I adore great big fat gossipy biographies disguised as "scholarly studies" complete with pages and pages and pages of footnotes, especially when they are a) about people long dead, so no one feels inclined to hold back, b) they contain lots and lots of scandal, by which I mean, relationships, sex, gambling, drinking, and wild adventures gone bad. (Biographies of virtually every person in 18th century England fit this category nicely.) So I was quite eager to read Five Sisters: The Langhornes of... read more
