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The Great Pretenders: The True Stories behind Famous Historical Mysteries
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The Great Pretenders: The True Stories behind Famous Historical Mysteries Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
A well-writen rehash of speculation, BUT...
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I've read several books by Bondeson and enjoyed them, though at times it's a bit sad having science disprove things that were fascinating possibilities. Regardless, Bondeson makes you rethink what you (and at times the entire world) have thought to be solved mysteries, most notably last year's affirmation via mitochrondial DNA that the alleged heart of the 'Lost Dauphin,' Louis Charles XVII, is indeed the boy's heart. Or is it really? Bondeson has a unique way of approaching these mysteries both scientifically and open-minded - never saying that the mysteries are solved absolutely by approaching them from every possible 'what if?' angle.
BUT, it is annoying that Bondeson spends so much time on minute possible details while simultaneously making the most stupid mistakes of what is concrete fact. For example, the Dauphin was born in 1785 and died in 1795. Any source will tell you this. Bondeson will tell you this repeatedly, as well as the obvious fact that the boy was 10-years-old when he died. Yet Bondeson then goes on to describe the first of the hundreds of pretenders and states if any of the pretenders actually had been the real Dauphin, this was the most likely possibility. The problem is that this pretender showed up in a village in 1796, when the Dauphin would have been eleven, and is described as a teenager (who in fact was later identified as being an 18-year-old runaway). At another point, when trying to explain the discrepancies of the Dauphin's crystal encased heart, Bondeson suggests that it is actually the heart of the Dauphin's older brother, who died at the age of nine, as the heart is smaller than that described in the autopsy and records of the doctor who had spirited away. Bondeson's theory is that the TWELVE-year-old Dauphin's heart would be larger.
Seriously, how hard is it to keep the most basic fact that the lost Dauphin was 10-years-old straight while theorizing with great depth the potential cause of his death and claims of the various pretenders?
I would give the book five stars if not for these types of, frankly, stupid mistakes. As it is, if it were possible, I'd give the book 3 1/2 stars for such ridiculous faults. I'd also suggest strongly that Bondeson needs to interupt his deep ruminations and check for such painfully obvious mistakes, in addition to firing his editor. |
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