The Royal Art of Poison
The Royal Art of Poison

Author: Eleanor Herman

Publisher: Prelude Books

Published: 2018-11-01

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 071565313X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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 lead. Men rubbed feces 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. 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. The Royal Art of Poison is a hugely entertaining work of popular history that traces the use of poison as a political - and cosmetic - tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today.

The Royal Art of Poison
The Royal Art of Poison

Author: Eleanor Herman

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2018-06-12

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1250140862

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Traces the history of poison in centuries of royal courts, from the intentional poisonings to the unintentional side effects of commonly used makeup and medications.

An Affair of Poisons
An Affair of Poisons

Author: Addie Thorley

Publisher: Page Street YA

Published: 2019-02-26

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1624147143

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

No one looks kindly on the killer of a king. “Fast-paced and refreshing.” – SLJ, starred review “The perfect blend of history and dark fantasy.” – Mary Taranta, author of Shimmer and Burn “Thrilling, romantic, and addictive.” – Rosalyn Eves, author of Blood Rose Rebellion “The only cure is to finish it.” – Lyndsay Ely, author of Gunslinger Girl After unwittingly helping her mother poison King Louis XIV, seventeen-year-old alchemist Mirabelle Monvoisin is forced to see her mother’s Shadow Society in a horrifying new light: they’re not heroes of the people, as they’ve always claimed to be, but murderers. Herself included. Mira tries to ease her guilt by brewing helpful curatives, but her hunger tonics and headache remedies cannot right past wrongs or save the dissenters her mother vows to purge. Royal bastard Josse de Bourbon is more kitchen boy than fils de France. But when the Shadow Society assassinates the Sun King and half of the royal court, he must become the prince he was never meant to be in order to save his injured sisters and the petulant dauphin. Forced to hide in the sewers beneath the city, Josse’s hope of reclaiming Paris seems impossible—until his path collides with Mirabelle’s. She’s a deadly poisoner. He’s a bastard prince. They are sworn enemies, yet they form a tenuous pact to unite the commoners and former nobility against the Shadow Society. But can a rebellion built on mistrust ever hope to succeed?

The Kinder Poison
The Kinder Poison

Author: Natalie Mae

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-06-15

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 198483522X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"A DELICIOUS HIGH-STAKES ADVENTURE." --PEOPLE MAGAZINE Perfect for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Holly Black, this enthralling fantasy adventure follows a teenage girl chosen to be the human sacrifice in a deadly game between three heirs who will do anything for the crown. Zahru has long dreamed of leaving the kingdom of Orkena and having the kinds of adventures she's only ever heard about in stories. But as a lowly Whisperer, her power to commune with animals means that her place is serving in the royal stables until the day her magic runs dry. All that changes when the ailing ruler invokes the Crossing. A death-defying race across the desert, in which the first of his heirs to finish--and take the life of a human sacrifice at the journey's end--will ascend to the throne. With all of the kingdom abuzz, Zahru leaps at the chance to change her fate if just for a night by sneaking into the palace for a taste of the revelry. But the minor indiscretion turns into a deadly mistake when she gets caught up in a feud between the heirs and is forced to become the Crossing's human sacrifice. Now Zahru's only hope for survival hinges on the impossible: somehow figuring out how to overcome the most dangerous people in the world.

City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris
City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris

Author: Holly Tucker

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2017-03-21

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0393248844

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Tucker writes with gusto . . . high drama.”—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review In the late 1600s, Louis XIV assigns Nicolas de la Reynie to bring order to Paris after the brutal deaths of two magistrates. Reynie, pragmatic and fearless, discovers a network of witches, poisoners, and priests whose reach extends all the way to the king’s court at Versailles. Based on court transcripts and Reynie’s compulsive note-taking, Holly Tucker’s engrossing true-crime narrative makes the characters breathe on the page as she follows the police chief into the dark labyrinths of crime-ridden Paris, the halls of royal palaces, secret courtrooms, and torture chambers.

