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Gift : historien om drycker, pulver och mordiska uppsåt
Förgiftning är en konst lika gammal som mänskligheten: Romerska kejsare använde gift för att eliminera sina rivaler; under renässansen mördades intet ont anande matgäster med förgiftat vin; och under 1900-talet användes olika giftiga ämnen i både krigsföring och för att terrorisera civila. I dag, i jakten på det perfekta vapnet, finns det dödliga substanser som är nästintill omöjliga att spåra.
Dessa metoder är resultat av en lång rad historiska experiment, för samma ämnen som kan förgifta och döda har även använts som berusningsmedel, kärleksdrycker och till och med livselixir. Men som varje hobbytoxikolog vet: Dosen gör giftet.
Den här boken tar dig på en resa genom giftets historia: dess användare, missbrukare och offer. Här får du lära dig allt om de mest använda gifterna, deras ursprung och användning, med historiska fotografier, illustrationer och beskrivningar av omtalade fall från Kleopatra, Borgias och Jamestown-massakern till samtida hemliga agenter och terrorister.
Dessa metoder är resultat av en lång rad historiska experiment, för samma ämnen som kan förgifta och döda har även använts som berusningsmedel, kärleksdrycker och till och med livselixir. Men som varje hobbytoxikolog vet: Dosen gör giftet.
Den här boken tar dig på en resa genom giftets historia: dess användare, missbrukare och offer. Här får du lära dig allt om de mest använda gifterna, deras ursprung och användning, med historiska fotografier, illustrationer och beskrivningar av omtalade fall från Kleopatra, Borgias och Jamestown-massakern till samtida hemliga agenter och terrorister.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published October 26, 2023
150 people are currently reading
3476 people want to read
About the author
Ben Hubbard
206 books21 followersBen Hubbard is an accomplished non-fiction author of books for children and adults. He has more than 160 titles to his name and has written on everything from Space, the Samurai and Sharks, to Poison, Pets and the Plantagenets. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and can be found in bookshops, libraries and schools around the world.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 110 reviews
December 20, 2022
This book is THE COOLEST. Beautifully formatted, love the illustrations and photos of poisonous plants, so many historical figures to go on a Wikipedia rabbit hole about!
A few years ago, the Houston Museum of Natural Science had an exhibit called "Death By Natural Causes," and a large portion of that exhibit covered poisons. It's my second favorite exhibit I've ever seen, I was so sad when it closed up, and have since WISHED there had been some kind of coffee table book dedicated to it. This book is the closest we'll ever get, and a lot of my love for it comes from that.
Of course it covers a lot of the classics - belladonna, hemlock, opium, etc. but it also explains less well known ones like thallium and polonium, and even military grade nerve agents. It provides a lot of detail on the symptoms, how these poisons work, cures and treatments (if any), and famous instances where each was used.
There was a small typo here and there, the most irritating being the chemical symbol for thallium being written as TI (capital i) instead of the correct Tl (lowercase L). You can only tell when you see the serif font in italics. [Shrug]
I'm fascinated with weird history, true crime, and writing fantasy and I plan on inventing poisons for my characters to use. Having a reference like this book will be invaluable to creating poisons that are plausible and believable, not to mention devastatingly effective!
This is one of my favorite things I've read this year and I'm low-key hoping they do a second edition.
A few years ago, the Houston Museum of Natural Science had an exhibit called "Death By Natural Causes," and a large portion of that exhibit covered poisons. It's my second favorite exhibit I've ever seen, I was so sad when it closed up, and have since WISHED there had been some kind of coffee table book dedicated to it. This book is the closest we'll ever get, and a lot of my love for it comes from that.
Of course it covers a lot of the classics - belladonna, hemlock, opium, etc. but it also explains less well known ones like thallium and polonium, and even military grade nerve agents. It provides a lot of detail on the symptoms, how these poisons work, cures and treatments (if any), and famous instances where each was used.
There was a small typo here and there, the most irritating being the chemical symbol for thallium being written as TI (capital i) instead of the correct Tl (lowercase L). You can only tell when you see the serif font in italics. [Shrug]
I'm fascinated with weird history, true crime, and writing fantasy and I plan on inventing poisons for my characters to use. Having a reference like this book will be invaluable to creating poisons that are plausible and believable, not to mention devastatingly effective!
This is one of my favorite things I've read this year and I'm low-key hoping they do a second edition.
