The King in Love

Edward VII's Mistresses

By: Theo Aronson

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

The King in Love is an all-embracing account of the loves of that celebrated royal womanizer, Edward VII - as prince of Wales and as king. It is also a study of the three women with whom the king was most deeply in love - his "official" mistresses, Lillie Langtry, Daisy Warwick, and Alice Keppel.

Spanning three decades and packed with incident, scandal, and high romance, the story is set in the extravagant and hypocritical world of late Victorian and Edwardian society. It is full of colorful characters: Edward's beautiful and betrayed wife, Alexandra; the three cuckolded husbands - Edward Langtry, the earl of Warwick, and the Honorable George Keppel; the flamboyant Oscar Wilde; the sensuous Sarah Bernhardt; the dissipated Prince Albert Victor; and the sexually complex W. E. Gladstone.

Royal biographer Theo Aronson draws on new and unfamiliar material in this vivid book and reassesses many aspects of his subjects' lives. He challenges long-established myths and reveals much that was hitherto unknown - not least the extraordinary scene that took place at the deathbed of King Edward VII. The result is a brilliant evocation of a world and a way of life that is gone forever.

©2014 Theo Aronson (P)2015 Tantor

Very interesting

Great book. History should be told has it happened not as we wished if had happened. Not every one is a saint nor every one a sinner....

The King in Love: My review

WTH is with the Narrator’s speech pattern?? After 3 attempts I finally forced myself to listen, AND only for lack of anything else in my library, I seriously tried to get past the Narrator and his stops, starts and awkward pauses.. NO.. It’s too irritating and I highly recommend your listen for yourselves a few times before purchasing!!!!

good read, bad listen

This is a well-written and engaging read centered on the affairs of Prince/King Edward VII. The character portraits are very well drawn and enlivened with extracts from correspondence and other contemporary documents which provide eye-witness accounts, interesting anecdotes, and titillating gossip. Both the Prince/King and his society and times are brought to life so the story is a real step back into a fascinating era. What a pity about the narrator. His accent and voice are very pleasant, but he reads as though there are commas randomly strewn throughout every sentence. Without this truly irritating idiosyncrasy the book would be a good few hours shorter. Then there are the jarring mispronunciations: to pick just a few French examples: nouveaux riches, Comédie-Française, Jeanne Marie (how Jeanne becomes 'Zherna' I can't think). Some might forgive stumbles over foreign words, but English words fare no better: ebullient, revel, diminutives, palliative, plover, again to note just a few. Anyone not annoyed by irregular and incorrect sentence rhythm and mispronunciations should find this an enjoyable book.

Good and Bad

I enjoyed the story but a lot seems to be repeated from Jane Ridley’s book on Bertie. The narrator speaks in clips of about 3 or 4 words at a time… very distracting.

Enjoyable story, bad narration

The narrator spoke in couplets, and in a hushed tone as if he was telling you a secret. The story itself is interesting. It was hard to get through with the narration though.