The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King
by Princess Michael of Kent
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Book Summary Information
Author: Princess Michael of KentEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-09-13
ISBN: 0743251067
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Touchstone
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780743251068
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King
Book Review: Absolutely Atrocious and Bizarre!
Summary: 1 Stars
The Serpent and the Moon is a shallow, gossipy, biased, vicious, novel of Renaissance Queen Catherine de Medici and her husband's notorious mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Readers please be advised that although the book is marketed as a novel about Catherine de Medici and Diane de Poitiers, most of the novel reads like a frivolous Francois I biography.
Her Royal Highness is clearly and irrevocably besotted with Francois I and Diane de Poitiers. There is hardly a page in this book that does not contain abundant praises for the French king's striking good looks and Diane's perfect slender body and her alabaster white skin. Even when describing sixty year old de Poitiers, the author clings to her theory that Diane's flawless beauty remained unchanged. She even treats the readers to a nauseating story of the elderly Diane skinny dipping. The author's obsession with repeatedly describing the perfection of Diane de Poiters body comes across not only as superficial, but downright creepy. I will leave it at that to avoid having my review deleted.
Princess Michael's portrayal of her ancestor, Catherine de Medici was the most bizarre aspect of the book. Her Royal Highness leaves zero doubt how she feels about the Medici Queen. Her repeated and cruel personal attacks on Catherine's looks seem more appropriate for an arch nemisis as oppossed to a woman who the author not only never met, but who has been dead for over four hundred years!
The book is full of derogatory statments not only against Catherine, but her children as well. Her Royal Highness constantly refers to Catherine as ugly and fat and usually follows with admiration for Diane's stunning beauty. The book also contains plenty of irrelevant conjecture: Catherine must have been dying of envy, oh how fat little Catherine must have felt etc, etc. Princess Michael even manages to trash Catherine's children. She states that her children inherited the "Medici Snout" and were as unattractive as their mother.
There is zero substance in this book. When the author attempts to stray from her personal attacks on Catherine and adulation for Diane, she delivers nothing but useless information. Readers who are interested in either Catherine de Medici or Diane de Poitiers probably have some grasp of sixteenth-century history are not ignorant of sixteenth-century customs and traditions. We do not need descriptions of what a joust is or, or how members of the royal family traveled and what they packed. The author clearly underestimated the reader's knowledge or had absolutely not idea what to say when she wasn't calling Catherine callous names or attempting to mesmerize the readers with descriptions of Diane's timeless beauty. This book is a complete waste of time. Do yourself a favor and stay away from it!
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