Sex with Kings
Sex with Kings

Author: Eleanor Herman

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-03-17

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0061751553

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. Eleanor Herman's Sex with Kings takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous humor, and stirring poignancy, this glittering tale of passion and politics chronicles five hundred years of scintillating women and the kings who loved them. Curiously, the main function of a royal mistress was not to provide the king with sex but with companionship. Forced to marry repulsive foreign princesses, kings sought solace with women of their own choice. And what women they were! From Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis XV, who kept her position for nineteen years despite her frigidity, to modern-day Camilla Parker-Bowles, who usurped none other than the glamorous Diana, Princess of Wales. The successful royal mistress made herself irreplaceable. She was ready to converse gaily with him when she was tired, make love until all hours when she was ill, and cater to his every whim. Wearing a mask of beaming delight over any and all discomforts, she was never to be exhausted, complaining, or grief-stricken. True, financial rewards for services rendered were of royal proportions -- some royal mistresses earned up to $200 million in titles, pensions, jewels, and palaces. Some kings allowed their mistresses to exercise unlimited political power. But for all its grandeur, a royal court was a scorpion's nest of insatiable greed, unquenchable lust, and vicious ambition. Hundreds of beautiful women vied to unseat the royal mistress. Many would suffer the slings and arrows of negative public opinion, some met with tragic ends and were pensioned off to make room for younger women. But the royal mistress often had the last laugh, as she lived well and richly off the fruits of her "sins." From the dawn of time, power has been a mighty aphrodisiac. With diaries, personal letters, and diplomatic dispatches, Eleanor Herman's trailblazing research reveals the dynamics of sex and power, rivalry and revenge, at the most brilliant courts of Europe. Wickedly witty and endlessly entertaining, Sex with Kings is a chapter of women's history that has remained unwritten -- until now.

Sex with the Queen LP
Sex with the Queen LP

Author: Eleanor Herman

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2006-11-07

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 0061120758

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this follow-up to her bestselling Sex with Kings, Eleanor Herman reveals the truth about what goes on behind the closed door of the queen's boudoir. Impeccably reseached, filled with page-turning romance, passion, and scandal, Sex with the Queen explores the scintillating sexual lives of some of our most beloved and infamous female rulers, including the notorious Catherine the Great, the passionately foolish Marie Antoinette, the destructively willful Tsarina Alexandra, and the bastion of virtue, Queen Victoria - mother of nine children.

The Poison Bed
The Poison Bed

Author: E C Fremantle

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2019-08-27

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1405920076

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'A gripping psychological thriller. Readers will be awake deep into the night, trying to untangle the truth' The Times 'Books of the Year' A marriage. A murder. One of them will hang for it. ________ Autumn, 1615. Frances Carr is imprisoned in a cold, lightless room. She is accused of murder. In a cell nearby is her co-accused - her husband Robert. Kept apart, Frances can only tell her side of the story. How did she come to be here? Can she somehow prove her innocence? And what lengths will she go to to save herself? __________ 'Engaging, vivid and revelling in historical detail' Sarah Perry, bestselling author of The Essex Serpent 'The Miniaturist meets Gone Girl. Gripping and full of surprises' BBC History 'Books of the Year' 'A tale of intrigue and ambition, this is a rich and fascinating book' Guardian 'Immaculately detailed, dark, clever and compulsive' Daily Mail

Poison Study
Poison Study

Author: Maria V. Snyder

Publisher: Harlequin

Published: 2012-08-15

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 1459248260

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From New York Times Bestselling Author Maria V. Snyder Choose: a quick death… or slow poison… Locked deep in the palace dungeon for killing her abuser, Yelena knows she’ll never be free again. The laws in Ixia are strict, and murderers must be executed, no matter the reason. But just as she’s resigned herself to her fate, she’s offered an extraordinary reprieve. As the food taster, Yelena will eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. To make matters worse, the chief of security deliberately feeds her Butterfly’s Dust, and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison. As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can’t control. Her life is threatened again, and in order to survive, she must unravel the secrets behind the past she’s been running from. The Chronicles of Ixia Series by Maria V Snyder Book One: Poison Study Book Two: Magic Study Book Three: Fire Study Book Four: Storm Glass Book Five: Sea Glass Book Six: Spy Glass Book Seven: Shadow Study Book Eight: Night Study Book Nine: Dawn Study

The Poison Thread
The Poison Thread

Author: Laura Purcell

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-06-18

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0143134051

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"[An] uncanny Gothic mystery... Satisfying."—New York Times Book Review "A romping read with a deliciously dark conceit at its center... Reminded me of Alias Grace."—Kiran Millwood Hargrave From the author of The Silent Companions, a thrilling Victorian gothic horror story about a young seamstress who claims her needle and thread have the power to kill Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy, and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor, and awaiting trial for murder. When Dorothea's charitable work brings her to Oakgate Prison, she is delighted by the chance to explore her fascination with phrenology and test her hypothesis that the shape of a person's skull can cast a light on their darkest crimes. But when she meets one of the prisoners, the teenaged seamstress Ruth, she is faced with another strange idea: that it is possible to kill with a needle and thread--because Ruth attributes her crimes to a supernatural power inherent in her stitches. The story Ruth has to tell of her deadly creations—of bitterness and betrayal, of death and dresses—will shake Dorothea's belief in rationality, and the power of redemption. Can Ruth be trusted? Is she mad, or a murderer? For fans of Shirley Jackson, The Poison Thread is a spine-tingling, sinister read about the evil that lurks behind the facade of innocence.