Sex with the Queen by Elizabeth Herman

[msmcknittington]

This is, quite possibly, the worst non-fiction book I have ever read. A comment on a previous post in the comm reminded me of it, and I thought I should share. Forewarning, like a literary lighthouse

Comments

[gehayi]

She had known only the smooth girlish hands of Edward upon her; in their most intimate joining her husband must have fantasized that he was actually making love to Piers Gaveston.

I don't know what bugs me more--the characterization of Edward II as "girlish" (because men who like having sex with men ALL have feminine faces, features and forms, of COURSE they do) or the notion that because Edward had a couple of male favorites and was alleged to have committed sodomy, he couldn't also have enjoyed sex with his wife. Because bisexuals don't exist, y'know.

The five children that Edward sired on two women (Edward III, John, Earl of Cornwall, Eleanor, Countess of Guelders and Joanna, Queen of Scotland with Isabella of France, and his illegitimate son, Adam FitzRoy, who went on campaign with his father and whose allowance installments are recorded among the king's bills) must therefore be considered figments of our imagination.

Let us imagine the queen’s duties in the royal four-poster. The king would likely have suffocated his petite

[msmcknittington]

Yes to everything you said about Edward II! The heteronormativity and homophobicness in this book is so appalling. I generally don't anticipate finding such blatant -isms in non-fiction, because non-fiction is supposed try to avoid biases like that, but the way things are recounted here is really polarizing and sensationalized that it's kind of like reading bad slashfic. You know how sometimes there's a character who's in a heterosexual relationship with another character, and the second character gets turned into a horrible, awful person so that the first has motive for cheating? Yeah. It's historical RPF masquerading as non-fiction

[darlingfox]

...It kind of sounds like TMI to me. "Here's this disgusting guy who, IMO, is so disgusting. But here is this totally hot dude, I'm sure the Queen loved to have sex with him because I know I would have! ;D"

Not something I want to read when I start a non-fiction book.

[akcipitrokulo]

Loved the commentary, never want to read this, and have images of a pile of flatted wives somewhere in the world. Maybe a secret organisation that will dispose of them if you slip them in an envelope?

[starcrossedlady]

sounds like a horrid book... but I gotta say that I'm glad you reviewed it.

oh and +5 million for the Blackadder reference :D

[msmcknittington]

I <3 Blackadder. Woof!

[seiberwing]

Makes me wonder if the author was writing one-handedly.