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A review by useless_aesthete
Sex with Kings by Eleanor Herman
3.0
I am probably getting too far along as a history student for this. The tone was grating, and anecdotes, descriptions and quotes were frequently cited for shock value disregarding the trustworthiness of the source, in spite of obvious agendas.
My biggest problem however is that somehow, in a book all about mistresses, some sort of Madonna/ Whore complex has found a way in, of course not quite in this form for lack of Madonnas, but rather in a ditchonomy between the good mistress, who is all self-sacrifice, and the bad mistress, who dares to be ambitious, though these standards can occasionally be entirely disregarded for what can only be assumed to be the author's personal preference.
(On a simpler note, the german translation I read also had a confusing lack of standards for what names were translated and which not)
My biggest problem however is that somehow, in a book all about mistresses, some sort of Madonna/ Whore complex has found a way in, of course not quite in this form for lack of Madonnas, but rather in a ditchonomy between the good mistress, who is all self-sacrifice, and the bad mistress, who dares to be ambitious, though these standards can occasionally be entirely disregarded for what can only be assumed to be the author's personal preference.
(On a simpler note, the german translation I read also had a confusing lack of standards for what names were translated and which not)