[.ca] Royal Babylon: The Alarming History of European Royalty (ISBN 0767907558)

From Amazon.com:
From the madness of King George to the equine escapades of Catherine the Great, from the intramural squabbles of Elizabeth and Di to the staggeringly decadent exploits of Charles X: in this gossipy chronicle of regal shenanigans, British journalist Karl Shaw dishes plenty of dirt--and ably demonstrates why royal watching is such a satisfying hobby. Was there ever a good monarch? To judge by Shaw's account, it's unlikely. Instead, he writes, "Every monarchy in Europe has at some time or another been ruled over by a madman," adding in passing that only Bavaria's King Ludwig had the good grace to turn his madness into a source of tourist revenue for his subjects' descendants. Of the mad and the downright curious there's no shortage in these pages, as Shaw delivers anecdote after anecdote concerning the demented, sometimes awful, sometimes entertaining behavior of the likes of Germany's Frederick the Great, who "drank up to forty cups of coffee a day for several weeks in an experiment to see if it was possible to exist without sleep"; Russia's Catherine I, "a raddled old alcoholic with bloodshot eyes, wild and matted hair and clothes soiled with urine stains ... \owho\c once survived an assassination attempt too drunk to realize that anything had happened"; and England's Queen Mary, "the only known royal kleptomaniac," whose aides would surreptitiously gather the knickknacks she'd lifted from her subjects' parlors and return them with muffled apologies. Royal Babylon is a guilty pleasure of a book, and one that does a fine job of explaining, in Shaw's tongue-in-cheek words, "why most continentals can't get enough of royalty, provided it isn't their own." --Gregory McNamee

interesting cover, but could use some work!:
I rated this book two stars because sometimes it got extremely boring. Shaw seems to only depict English royalty and it got boring reading stories about the Hanovers. I would recommend A Treasury of Royal Scandals instead it was written much better.

It had me from the crown on Victoria's head:
That is the one covering her eyes, so she couldn't see what her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren were doing. This has to be one of the funniest books I've ever read, but I have to agree with the other posters-you have to keep careful track of who is who and how are they related to the other nuts, I mean monarchs. Some are easy to remember-George III, easy to remember from the Madness of King George, but some of the others, I had to remind myself of who they were. The stories in the book made me laugh outloud. Besides the constant stream of lovers, whiskey and food, Shaw revealing to the world that Edward VII used to weigh everyone who came to Balmoral put my mind at ease. What also really strikes me, is the fact that Queen Elizabeth II is beloved as a Queen, and generally regarded as a fair and equal ruler, but yet is descended from the Hanover-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha nut farm. It was also funny to hear Shaw's explanation that Diana Spenser, who everyone said was "a commoner," came from a background just as royal as Charles's, but she was not a Windsor. Therefore a commoner. A "commoner" with a title and a rather large estate, not a washer woman. Shaw writes-"there are three types of people in the world-blacks, whites and royals." This certainly explains Diana's commoner status. But I do have one disagreement with Shaw. On the back of the book, it says "Thank god you live in a democracy." The Bush family is distantly related to Diana, and probably some of those Stuart fruit loops, so I wouldn't be too sure about that. Overall, if you want to laugh like never before and amuse your friends with all kinds of really obscure facts, buy this book.

Interesting but hardly side-splitting:
This account of European royalty between the 17th-20th centuries has some interesting stories about the eccentric and often deplorable behaviour of the members of various royal families. There is an emphasis on sexual misbehaviour, and Mr. Shaw's own prejudices show up quite clearly. He obviously has a strong distaste for the idea of women having sex past a certain age, Catherine the Great comes in for particular censor for being still interested in sex while in her sixties (ugh!)He refers sneeringly to George I's mother as a "flabby, toothless crone"She was a very old lady at the time, but that's no excuse, evidently, for being flabby and toothless. I suppose Mr Shaw thinks she should have been working out at the gym, or something. Camilla Parker-Bowles is refered to dissaprovingly as 'Prince Charles's forty-five year old mistress' (one feels Mr Shaw would dissaprove of her less had she been in her twenties).Mr Shaw seems to feel that hereditary power, combined with in-breeding, is the cause of the bad behaviour of monarchs, though as a previous reviewer pointed out, that hardly explains the deplorable behaviour of such non-hereditary monarchs as Napoleon, Hiter, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao etc. An intersting book if you don't mind the constant dwelling on (sometimes wildly exaggerated) disgusting details. The blurb on the back of the book describes this volume as 'side-splitting' but it is hardly that. Midly amusing perhaps. If you want a side-splitting history book, try 'The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody' by Will Cuppy.

Entertaining and a fun read, not academic but interesting:
I enjoyed this book. I never tried to take it seriously and I think that's why it was so fun. It was the kind of book you can read, put down, and go back to over time. It was something you had to committ to but it was fun and I learned quite a bit about those wonderful royals.

Amusing but disjointed:
With the descent of the modern media onto the current royal family, and the loss of the aura of untouchability that led to frank examinations of the lives Prince Charles and Andrew, the re-examination of royal institutions has led to the publication of a number of books similar to Shaw's Royal Babylon. The stories range from amusing to tragic to downright silly, but the underlying theme is to portray how ridiculous the institution of monarchy is, and how ridiculous its various officeholders have been throughout a number of nation's histories. The stories, some popular and others not so well known are protrayed in vivid fashion with vigor by Shaw. Anyone looking for evidence of ample royal insanity, or those who revel in reading about the less-than-graceful moments of a number of historical figures will enjoy this book, and it does make for good light amusing reading. However, the book does have a number of problems. First, the author appears to fall victim to wild exaggeration that reduces the validity of the stories. In one story about Prussion emperor Frederick Williams fascination with collecting tall men for his army, he claims that "the tallest were almost nine feet tall", a very unlikely claim. His overexaggeration of the grotesqueness, insanity, and unpopularity of a number of monarchs not only disgusts the reader after a time, but makes his claims dubious. A number of his claims about the popularity of various monarchs flies in the face of most accepted perceptions of them. In addition, his chronicle jumps wildly from time to time and country to country. There is absolutely no continuity of the tales, and a bit of organization of thoughts would have helped the reader follow a particular line. Finally, while less known tales often make the book unique and original, some monarchy lines are clearly not as interesting as others and are given too much time in the book. Reigns with little impact like the Danish kings, a number of Russian Czars and Prussian emperors, are of less interest because of the reader's lack of familiarity with the figures yet are given equal time. In spite of these criticisms, the book does tap into a number of lesser known stories, and does underline the often ludicrous nature of many of these royal lines. If nothing more, the book is a public service annoucement against inbreeding, and does offer amusing and light reading. The reader just has to wade through a bit much to get to it.