin Hall
- 03-23-19
Gross and engrossing
Fascinating and entertaining look at historical poisons. Be warned though, stomach churning grossness at times!
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- chrissi corb
- 03-26-19
Magnificent!
This was so well narrated so informative as well as shocking to say the least. I love the way the narrator pronounces the names with such a native tongue and how she explains the thoughts of these people. I think if something like this was offered in my history classes I may not have fallen asleep....worth a listen.
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- A. Coggins
- 12-22-19
Delightfully Macabre Read!
Loved every morbid & macabre detail! Entertaining and education! Never boring but not for the squeamish! Worth an occasional relisten from time to time!
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- Caitlin
- 04-28-19
Simply fantastic!
I purchased this book on a whim, and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. It provided wonderful historical context while reading like a pleasant documentary. Despite the gruesome subject material, I often found myself sharing it fun facts from the book with others. Great cocktail conversation for others and pure enjoyment for yourself!
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-19-19
Fascinating Read
I love this book. From the first page, it is chock full of fun facts about life and death that immediately eradicated all my nostalgia for the good old days. It also makes it difficult to watch certain period dramas without a sense of humor and horror, when considered in the light of new-found knowledge. I highly recommend the audio version, as the reader is very good. Enjoy!
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- Barry Hufstedler
- 02-17-20
If you like strange you'll like this
This book helps bring the weird, nasty and dangerous world of the past come alive.
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- Pouncer
- 06-13-21
Love it.
Weird. Wonderful. Dry. Witty. Humans are so weird. The narrator is fantastic with catching the wry humor in some of the horror.
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- marymcd
- 10-18-19
What we don’t know will hurt us
This was such an interesting book not at all what I expected it . I thought it was about more current day poisoning like Russia,or covert acts, but it was the 15th and 16th century everyday act and food we ate and chemicals they used on there face and clothes every day. You just wonder how we survived all those years to now
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