March 18, 2021
I loved Ben Hubbard’s “Poison: The History of Potions, Powders and Murderous Practitioners”! I worked as a toxicologist in the pharmaceutical industry, retired, and now write thriller novels, thus my love of poisons!
I stumbled across this book when I posted a photograph of a 17th Century assassin's poison cabinet disguised as a book and a friend referred me to an article about Aqua Tofana, which led me to “Poison”.
Hubbard makes the history of poisons and the practitioners of the art come to life in a well-told chronological story-line beginning in ancient Greece all the way up to the 21st century. Actually, the earlier stories are more interesting. Back then poisoning was an art; today it’s an industry.
If you’re interested in a well-told story of poisons – I highly recommend Hubbard’s “Poison”!
I stumbled across this book when I posted a photograph of a 17th Century assassin's poison cabinet disguised as a book and a friend referred me to an article about Aqua Tofana, which led me to “Poison”.
Hubbard makes the history of poisons and the practitioners of the art come to life in a well-told chronological story-line beginning in ancient Greece all the way up to the 21st century. Actually, the earlier stories are more interesting. Back then poisoning was an art; today it’s an industry.
If you’re interested in a well-told story of poisons – I highly recommend Hubbard’s “Poison”!
May 11, 2025
Is it a little concerning that I now have a "poison book" section on my bookshelf? Maybe.
This was well done. I think it jumped a little in the timelines for a book that is structured after centuries, but in the end I didn't mind too much.
It is wonderfully formatted, has a good balance of text and the illustrative material and is also just pretty to look at while being informative.
For me, who usually focuses on (toxic) plants, it was interesting to also read about all the other kinds of poisons. It was a cursory introduction to the most common poisons across different periods.
For what it set out to do, I really liked it.
This was well done. I think it jumped a little in the timelines for a book that is structured after centuries, but in the end I didn't mind too much.
It is wonderfully formatted, has a good balance of text and the illustrative material and is also just pretty to look at while being informative.
For me, who usually focuses on (toxic) plants, it was interesting to also read about all the other kinds of poisons. It was a cursory introduction to the most common poisons across different periods.
For what it set out to do, I really liked it.
February 26, 2025
The author is highly knowledgeable about the contents in this book. Not only does it tell you how they are made and where they come from, but breaks it down historically and with famous people and stories related to that poison. Highly recommended for people into dark botany and/or true crime.
July 4, 2021
Libro repleto de anécdotas en su mayoría históricas sobre, cómo su título indica, venenos y envenenadores famosos.
Muy entretenido y con tapas y encuadernación de lujo.
Muy entretenido y con tapas y encuadernación de lujo.
January 2, 2025
A very pretty book (to look at), but also a bit shallow. It just gives you fairly basic facts about the poisons and the cases. Besides, for the historical cases, it has the annoying tendency to go "And these are the sensational facts about this case. Here's some more. Postscript in small print: it's not clear if that's true or was just exaggerated by the writers of the time."
But on the plus side it is a fairly recent book and does go into fairly recent cases (Salisbury) and it's definitely a good start if you want to go down some rabbit hole yourself. (Just be careful what you eat down there).
But on the plus side it is a fairly recent book and does go into fairly recent cases (Salisbury) and it's definitely a good start if you want to go down some rabbit hole yourself. (Just be careful what you eat down there).
October 30, 2025
A light, entertaining selection of classic and modern poisons with some stories for each one. My only issue is that the layout comes across as a tad disorganised... but a good choice if reading chapter by chapter.
September 9, 2025
horrifying and horrifyingly interesting.
August 23, 2022
Más allá de ser un libro de historia, es un libro con historias, datos, anécdotas, casos famosos y conocimiento médico. Lectura estimulante y entretenida. Creo que es el tipo de libro que le va gustar a cualquier persona.
May 5, 2025
"The dreadful history of poisoning goes back to our earliest beginnings and still plays out on the world stage today. It is about our best and worst impulses: the desire for knowledge and improvement, but also the need to destroy others. It is a profoundly human story."
Poison: The History of Potions, Powders and Murderous Practitioners is an easy-to-read, beginner-friendly book about the history of how people have, throughout the ages, used poison to achieve their often nefarious goals. Hubbard describes many well-known cases of poisonings but he also introduces the reader to these substances more in depth, explaining why they're deadly, what they do to the human body, what symptoms an overdose of them cause and whether there are any antidotes or ways to fight their deadly effects.
