false 123541 3 From Publishers Weekly In 1676, a seemingly devoted daughter and wife, Madame de Brinvilliers, shocked all of France with the heinous murder of her father and brothers. Furious that the family disapproved of her taking a lover, she and her scurrilous paramour poisoned them out of a desire for revenge and greed for her anticipated inheritance. The ensuing scandal, skillfully recounted by noted British historian Somerset (Elizabeth I), inflamed the nation's fears that the decadent nobles at the Sun King's court were caught up in a clandestine world of sex, witchcraft and murder. Every untimely death and peculiar illness, including Louis XIV's chronic vapors, suddenly appeared to be the nefarious work of an unwholesome network of princesses, dukes and fortunetellers. As panic ballooned, even the king's mistress, Mme de Montespan, fell under suspicion (and was eventually banished from the king's bed), and many of France's most distinguished personages were sent to trial, jail and, in several cases, the scaffold. Somerset reconstructs this macabre history from surviving public documents, enlivened with contemporary gossip and wit from letters between the French elite. Her arch prose sometimes stalls amid the intricacies of myriad minor characters' histories, but overall, she offers an intelligent review of a darkly fascinating affair. 8 pages of color illus. not seen by PW. 118953 2003 The Affair of the Poisons : Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV total:41|5:6|4:9|3:21|2:4|1:1| 41 138 100 7 3 0 false false Thu Dec 04 06:03:51 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 06:05:25 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Fri Apr 06 00:42:45 -0700 2007 Thu Apr 19 14:11:54 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Sep 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 04 09:10:24 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 20 19:05:36 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Jul 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 11 12:38:25 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 20:56:19 -0700 2008 Too much description - if that can be a bad thing, too much filler, in between the necessary information needed to carry the story.
I found my eyes glazing over...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 10 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 26 18:06:02 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 26 18:07:43 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jul 24 18:58:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 24 18:59:21 -0700 2008
Also, that obsession w/Louis XIV? Still got it.]]> 0 0 false false Sat Jul 26 17:35:49 -0700 2008 Thu May 22 13:08:25 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 26 17:35:49 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Sat Nov 21 10:48:38 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 21 10:48:38 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Nov 04 12:01:03 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 12:01:03 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 03 10:27:43 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 10:27:50 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Nov 02 00:00:56 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 00:00:56 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 23 22:18:34 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 22:18:34 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 23 20:42:57 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 20:42:57 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Oct 16 09:15:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 09:15:00 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Sep 19 10:57:19 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 10:57:19 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Aug 30 14:56:08 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 14:56:08 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Aug 14 09:51:35 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 09:51:35 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Aug 13 09:50:38 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 13 09:50:38 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Apr 02 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 10 13:29:48 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 13:30:11 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 30 06:59:29 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 06:59:37 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=123541