Princesses Behaving Badly
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This edition offers true tales of these take-charge princesses plus dozens more in a fascinating read that’s perfect for history buffs, feminists, and anyone seeking a different kind of bedtime story. You think you know her story. You’ve read the Brothers Grimm, you’ve watched the Disney cartoons, and you cheered as these virtuous women lived happily ever after. But real princesses didn’t always get happy endings. Sure, plenty were graceful and benevolent leaders, but just as many were ruthless in their quest for power, and all of them had skeletons rattling in their majestic closets. Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe was a Nazi spy. Empress Elisabeth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire slept wearing a mask of raw veal. Princess Olga of Kiev slaughtered her way to sainthood. And Princess Lakshmibai waged war on the battlefield with her toddler strapped to her back.
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I started this book. But. Sigh. First, I got held up a little with the title. Princesses behaving Badly.
There were quite a few stories that are pretty much just Princesses (I use the term loosely, as some women in this book are not daughters of Kings.) who refuse to marry men. That seems to be their only crime in terms of behaving badly. In a book that is supposed to be all about ditching the Disney ideal of Princesses that sort of message rubs me the wrong way.
I also found I did not entirely like the chatty style of the information. The more I thought about it, the more I felt the book is a little more like “Hey I did a school project on women from history and included as much information as I could find on each from Wikipedia” rather than “I did a ton of historical research and wrote some awesome stories about several select kick ass women from history.”
That isn't to say that the book is entirely bad. It is informative, and there are certainly some interesting women from history! But I feel a bit disappointed.
