Sex Lives of the Dictators

by Nigel Cawthorne

Prion’s internationally bestselling Sex Lives series presents lighthearted accounts of the sexual escapades of major figures in history, politics, religion, the arts, and film. Irreverent and gossipy, the books are packed with carnal tidbits and eye-opening revelations. Power corrupts—absolute power is even more fun. Sex Lives of the Dictators is a look at the bedroom antics of the most powerful, and some of the most evil, men in history. Napoleon said "Not tonight, Josephine," but only because he was busy entertaining other women. Lenin returned to Russia in the closed train in 1917 with his wife and two mistresses, and Benito serenaded his conquests with a violin. And Hitler? Well, as you would expect, he was just plain weird. Five of his lovers committed suicide because of his questionable practices.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, American

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Nigel Cawthorne is an Anglo-American writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an editor. He has written more than 80 books on a wide range of subjects and has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail and The New York Times. He has appeared on television and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".

One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.

Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).

Reviews

[Razvan Zamfirescu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Spicuiri din recenzia finala care se gaseste pe blogul meu



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Oh, Nigel! Omul ăsta e un scriitor cu adevărat prodigios. Are peste 150 de cărți scrise pe tot felul de subiecte. Se pricepe la tot. A colaborat cu Daily Mail, The Guardian, Dailly Mirror, a mai apărut pe la BBC, ce să mai, o adevărată somitate, o personalitate enciclopedică care știe tot ce mișcă, a mișcat și o să miște vreodată.

Singura problemă cu astfel de indivizi este că, înainte de a fi cu adevărat geniali, sunt extraordinari de idioți! Nigel Cawthorne e de un cretinism cronic, dacă te uiți la o poză cu el îți dai seama că nu sunt departe de adevăr.

Cartea de față parcă nu e nimic altceva decât o colecție de articole care meritau să apară nicăieri altundeva decât în ziare gen Can-Can, Click! sau defuncta INFRACTOAREA, deoarece din punct de vedere istoric sunt muc galben lipit timid sub masa gazdei care ți-a întors puțin spatele ca să-ți aducă cafeaua.

Individul ăsta nu are rușine cu privire la aberațiile pe care le înșiră. Băiatul stă în fața calculatorului și scrie tot ce-i trece prin minte cu privire la dictatorii cu priză la public. Toți au probleme cu sexualitatea. Hitler e homosexual. Hussein joacă în filme porno. Mussolini se termina prea repede.

De unde știe Cawthorne aceste lucruri? Din cocaina pe care o trage pe nas că bibliografie și studii, fix glandul lui Rasputin! Omul nu are nici o treabă cu absolut nimic din tot ceea ce ține de viața oamenilor despre care scrie. Nu a citit nici măcar o singură biografie a unei singure personalități din cartea lui, individul scrie tot ce-i trece prin cap, cam așa cum fac și băieții care scriu pe siturile religioase sau dacice despre toate descoperirile despre care știu doar ei.

Nigel Cawthorne este acel gen de individ cu care sigur te-ai întâlnit măcar o dată-n viață: mitomanul peste care dai întâmplător la o bere sau o petrecere și care îți îndrugă verzi și uscate despre ce viață fabuloasă are. Ăsta-i Nigel Cawthorne.

De ce 1 stea: pentru că goodreads nu are un sistem de votare care să-ți permită să oferi suluri de hârtie igienică, ci doar stele. La cât căcat a mâncat Cawthorne în cartea asta, cinci suluri oricum nu ar fi fost suficiente ca să se șteargă la gură.
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[Purple Booklover · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5.

[Radek Ok · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nużąca lektura

[Adi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It include an interesting facts that aren't commonly known to people. And that why it's wort to read this book.
The book could contain more of spicy facts because there are moment when content looks like a soap opera.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I thought this was going to be. Though the writing style was good - I've read a number of books by this author which were really good including The Strange Laws of Old England - the subject matter here ended up kind of... creepy.

[Ana M · Rating 3 out of 5]

No es que sea tan malo, pero hubiese sido mucho más completo si hubiese citado sus fuentes, varias veces Google para verificar lo que leía porque me parecía muy fantasioso para querer abarcar muchos hechos, fue poco descriptivo y siempre quede insatisfecha.

