Not only is the text erudite and full of detailed information (but nowhere near dry and boring) but the narrator was incredibly well chosen. I cannot stress enough how much I loved this book. 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.įantastic facts, well written and amazingly acted! Gazing at gorgeous portraits of centuries past, we don't see what lies beneath the royal robes. The most gorgeous palaces were little better than filthy latrines. Physicians prescribed mercury enemas, arsenic skin cream, drinks of lead filings, and potions of human fat and skull, fresh from the executioner. Women wore makeup made with mercury and lead. Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications, and filthy living conditions. Servants licked the royal family's spoons, tried on their underpants, and tested their chamber pots.
To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns, and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners.
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. The story of poison is the story of power.
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