The King in Love

Edward VII's Mistresses

By: Theo Aronson

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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.

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 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.

The author reads like William Shatner...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I am torn. I enjoyed the book. It is very relevant today. His life has mirrored that of his great grandson (Prince Charles) in many ways. He had to wait a long time to be King,, had mistresses and struggled in his role as Prince of Wales. When I saw it was going to be reprinted and made into an audible book, I rushed preorder it. The content is not overly long and is a bit gossipy. Aronson gives a great overview of Edward VII's amours. The caveat emptor is the narration. He sounds like Captain Kirk/Shatner. Unless they only wanted a short book, I would direct them to the audiobook of Jane Ridley's "Bertie: A Life of Edward VII." It is more in-depth (20+ hours), has a superb narrator and is also available on audible.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I am a bit partial to both Edward VII and his wife Queen Alexandra. She was so in love with her husband that she could ignore all his affairs. He was a very underrated but good King. His short reign was overshadowed by his inability to keep away from the ladies. History has repeated itself in this life of his great grandson Prince Charles.

What didn’t you like about Shaun Grindell’s performance?

He sounds as if he's doing a bad imitation of Captain Kirk (Willian Shatner's version). I am still not sure if he was trying to fake a British accent or already has one and was trying to exaggerate it to sound more polished. I love the book but this is not the narrator's genre if that is his voice. He is destined to be Captain Kirk and would be great on a Star Trek novel.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I seriously laughed and still do when I hear the narrator. I keep the book downloaded for that reason alone. I did not expect to hear "James T. Kirk" reading this book. I agree there are some similarities. Both are/were chasing skirts often, both were a bit pudgy but it is just not right for the book.

Any additional comments?

This is a nice book if you look past the narration.

Better than I thought it would be

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would.

I was a little hesitant about it at first because I feared ‘the biography of 3 nobodies’ might be a bit dry, but it wasn’t boring at all! I’m glad I took the chance - I found it really interesting and I actually learned a thing or two!

(If you want to read more about Edward VII, I can easily recommend “Bertie: A Life of Edward VII” by Jane Ridley)

I completely agree with other reviews regarding the terrible narration. It really was awful! A cross between an overzealous newscaster and Capt. Kirk it was almost impossible to tolerate. One reviewer suggested listening in fast forward (which I do anyway at 1.5X) so I tried switching over to triple time and it did help… but barely.

After listening for a while I got used to it and didn’t notice as much, but I can easily see how someone could have trouble pushing through even the first 15 minutes and completely abandoning it.

Good Story/Bad Narrator

Besides the narrator reading in a very awkward cadence, there were numerous mispronounciations of the names of notable figures (Knollys and Bigge, to name a couple). A different narrator who spoke in a more natural manner would've made all the difference in the enjoyabilty of this book.