I've been getting into criminal history and history of homicide recently, so naturally, when I saw this book at the store and had a little extra money to spare, I picked it up. I appreciated Hubbard's easy writing style and the way he kept things easy-to-fathom even when going into, for example, the cellular reactions within the human body if it comes into contact with different poisons. As someone who sucked at chemistry and biology, I appreciated that. I also liked how he told this story of poison in chronological order, really highlighting the ways the use of poison has changed over the centuries, how our attitudes towards it have changed and how prevalent it has always been. There is evidence from the earliest cultures in history of poisons as well as antidotes: it seems that we have always used the world around us to kill each other. There is also evidence from very early on that people have understood that often the difference between medicine and poison is dosage: this was famously verbalised in the 1530s by Parcelsus, but he certainly wasn't the first to figure it out. This chronological approach to this history also made it easy to see the development of poisons themselves: for the longest time, people relied on substances found in nature, but in the recent decades, humans have figured out a way to manufacture all kinds of new poisons. Scientific development brings about so many great things, but it also brings out our worst instincts: as we figure out ways to treat people, we also figure out ways to kill them, often en masse. This is one of the many reasons I find the history of science and medicine so interesting.
I was relieved to find out that while many cases described in this book were familiar to me – Nero and Agrippina's poison schemes, Hitler's suicide, Socrates's execution, the murders of Mary Ann Cotton and Dr Palmer and so on – there were also many cases I had either never heard of or didn't know that much about. I, for example, didn't know that, when near death, Mozart thought he had been poisoned, that Catherine de Medici was blamed for "bringing poisoning" into France, that Marquis de Sade had caused the deaths of multiple prostitutes or that it is said that the famous corrupt Borgia pope, Rodrigo, accidentally poisoned himself with the poison he had meant to use to kill his dinner companion. Nowadays people suspect his and his family's reputations as debauched, incestuous master poisoners is largely hearsay and slander, and that Rodrigo might've died of illness. I was very intrigued by the story of China's legendary empress, Wu Zetian, who has been villified throughout history despite being, in many ways, no more murderous than many notable historical male leader. I desperately want to know more about Locusta, this ancient Roman poison expert, who helped Agrippina poison Claudius, Nero poison Britannicus and was hired by Nero to poison Agrippina. Nero helped her start a poisoning school and she was eventually executed by Galba. What a wild story!
But the story I perhaps found most intriguing- and one I will definitely research more in the future - was that of Giulia Tofana, a woman who helped countless of women get rid of their abusive or otherwise difficult husbands or family members in the 1600s. Her mom had been executed for killing her husband, and it seems Giulia had a good understanding of just how helpless women trapped in abusive marriages were, especially those of the lower class who didn't have money, powerful relatives or any kind of social power to fight back. When she was eventually caught, after a customer got cold-feet and confessed all, she confessed to aiding in killing around 600 men. She was executed, but she became something of a folk heroine - a woman who fought for other women and helped them escape terrible situations.
Poison is a very interesting murder weapon because it is, as Hubbard points out, a weapon anyone can use. It does not require physical strength and pretty much anyone can get their hands on something poisonous. It is a leveller, in many ways, but it is also a highly gendered weapon. Poison is often described as a woman's weapon or as a coward's weapon (those two groups of people tend to be, for so many, intertwined or pretty much the same), and it seems throughout history women have resorted to poison more often. And it's no surprise: women have had more access to food and drink, women have been the ones in charge of mixing up medicines and cures for their families, and women have often been the ones who gather and grow herbs and plants.
Finally, I wanna talk about the rather scary and nerve-wrecking development of the recent decades when it comes to poisoning cases. When you look into the past, poison is often used to get rid of family members, individual enemies and so on. It's a discreet, covert weapon, but there is an intimacy to these cases. It's usually just one or a handful of victims. But in the recent decades, from the World Wars onward, poison has become a dread weapon of mass destruction. Just think of how poisons were used in Nazi Germany concentration camps, the Vietnam War or the Gaza War of 2008 when Israeli soldiers unleashed white phosphorus on civilians, including a school and a refugee camp (around 1400 people were killed). Poison is no longer just the weapon of an angry husband or wife, or someone looking to cash in on life insurances – it is used for war crimes and mass murder. Poisons have become tools of terrorists and cult leaders (the story of Jim Jones and his Jonestown cult's mass suicide is truly harrowing). When reading the stories of crazed cult leaders, assassination attempts of political dissidents (often, it seems, by Russian operatives... hmm) and the use of poison in warfare, poison no longer seems like a coward's weapon, but something much more sinister.
