Rating: 
Summary: Reluctant Readers Relish Royal Scandals
Review: Recommended reading. And recommended by someone who normally does not enjoy reading at all! Book was purchased for my son for a High School project. While he reads well, he normally does not enjoy reading. He not only read this one through until he finished, he also recommended that I read it! A Truly interesting book that shoots a different angle and provides the type of landmark in your mind that ties histories together. And nothing can be a higher recommendation than to change a reluctant reader to an eager one.
Rating:
Summary: HISTORICAL ENTERTAINMENT
Review: I found this book to be very entertaining, sometimes even jaw dropping. The author, Mr Farquhar, has a deliteful wit when it comes to the comments in the book. His comments mostly aim at those with a sense of humor. I think that this book would be a delite for those that have already read all the more detailed and descriptive accounts of the royals and need a break from the norm.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay collection of stories, but incomplete history
Review: Responding once to a bit of anti-monarchical doggerel someone had tacked to his door, the poet and Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) replied (in verse), 'I am no better than any man, save for the honour God did me.' Author Michael Farquhar, for his part, argues in his introduction that 'people with unlimited power and an inbred sense of their own superiority [tend] to misbehave.' And therein lies my main problem with this otherwise entertaining 'treasury' of scandalous stories.Sure, this book is fun, in a voyeuristic People Magazine/Entertainment Tonight sort of way. As case studies of family feuds, sexual deviance, gross lusts, wanton cruelty, and all the rest, Farquhar seems to have missed little. Monarchs, as a class, may not be inherently any better or worse than the rest of us, but they certainly have more opportunities to cause trouble. And it's as a collection of stories about individual monarchs that I would be willing to recommend this book. But not as a complete picture of monarchy as an institution. This book is colored by the author's own biases. He describes monarchy in his introduction as 'ridiculous and past its prime,' and the royal families of the modern era as 'faceless ... bland ... inane.' Of course, everyone's entitled to their opinion. More serious, though, is that Farquhar believes the behavior he chronicles was 'typical of a bygone era' of monarchy at its height. In other words, before 'the twentieth century [became] a slaughterhouse for European monarchy,' *all* kings and queens were more or less like this. That's just not true. Christian history, for example, is filled with stories of royal saints and martyrs. Members of royal families have not only supported science, literature, and the arts with their patronage, but -- from Prince Henry the Navigator to Emperor Hirohito -- have themselves increased the sum of man's knowledge. Even 'faceless, bland' royal bureaucrats like King George V or Emperor Franz Josef had much to offer their nations. So, yeah. By all means, read this book. Enjoy it. Laugh at the stories, roll your eyes, be shocked or get angry. I did. But don't let it single-handedly color your opinion of monarchy. As Emperor Maximilian said, monarchs are people too. Some of them have been bums, simpletons, lechers, criminals, bores, eccentrics, or just plain nasty. But as much chance as monarchs have to engage in scandalous behavior, so too do they have opportunity to do good. And I'd bet you could fill a book at least as long as this one with the stories of those who chose the second option. It probably wouldn't sell as well, though. (NOTE: Since posting this review, I have read 'Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty' by Karl Shaw. It covers much the same ground as Farquhar's 'Treasury,' but in a much better way. Given a choice between these two titles, I would definitely recommend Shaw over Farquhar.)
Rating:
Summary: FIVE STARS
Review: Rarely have I found history written with such wit. I thoroughly enjoyed every page, especially the section on the bad popes. Farquhar has a way of illuminating even the worst royal excesses without ever being unjustly cruel. And, though the stories can be found in other history books, Farquhar retells them so well. A truly fun read.
Rating: 
Summary: Shallow
Review: Unfortunately the author demonstrated the intellectual rigour of a man who has found himself writing for the children's section of the Washington Post - not that that is not a perfectly acceptable journalistic endeavour. My children enjoyed him in the past so I thought it might be worth my time and money to give his adult fare a go. However I was terribly disappointed. Perhaps he should write for a Hollywood scandal sheet or tabloid and not endeavor to pen anything that might be mistaken for documented nonfiction. Very little effort to validate his tales taken with his emphasis on a snappy quick read should have confined him to writing for magazines in serial form. Sorry I gave it much consideration.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, quick read
Review: This is a very entertaining, if sometimes gruesome book about the world's most notorious blue blood. Devided into chapters, each chapter dedicated to a vice, the author gives the basic details about the particular royal figure's exesses. While the book is not very well organized, going back and forth between different dynasties and different centuries and not very scientific, it is extremely interesting to read about the dirty laundry of the chosen few who ruled Europe.
Rating:
Summary: steamy, sexy, enlightening and educational
Review: This book was excellent! i picked it up and couldn't put it down. It's very addictive...you get a good history lesson about the royal families and their lineage, and at the same time get a good glimpse into the trials and tribulations of the royal scandals! I'm so thankful that this book was written..it's always something i'd hope someone would write. excellent excellent book! definitely a recommended read.
Rating:
Summary: not bad
Review: this book reads like a long magazine article focusing on obvious characters from english royalty and a few others thrown in for good measure. the small section focusing on the roman emporers was appreciated. but overall i was hopng for smething a little more shocking or exotic. i would have rather read obsolute most shocking tales of royal abuse from world history, than mildy sordid tales isolated in england and france. not a bad read, but it seems like the author isnt really going for it.
Rating:
Summary: The national inquirer of history
Review: I could not put this book down. If you have no intererest in royality, this book will get you interested. It has provoked me to continue reading about the history of the royal families of Europe and the history of Europe. I recommed this book for anyone who wants to be entertained as well as educated.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, fun, fun
Review: If you're a history buff, true-crime nut or "regi-phile," this book is a must-have. If you're all three (like me), it's a jackpot! You've heard (most of) these stories before, but never told like this. Farquhar's sometimes biting wit will have you grinning everytime you pick this book up. Fun, easy, informative - what a great summer read!
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