A little drop of poison

For the first two decades of my life, I didn't really read non-fiction except when forced to do so at school. (No, subtitled documentaries don't count.) Why? I'm not sure. It just never occurred to me. But in my recent attempt to catch up with contemporary literature, I have finally ventured into the non-fiction scene and to be perfectly honest, oftentimes nowadays I find myself enjoying these books even more than fiction. Plus, you know, I work for a non-fiction publisher, so this is probably good timing.

Sometimes though I'll come across a non-fiction book that not only outdoes fiction, but leaves it behind by miles. I mean, so juicy, so well written, so enjoyable that I cannot wait for my commute to begin so I can jump straight back in.

Enter The Royal Art of Poison by Eleanor Herman: a fascinating exploration into the world of poisons and poisoning (not all intentional), as well as history, tradition, myth-busting and delicious gossip. Eleanor is apparently known as the "Sherlock Holmes of history" and she wears the title proudly in this book. No stone is left unturned, no difficult topic untackled, no gross detail left out. You go, lady.

The book is built into three parts: the first discusses in detail the types of poisons popular around the 16th and 17th century and how they were used (we're talking human excrement powdered and blown into one's eye for medical reasons, for example). The second part takes 17 case studies in detail: the story, the contemporary postmortem and the modern analysis, and discusses whether the subjects were indeed poisoned, as rumored, or whether something else caused their death. The final part discusses poison in the modern era, from Russian state-sponsored poison research to the untimely death of the North Korean leader's brother.

What did I like about it?

Good writing style is essential, I think, for non-fiction. After all, you don't have a plot you can twist and bend to your liking to keep the reader entertained. And although Eleanor doesn't embellish, she doesn't bore either: she is matter-of-fact, often very amusingly sarcastic but doesn't dilly-dally. And you don't have time to doubt or question: the book is fast-paced, so you better pay attention.

The immense amount of research behind the book is clear. Historical figures from ancient Greece all the way to 2016 appear on the scene, from Socrates to Kim Jong-nam, and not just as superficial characters. Take the example of Erik XIV, king of Sweden: "The king sent suggestions to Erik's jailers on ways to kill him: smother him with a feather pillow, bleed him ostensibly for health reasons but take too much blood, and poison him with opium or arsenic." (No, they didn't like each other very much.) Or Cangrande della Scala, Italian warlord: "He plucked arrows out of his wounds and continued fighting." It's like she was there.

Her sources are also excellent: she quotes contemporary medics, healers, alchemists and apothecaries, convincingly explaining why their healing methods are fool-proof: a recipe for an antidote, for example, calls for "scorpions drowned in glass containers of olive oil to bake in the sun for forty days. They were then to be boiled for ten hours, the oil extracted and mixed with myrrh, rhubarb, saffron, and other plants. After another two weeks in the sun, the ointment would work 'against all kind of poison ingested by mouth, stings, and bites.'" Phew.

What was I not massively fond of?

One thing I noticed at the beginning is how in-medias-res the book felt. As I said, Eleanor doesn't dilly-dally, but at the time I remember thinking a bit softer, a bit longer of an introduction would have worked for me. But then again, we get a princess who "vomits and soils herself repeatedly" within the first paragraph, so that's a pretty efficient hook.

It's a delicate balance too between detail and facts. As the topic of the book is already dripping with juice, it's probably unfair of me to say I would have liked even more drops of detail on court gossip, perhaps a bit more of a story-like retelling of events - but once I got used to Eleanor's style, that wasn't a big miss either.

Overall...

A fascinating topic and a well-written book - it does everything good non-fiction should. It entertains; it informs - did you know, for example, that there were rumors that Napoleon died of poisoning? - and it makes for a great read.

If you like your books with just that little extra something, this one's for you!

9/10