The Buzz...About Books

Currently transfixed by Charlie Sheen and his Goddesses, celebrity watchers are always fascinated when famous lives go off track.  Far from a modern phenomenon, the populous has been spellbound by the misbehaviour of the famous throughout history.  So, until the inevitable Sheen biography appears, readers can occupy themselves with books about these shocking historical figures.

Theodora, wife of Byzantine Emperor Justinian, was no stranger to scandal.  Employed at a young age in the “sleazy entertainment business”, Theodora was known for her interpretation of Leda and the Swan—a popular act involving nudity, strategically placed birdseed and live geese.  She supplemented her stage career with prostitution and had numerous lovers prior to Justinian.  In The Secret History, written by her contemporary Procopius, Theodora is portrayed as a sorceress and nymphomaniac.  Her life is given a fictional treatment in Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy.

Robert Dudley was a close friend and trusted advisor of Elizabeth I.  It was expected that two would eventually marry.  Unfortunately, Dudley already had a wife, Amy Robsart.  When she died suddenly from a fall, he was suspected of arranging her death.  An inquest cleared Dudley, but his reputation and his relationship with Elizabeth were irreparably damaged.  Death and the Virgin: Elizabeth, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate of Amy Robsart by Chris Skidmore is a recent non-fiction book on the subject and the relationship has inspired novels like His Last Letter: Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester by Jeane Westin and Rival to the Queen by Carolly Erickson. 

Evelyn Nesbit was the Lindsay Lohan of her era.  The model/chorus girl was the playmate of society architect Stanford White, subsequently murdered by Nesbit's husband, Harry K. Thaw.  In court, Evelyn testified about White's mirrored room with its red velvet swing, shocking 1907 society with their sexual escapades.  The story of Nesbit, Thaw and White is fictionalized in E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime.  More recently Paula Uruburu produced a compelling biography of the woman at the centre of the controversy–American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century.