I would happily recommend this book. It is really quick to read and the language Hubbard uses, even when describing complex chemical and biological reactions, is simple. This book is wonderful for people interested in criminal history and/or the natural world and its various spooky substances. It could also be a wonderful aid to any budding thriller author out there who needs to know how to write poisonings.
Here are some interesting facts I learned:
- Some apes and chimpanzees know exactly what plants to eat to alleviate pain.
- The only group of the animal kingdom that does not have any poisonous species is birds.
- The word "toxin" comes from the Greek word "toxikós" which refers to poisoned arrows (which were commonly used and appear often in mythology).
- It is said that Cleopatra VII tried poisons on prisoners to figure out an easy, painless way to die if she ever had to commit suicide: I wonder if this is true or whether this is Roman propaganda, a story made up to make her seem extra monstrous, almost witch-like.
- Belladonna gets its name from the italian words "bella donna" meaning "beautiful woman" because eyedrops made out of belladonna were commonly used during the reneissance by women to dilate their pupils. This just one of many instances in which poisonous materials have been used in beauty products.
- Mercury is a very lethal poison but we all also have it in our system all the time: it is estimated that your average human adult has in their body, at all times, around 6 mg of mercury.
- Sumerians called opium poppy "the joy plant".
- The fear of witches was so prevalent in France during the Sun King's reign that he had to make an official declaration that "evidence" based on superstition (such as someone owning a black cat) was not enough proof of someone being a witch.
- Inhalation and injection tend to be the fastest modes of poisoning: in inhalation, the poison goes directly to lungs to blood to brain, and in injection, it goes directly to blood to everywhere in the body, bypassing most of the body's natural defence mechanisms.
- The 19th century is often described as the Golden Age of Poisoning. The poison of choice in this golden age was arsenic, which could be bought as easily as bread and was everywhere. One of the key reasons why poisoning became so prevalent was the introduction of life-insurance policies.
- The mass suicide of Jim Jones's Jonestown cult was the largest loss of American civilian life (around 900 people) in a non-natural disaster until the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Poison: The History of Potions, Powders and Murderous Practitioners is an easy-to-read, beginner-friendly book about the history of how people have, throughout the ages, used poison to achieve their often nefarious goals. Hubbard describes many well-known cases of poisonings but he also introduces the reader to these substances more in depth, explaining why they're deadly, what they do to the human body, what symptoms an overdose of them cause and whether there are any antidotes or ways to fight their deadly effects.
I've been getting into criminal history and history of homicide recently, so naturally, when I saw this book at the store and had a little extra money to spare, I picked it up. I appreciated Hubbard's easy writing style and the way he kept things easy-to-fathom even when going into, for example, the cellular reactions within the human body if it comes into contact with different poisons. As someone who sucked at chemistry and biology, I appreciated that. I also liked how he told this story of poison in chronological order, really highlighting the ways the use of poison has changed over the centuries, how our attitudes towards it have changed and how prevalent it has always been. There is evidence from the earliest cultures in history of poisons as well as antidotes: it seems that we have always used the world around us to kill each other. There is also evidence from very early on that people have understood that often the difference between medicine and poison is dosage: this was famously verbalised in the 1530s by Parcelsus, but he certainly wasn't the first to figure it out. This chronological approach to this history also made it easy to see the development of poisons themselves: for the longest time, people relied on substances found in nature, but in the recent decades, humans have figured out a way to manufacture all kinds of new poisons. Scientific development brings about so many great things, but it also brings out our worst instincts: as we figure out ways to treat people, we also figure out ways to kill them, often en masse. This is one of the many reasons I find the history of science and medicine so interesting.
