The Kings' Mistresses : The Liberated Lives of Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna, and Her Sister Hortense, Duchess Mazarin (Hardcover)

from MarysGirl

This is an excerpt from a more comprehensive review available on my blog: I love a good story about women pushing the boundaries in times past, especially when they are based on real people. "The Kings' Mistresses" is the true tale of two sisters: Marie Mancini and her younger sister Hortense, th...

from wagner.sarah35

An interesting look at two 17th-century women who lived extraordinary lives for their era. The sisters Marie and Hortense Mancini shared many experiences, including being loved by monarchs and leaving unhappy marriages to pursue independent lives. Goldsmith does an excellent job of looking at the...

from annesion

I found this dual biography to two of the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin to be highly enjoyable. There seems to be a trend in recent biography of the comparison of one person to another in a dual or even a group biography. I think in this case the end result was excellent. Although I believe both the...

from

An enjoyable if flawed look at the lives of two seventeenth-century women striving for independence. Elizabeth Goldsmith's well-researched biography of Marie and Hortense Mancini paints a vivid portrait of two sisters who flouted convention and managed to live by their own rules. Although Marie's...

from Jaylia3

The Kings' Mistresses is a very entertaining account of sisters Marie and Hortense Mancini who caroused their way across Louis XIV's Europe at a time when that was just not done. Their uncle, a powerful cardinal in France, tried to insure his legacy by arranging prestigious matches for his nieces...