NY
Times
Review
By Carol Peace Robins
Open ''Sex With Kings'' at almost any page
and you'll find yourself immersed in a bawdy, deliciously appealing
illicit scene occurring in the highest places. In her first book,
Herman has written an enlightening social history that is great fun
to read, provided you keep a chart as you go. Her celebration of 500
years of European royal mistresses is organized by aspects of their
lives at court -- their influence, wealth, rivalries -- which makes
it challenging to keep track of who's who, much less which Louis,
Ludwig or Charles she was the favorite of. For 13 years, the beautiful
and powerful Madame de Pompadour acted as Louis XV's unofficial prime
minister, dispensing titles, choosing generals and appointing ministers
-- perhaps compensating for her frigidity, ''a great disadvantage
to a mistress.'' Her successor, Madame du Barry, ''employed 16 footmen
and at least as many maids, whom she had to dress, feed and house.''
Charles II's jealous mistress, the actress Nell Gwynn, once slipped
a laxative into her rival's food. Most of these pre-19th century mistresses
were less than meticulous, Herman writes, covering ''the crusty filth
and overpowering stench of their bodies with velvets, laces and a
hearty dose of cologne.'' She dutifully includes the Duchess of Windsor
and Camilla Parker-Bowles, but these modern-day exemplars pale in
comparison to the countesses and whores of yore, who were bedecked
in jewels or pelted with manure, relinquished in splendor or unceremoniously
beheaded by the revolution. With obvious relish, Herman has created
vivid tableaus of these worthy subjects.
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