I was relieved to find out that while many cases described in this book were familiar to me – Nero and Agrippina's poison schemes, Hitler's suicide, Socrates's execution, the murders of Mary Ann Cotton and Dr Palmer and so on – there were also many cases I had either never heard of or didn't know that much about. I, for example, didn't know that, when near death, Mozart thought he had been poisoned, that Catherine de Medici was blamed for "bringing poisoning" into France, that Marquis de Sade had caused the deaths of multiple prostitutes or that it is said that the famous corrupt Borgia pope, Rodrigo, accidentally poisoned himself with the poison he had meant to use to kill his dinner companion. Nowadays people suspect his and his family's reputations as debauched, incestuous master poisoners is largely hearsay and slander, and that Rodrigo might've died of illness. I was very intrigued by the story of China's legendary empress, Wu Zetian, who has been villified throughout history despite being, in many ways, no more murderous than many notable historical male leader. I desperately want to know more about Locusta, this ancient Roman poison expert, who helped Agrippina poison Claudius, Nero poison Britannicus and was hired by Nero to poison Agrippina. Nero helped her start a poisoning school and she was eventually executed by Galba. What a wild story!
But the story I perhaps found most intriguing- and one I will definitely research more in the future - was that of Giulia Tofana, a woman who helped countless of women get rid of their abusive or otherwise difficult husbands or family members in the 1600s. Her mom had been executed for killing her husband, and it seems Giulia had a good understanding of just how helpless women trapped in abusive marriages were, especially those of the lower class who didn't have money, powerful relatives or any kind of social power to fight back. When she was eventually caught, after a customer got cold-feet and confessed all, she confessed to aiding in killing around 600 men. She was executed, but she became something of a folk heroine - a woman who fought for other women and helped them escape terrible situations.
Poison is a very interesting murder weapon because it is, as Hubbard points out, a weapon anyone can use. It does not require physical strength and pretty much anyone can get their hands on something poisonous. It is a leveller, in many ways, but it is also a highly gendered weapon. Poison is often described as a woman's weapon or as a coward's weapon (those two groups of people tend to be, for so many, intertwined or pretty much the same), and it seems throughout history women have resorted to poison more often. And it's no surprise: women have had more access to food and drink, women have been the ones in charge of mixing up medicines and cures for their families, and women have often been the ones who gather and grow herbs and plants.
Finally, I wanna talk about the rather scary and nerve-wrecking development of the recent decades when it comes to poisoning cases. When you look into the past, poison is often used to get rid of family members, individual enemies and so on. It's a discreet, covert weapon, but there is an intimacy to these cases. It's usually just one or a handful of victims. But in the recent decades, from the World Wars onward, poison has become a dread weapon of mass destruction. Just think of how poisons were used in Nazi Germany concentration camps, the Vietnam War or the Gaza War of 2008 when Israeli soldiers unleashed white phosphorus on civilians, including a school and a refugee camp (around 1400 people were killed). Poison is no longer just the weapon of an angry husband or wife, or someone looking to cash in on life insurances – it is used for war crimes and mass murder. Poisons have become tools of terrorists and cult leaders (the story of Jim Jones and his Jonestown cult's mass suicide is truly harrowing). When reading the stories of crazed cult leaders, assassination attempts of political dissidents (often, it seems, by Russian operatives... hmm) and the use of poison in warfare, poison no longer seems like a coward's weapon, but something much more sinister.
I would happily recommend this book. It is really quick to read and the language Hubbard uses, even when describing complex chemical and biological reactions, is simple. This book is wonderful for people interested in criminal history and/or the natural world and its various spooky substances. It could also be a wonderful aid to any budding thriller author out there who needs to know how to write poisonings.
Here are some interesting facts I learned:
- Some apes and chimpanzees know exactly what plants to eat to alleviate pain.
- The only group of the animal kingdom that does not have any poisonous species is birds.
- The word "toxin" comes from the Greek word "toxikós" which refers to poisoned arrows (which were commonly used and appear often in mythology).
- It is said that Cleopatra VII tried poisons on prisoners to figure out an easy, painless way to die if she ever had to commit suicide: I wonder if this is true or whether this is Roman propaganda, a story made up to make her seem extra monstrous, almost witch-like.
- Belladonna gets its name from the italian words "bella donna" meaning "beautiful woman" because eyedrops made out of belladonna were commonly used during the reneissance by women to dilate their pupils. This just one of many instances in which poisonous materials have been used in beauty products.
- Mercury is a very lethal poison but we all also have it in our system all the time: it is estimated that your average human adult has in their body, at all times, around 6 mg of mercury.
- Sumerians called opium poppy "the joy plant".
- The fear of witches was so prevalent in France during the Sun King's reign that he had to make an official declaration that "evidence" based on superstition (such as someone owning a black cat) was not enough proof of someone being a witch.