[Ioana Corina Sava · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cartea nu e scrisa intr-un stil academic, ci doar sa socheze. Am impresia ca sunt lulte lacune. Lipsa unor note de subsol face ca totul sa fie lipsit de credibilitate. Totusi, o lectura interesanta.

[Cuker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nuda. To raczej wybiórcze biografię dyktatorów.

[Alexandra Alexyna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even a star is to much . Let us take Hitler for example . If he was a homosexual the party would not let him rool . The case of the shah of Iran acording to the memores of his wife the marige the hade was very strong and he was very faitfull to the family and the children . it is like reading a book with gosip about famous people

[Reverenddave · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have been a big WWII fan since I was a little kid. When I was in about sixth grade I had this book that contained nothing but short capsule biographies of the worst people in the Third Reich. Eichmann, Hess, The Bitch of Buchenwald, etc. I loved this book. I read it a half-dozen times, fascinated by all the dirt on these horrible people. During a trip home last year I found it and picked it up and was horrified at how inaccurate and often completely fictitious the stories in the book were.

This book reminded me very much of that one. I found myself interested in the first chapters on Napoleon and Mussolini because I dont know much about either of their private lives. But I have read enough Kershaw on Hitler to know how insane and debunked the vast majority of that chapter is. The book takes the most outrageous of the plentiful and varied rumors about Hitler's sex life and runs with all of them. It was impossible to take anything in the book seriously after that chapter.

It can be debated what kind of expectations are warranted from a book called the Sex Lives of the Dictators, but I confess I expected it to hew a little closer to historical fact.

[KHLOARIS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lurid non-fiction that lives up to the promise of its title. Cawthorne takes us on a grand tour through world history, seen from between the sheets. Each chapter devoted to the colorful boudoir habits of a different dictator, invariably all men, yet often the most exciting stories turn out to be side-biographies about their mistresses. The range is broad, starting off with a 14yo Napoleon, and then getting into Mussolini’s VD problems. We hear some of the exploits of Hitler’s mom and how King Farouk was cuckolded by more than just the Brits. There's a chapter on Idi Amin's taste for getting head, and another one on the great public Filipino shoe fetish of the Marcos. I especially enjoyed the chapter on the second president of Paraguay, Francisico Solano Lopez (1826-1870). It went into great detail about the exciting life of his mistress Eliza Lynch. Eliza was a 19yo who had it all figured out, she did whatever she wanted and got to travel the world, knowing full well that her hideous lovers would never be able to keep up with her.

[Risa · Rating 1 out of 5]

My only qualm so far is the cover. I have a thing about reading books that feature infamous mass-murdering dictators on the cover in public. Unfortunately, I tend to get most of my reading done on the subway. What's a liberal, nazi-abhorring bookworm to do?
...
So after reading most of it, I can fairly say that the book is only a slightly amusing read for the morning/evening commute and it's very poorly written/edited.

[S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

speed-writer, hack, and logorrheic dasher-out of some 80 books, Nigel Cawthorne's methodology of basically living at the British library and slapping together 1.99 specials is not astoundingly commendable, but at the least SEX LIVES OF THE DICTATORS is worth the 25 cents its probably going for in remainder bins and garage sales nationwide. is it worth a full $1? well, after all, all that gets these days is a McDouble cheeseburger. heck, maybe the book is even worth a full $2

[Marzena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Money combined with power is known to attract women. At least some kind of women. Some dictators had all of it.
Now, this book is a set of stories that vary a lot. From the dull ones to those interesting ones, so I guess everyone can find something to catch the attention.

[Beatriz Toledo · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fun (only in the begning) but totally unfulfilling.
Don´t take me wrong, I love history and history of sex. So I thought this book would be perfect for me. But there were absolutetly no sources and references, seemed that the book was 100% rumors and/ or taken from wikipedia.
I mean, he is a journalist (or so it says in the back of the book) so he should know better than to publish a history book without credible sources.
He also didn´t explore or analized anything. It was just a bunch of facts put together, after the first three, it was a very tiresome read.
(Not to mention the eurocentric and slightly racist view over explaining the South American dictators)

[Mircea Poeana]

Una dintre cele mai slabe carti citite in ultimii ani.
O insiruire "de scandal" a unor istorii aproximative.
Concluzia: marii dictatori au fost desfranati, cu porniri homosexuale, obsedati.
Un fel de Sandra Brown cu pretentii de studiu istoric.