Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere) > Recent Status Updates

Here's another example of the hopping around others dislike - from the era of George III and Prinny we have a few sentences about Prince Charles and Camilla. Granted, there can be a comparison with Prinny and Maria Fitzherbert.

While I'm usually either liking or not much bothered by author's asides - this one was annoying: "Charlotte (who, from her portraits and contemporary descriptions, was a real bow-wow) was not his first choice..." - Has been said so much nicer, or if not nicely than with more wit. Sigh.

Chapter 6's title: Bed-Hopping and Social Status. Odds are this won't be dull.

Another example, brackets show author's aside comments, "it" being the Bill for divorce: "...but no Counsel appearing against it [Poor Grave! What happened to her lawyer? Is she going to pull a noli contendere, i.e., not contest it? Can she contest it?]..."

Authors asides not always terribly amusing: in a part where she's covering the House of Lord's divorce testimony, after mentioning all the lords present: "Prayers are said. It begins (Drumroll, please!):" and then a quote of testimony.

Wow, author reprints entire divorce action - or looks to be most of if - and while in the legalese of the times is still interesting. Also several pages on Criminal Conversation, which is always a weird area of law.

"Now enters the woman with the colorful name of Joan or Juggy Landy..." - wait what? Juggy?!

"Giving a man "the horns" - pointing at him with all the fingers of the hand turned in except the little and index digits - is widely recognized in European cultures as referring to the sexual conquest of his wife and impugns his potency" - and looks oddly like the Univ. of Texas hand sign for Hook 'em Horns. No idea what that might mean.

"Arthur Annesley, Lord Valentia, was one of that tribe of so-called gallants who seduced women for the sheer fun of it. Today they'd be termed "love rats," a la James Hewitt, Princess Di's tell-all lover." - Grace is in Diana's family tree.

"Eliot was a proud man, inordinately proud, a husband who would not tolerate any infidelities from his young bride, even if (as turned out to be the case) he was guilty of such goings-on himself." - this double standard always annoys me, whenever it happens in history. And it does, over and over.

Trying to decide if http://www.ereaderiq.com/pricewatch is most wonderful thing or most devilish thing. Have just added 20 books to it and with my luck they'll all go on sale the same week and I will not only be unable to resist a sale, but my email will be in on the evil plot to tempt me. It's like I'm conspiring against myself. Good thing I didn't make any new yr's resolutions about book sales.

Now imagining the Adventures of Captain Primrose. Seriously, can you imagine what chaff you'd get from the enlisted men if you were a dude called Captain Primrose?

A day later and I'm still thinking about Primrose Dalrymple. All I could find on google was this google book, which I think was the one the author cited: http://books.google.com/books?id=qsUT...

"...The genealogist added another sibling, a "Margaret D.," who is noted to the left of Hugh Dalrymple and Primrose, his brother. (A woman named Nicholas and a man named Primrose - the mind boggles.)" - so far I'm liking the Dalrymples' odd names.

"... Gian Giordano Orsino, who had once gone with him to France, and who was the only member of the family who had not declared against him, offered him an asylum in the name of Cardinal dumbest..." - ok I'm thinking we MUST have a translation problem here or I would have heard of Cardinal Dumbest. It's also not the first time this Cardinal has popped up. Note to self, find out more.

"

The classics are those books about which you usually hear people saying: 'I'm rereading…', never 'I'm reading….'" from article Italo Calvino’s 14 Definitions of What Makes a Classic (http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...) - am now going to look up the book this cites to add to the list...

Everyone hires Swiss infantry: "From being models of honour and good faith they had become a kind of marketable ware, always ready for sale to the highest bidder."

"...two [14 or 15 yr old pages were dressed] in gold cloth; so elegantly dressed were these two children, who were also the best looking of the little band, that the sight of them gave rise to strange suspicions as to the reason for this preference, if one may believe what Brantome says." - and of course Dumas does not tell us WHAT the suspicions WERE. Of course, you can guess.

Dear internet, you are really not helping me with my inner 8-year-old who was idiotically insane over kittens. On the plus side apparently a lot of us have the same inner 8-year-old.

"When he was leaving, at the farewell banquet, Alexander [Borgia, pope] had tried on his guest the poison he intended to use so often later on upon his cardinals, and whose effects he was destined to feel himself - such is poetical justice." - this is the famous slow acting poison, which did work and kill the designated guest - four days after the dinner.

Although I'd not rely on Dumas for everything factual, I am learning some geography. I'd not heard of Squillace before - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squillace

"She was dear to Roderigo [her father] both as daughter and as mistress" - and has been more than hinted that Lucrezia has similar relationship with her brother. Those seeking a different (such as one that's possibly innocent, whatever that might mean in this era in Italy) Lucrezia be warned.

"Lucrezia [Borgia] was wanton in imagination, godless by nature, ambitious and designing: she had a craving for pleasure, admiration, honours, money, jewels, gorgeous stuffs, and magnificent mansions. A true Spaniard beneath her golden tresses, a courtesan beneath her frank looks, she carried the head of a Raphael Madonna, and concealed the heart of a Messalina." - Dumas doesn't tiptoe around laying blame, huh.

Saw two episodes of Shakespeare Uncovered on PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/shakespeare-u... Really fun series. And of course made me want to go read Shakespeare, even though I already have multiple current reads.

"The whole day passed thus; for in Rome nobody works. You are either a cardinal or a lacquey, and you live, nobody knows how."

"...Shad Jones, a colored man known to every traveling man who has ever stopped at Johnstown for his ability to hold four eggs in his mouth and swallow a drink of water without cracking a shell." - Thank you Mr Walker (the author) for continuing to not be amusing. So glad to almost be finished.

"There would have been no flood if these rich men had not built an artificial pond in which to catch fish."

Clara Barton finally mentioned! The reason I've kept reading, was wondering if she'd be in the book at all. Red Cross has been mentioned twice before, one sentence or two, no real detail.

Randomly Ch 16 starts with 2 stanzas of Walt Whitman's poetry. Must remember to go back and figure out name of it.