- Inhalation and injection tend to be the fastest modes of poisoning: in inhalation, the poison goes directly to lungs to blood to brain, and in injection, it goes directly to blood to everywhere in the body, bypassing most of the body's natural defence mechanisms.
- The 19th century is often described as the Golden Age of Poisoning. The poison of choice in this golden age was arsenic, which could be bought as easily as bread and was everywhere. One of the key reasons why poisoning became so prevalent was the introduction of life-insurance policies.
- The mass suicide of Jim Jones's Jonestown cult was the largest loss of American civilian life (around 900 people) in a non-natural disaster until the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
October 17, 2022
Ein sehr gutes Sachbuch über gängige Gifte natürlich wie auch synthetisch.
Der Aufbau ist sehr gut, zunächst geht es um natürliche Gifte. Es werden Fälle geschildert in denen die einzelnen Gifte vorkamen, gefolgt von einem Steckbrief über die Giftquelle.
Es ist sehr gut zugänglich geschrieben, die Zeichnungen sind schön, die Bilder gut platziert. Wichtig für jeden der das liest, nicht erwischen lassen😉 nur ein kleiner spaß
Der Aufbau ist sehr gut, zunächst geht es um natürliche Gifte. Es werden Fälle geschildert in denen die einzelnen Gifte vorkamen, gefolgt von einem Steckbrief über die Giftquelle.
Es ist sehr gut zugänglich geschrieben, die Zeichnungen sind schön, die Bilder gut platziert. Wichtig für jeden der das liest, nicht erwischen lassen😉 nur ein kleiner spaß
August 7, 2024
Technically the book is very interesting, but I do have some issues with it. As someone else already said, the part mentioning the origins of "no stone left unturned" is false, leaving me to question how correct the rest of the book is. Even worse than that though is the total lack of sources, there is not a single mentioned source in the whole book. Hubbard also mentions the Gaza Massacre of 2008-09, where Israel used white phosphorus "over civilian areas in Palestinian-occupied Gaza" (p. 115), instead of saying like... over Gaza, Palestine. I'm not saying this is a terrible offense as it could be an oversight on the author's part, but it doesn't sit right with me.
I'd say it's an interesting read if you forgot your book at home and need something to read on your flight (like me), but the lack of any verifyable sources leads me to assume the information is alleged instead of factual.
I'd say it's an interesting read if you forgot your book at home and need something to read on your flight (like me), but the lack of any verifyable sources leads me to assume the information is alleged instead of factual.
June 11, 2023
This is quite honestly one of the best books on poison and its uses throughout history that I've ever read. Not only is it a fairly easy read, but it's full of illustrations and photographs of the poisons, historical poisoners, and little captions on how each fit into the poisoners' stories. I also got to learn about names in history I didn't know about before. Word of warning, though: this book covers everything in chronological order since antiquity, and that includes poisons and toxins being used today, as in right now. I'd be lying if I said that the final few entries of the book didn't leave me feeling a little nervous. It makes you very aware of what to watch out for in this beautiful but crazy world.
April 23, 2022
Het was een informatief boek met een mooie lay-out die doet denken aan hoe boeken in het Victoriaans tijdperk eruit zagen. Jammer genoeg gaat dit boek niet over giftige planten en hoe je ze kunt herkennen en gebruiken (zoals ik had gehoopt). Het boek beslaat eerder verschillende gifmoordenaars uit de geschiedenis en geeft informatie vrij over hun persoonlijk leven en de precieze misdaad die ze begingen. Het merendeel van deze gifmoordenaars maakte gebruik van moderne, scheikundige giffen, wat ik dan ook weer minder interessant vond om te lezen.
April 16, 2021
Poison bills itself as "The History of Potions, Powders and Murderous Practitioners," but the bulk of the book is devoted to the last category. Well, that's not strictly true; the majority of this book is full-page illustrations and photographs. About 2/3 of what's left is dedicated to accounts of poisoners throughout history. I'd have preferred a bit more of an encyclopedic look at the poisons, themselves (and more of them), but the historical/biographical information is so interesting, that I can't fault Hubbard too strongly.
