A History of Mistresses by Abbott, Elizabeth

I have recently finished “A History of Mistresses”.

It is a history of famous mistresses from ancient times until our age examinig every aspect of this phenomena from the ways of becoming a mistress to the public opinion about them.

It was actually harder for me to read than I expected. Although it has a good balance between history (in the academic way, based on really thorough research, the author is a historian) and almost tabloid-like portrayal, sometimes I just found it too much, too heavy.

But in all it’s a really good read, I learned a lot of things I never knew about these famous ladies like Madame Pompadour, Eva Braun, Marilyn Monroe, Maria Callas, to name just a few. Much to my surprise one of the most entertaining chapters for me was the one about fictional mistresses like Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina and the others.

Below this is the Hungarian cover, I like it much better than that of the original.