Bottom line: If you're interested in serial killers, political assassins, cult leaders, etc. who used poison as their primary means of murder, you'll find a lot to like in Poison, but if you go in expecting the focus to be on the poisons, themselves, you might be disappointed. Case in point: the cover prominently features images of frogs, scorpions, and ants, which I don't remember ever being explicitly mentioned inside the book, itself. Still, the material presented is illuminating enough that you might find yourself enjoying it quite a bit, even if it isn't quite what you're looking for. Either way, it's a quick read.
Bottom line: If you're interested in serial killers, political assassins, cult leaders, etc. who used poison as their primary means of murder, you'll find a lot to like in Poison, but if you go in expecting the focus to be on the poisons, themselves, you might be disappointed. Case in point: the cover prominently features images of frogs, scorpions, and ants, which I don't remember ever being explicitly mentioned inside the book, itself. Still, the material presented is illuminating enough that you might find yourself enjoying it quite a bit, even if it isn't quite what you're looking for. Either way, it's a quick read.
January 5, 2025
Interesting book about the history and use of different poisons, mixed with stories of how famous people died by poison through the years. I absolutely loved the ancient Greek and Roman cases but the book also focuses on very recent poisonings.
The book did feel a bit shallow sometimes as it just states basic facts, it doesn't feel like the author took a deep dive into the matter but more just stated basic facts.
The fact that the book just stops after the last case took me by surprise. Except for an index, there was no closing text or word from the author about his research or why he decided to write this book.
The book did feel a bit shallow sometimes as it just states basic facts, it doesn't feel like the author took a deep dive into the matter but more just stated basic facts.
The fact that the book just stops after the last case took me by surprise. Except for an index, there was no closing text or word from the author about his research or why he decided to write this book.
December 12, 2023
Interessant en prachtig vormgegeven! Jammer dat ik dit soort feitjes altijd gemiddeld drie minuten onthoud. Door de korte hoofdstukken was het makkelijk om steeds iets tussendoor te lezen en door de afbeeldingen ging het nog meer leven. Toch zou ik ook wel een meer lopend boek met langere hoofdstukken hierover willen lezen. Veel zaken kende ik al door de duizenden true crime podcasts die ik luister. Fijn hoor.
March 2, 2021
3.5 stars
Not a massive, academic deep dive, but enough information to satisfy an interest in mostly Western poisoners and their poisons of choice. The graphics and editing of the book alone are reason enough to add it to your own macabre library.
Not a massive, academic deep dive, but enough information to satisfy an interest in mostly Western poisoners and their poisons of choice. The graphics and editing of the book alone are reason enough to add it to your own macabre library.
March 25, 2021
This book was so interesting! I love these kinds of books, it has information on lots of different types of poisons and also different poisonings that have happened since the Middle Ages, it is super informative.
I love the cover and it’s a nice chunky hardback! ❤️😻
I love the cover and it’s a nice chunky hardback! ❤️😻
September 8, 2022
Great book and really nicely laid out.
I was especially interested in the Roman, Greek and Renaissance cases and found the tales of Agrippina, Mithridates, the Borgias and Catherine De' Medici absolutely fascinating. The book also covers all the way up to modern times.
I was especially interested in the Roman, Greek and Renaissance cases and found the tales of Agrippina, Mithridates, the Borgias and Catherine De' Medici absolutely fascinating. The book also covers all the way up to modern times.
December 31, 2022
Esto es más que sólo un compendio de venenos y una recopilación de casos famosos de envenenamientos; es una exploración de las ansias de deshacerse de alguien, y del miedo de hacerlo directamente.
June 23, 2024
A delightful read with really good writing and information historically and scientifically!
March 15, 2025
Everything you expect for a book about poisons. I mean I didn’t know alot before, and I don’t know a lot now, but I can say I know MORE!!
April 24, 2025
un libro maravilloso y muy educativo
March 29, 2021
Un libro con historias de envenenamientos muy interesante. Tiene cuatro estrellas porque la edición en español tiene muchos fallos de traducción y tipográficos.
December 10, 2023
I could honestly just read this forever. There were a few small errors, but this was an awesome bite sized history and I enjoyed the illustrations and photos that accompanied it. A great general overview that inspires further research instead of feeling grueling like some nonfiction works.
November 6, 2024
This is a beautiful book with lots of glossy colourful pages. It’s informative and easy to pick up and put down.
January 15, 2023
One of the best books i've read in ages.
So full of interesting facts and historical events that a history fan like me would love.
So full of interesting facts and historical events that a history fan like me would love.
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