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Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know: The Extraordinary Exploits of the British and European Aristocracy
The alarming history of the British, and European, aristocracy - from Argyll to Wellington and from Byron to Tolstoy, stories of madness, murder, misery, greed and profligacy.From Regency playhouses, to which young noblemen would go simply in order to insult someone to provoke a duel that might further their reputation, to the fashionable gambling clubs or 'hells' which were springing up around St James's in the mid-eighteenth century, the often bizarre doings of aristocrats. An eighteenth-century English gentleman was required to have what was known as 'bottom', a shipping metaphor that referred to stability. Taking part in a duel was a bold statement that you had bottom. William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne certainly had bottom, if not a complete set of gonads following his duel with Colonel Fullarton, MP for Plympton. Both men missed with their first shots, but the colonel fired again and shot off Shelborne's right testicle. Despite being hit, Shelborne deliberately discharged his second shot in the air. When asked how he was, the injured Earl coolly observed his wound and said, 'I don't think Lady Shelborne will be the worse for it.' The cast of characters includes imperious, hard-drinking and highly volatile Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who is remembered today as much for his brilliant scientific career as his talent for getting involved in bizarre mishaps, such as his death as a result of his burst bladder; the Marquess of Queensberry, a side-whiskered psychopath, who, on a luxury steamboat in Brazil, in a row with a fellow passenger over the difference between emus and ostriches, and knocked him out cold; and Thomas, 2nd Baron Lyttelton, a Georgian rake straight out of central casting, who ran up enormous gambling debts, fought duels, frequented brothels and succumbed to drug and alcohol addiction.Often, such rakes would be swiftly packed off on a Grand Tour in the hope that travel would bring about maturity. It seldom did.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryHumor
392 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 13, 2017
139 people are currently reading
212 people want to read
About the author
Karl Shaw
31 books26 followersKarl Shaw writes humour and popular non-fiction titles including the New York Timss bestsellers Royal Babylon and 5 People Who Died During Sex. His most recent is the acclaimed historic true crime thriller The Killing of Lord George: A Tale of Murder and Deceit in Edwardian England.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
November 30, 2018
I'm a bit torn about this book. It is chock full of the kind of scurrilous stories, shocking scandal, eccentric tales that are grist to my writer's millstone. I have already incorporated two of the characters into my own work in progress - so research-wise it is a boon. But...
The net effect of reading this is like eating far too much. You feel quite sickened by the excess, and you're really quite happy to get to the end of the feast. Serious wealth and utter arrogance has created a book full of very unlikable, in some cases quite despicable people who don't give a damn about anyone but themselves. Whether they are burning down houses to clear their land, or forcing their footmen into a race against a carriage and four (the poor man died), they leave a very bad taste in your mouth. Of course the selection is not representative, but there were times when my blood was boiling.
Excellent research. I will definitely be returning to this. But I think it would be a much better 'dip in now and then' kind of read (dare I say, the kind you keep in the loo!) than something to be read as a whole.
The net effect of reading this is like eating far too much. You feel quite sickened by the excess, and you're really quite happy to get to the end of the feast. Serious wealth and utter arrogance has created a book full of very unlikable, in some cases quite despicable people who don't give a damn about anyone but themselves. Whether they are burning down houses to clear their land, or forcing their footmen into a race against a carriage and four (the poor man died), they leave a very bad taste in your mouth. Of course the selection is not representative, but there were times when my blood was boiling.
Excellent research. I will definitely be returning to this. But I think it would be a much better 'dip in now and then' kind of read (dare I say, the kind you keep in the loo!) than something to be read as a whole.
June 2, 2019
An amusing and witty look at the debauchery, drunkenness and madness that made the mostly British aristocracy great. Very funny and some real laugh out loud moments.
December 29, 2020
A tremendously entertaining collection of anecdotes about aristocratic goings-on, arranged in topical rather than chronological order. This was my biggest gripe as I often found myself pressing the Back button to figure out when an event was happening.
The bulk of the stories center on the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when aristocratic power really got out of hand (it's not a coincidence that there was a rash of revolutions during that period, because--as I think our own elites will find out over the next century--there comes a point when enough really is enough).
This is the lite version of Entitled: A Critical History of the British Aristocracy and the one to go for if you're looking for laugh-out-loud tidbits rather than a more serious critique of aristocratic power presented within its historical context. Nevertheless, it has a decent bibliography and index and is definitely a "keeper" for my research shelf.
The bulk of the stories center on the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when aristocratic power really got out of hand (it's not a coincidence that there was a rash of revolutions during that period, because--as I think our own elites will find out over the next century--there comes a point when enough really is enough).
This is the lite version of Entitled: A Critical History of the British Aristocracy and the one to go for if you're looking for laugh-out-loud tidbits rather than a more serious critique of aristocratic power presented within its historical context. Nevertheless, it has a decent bibliography and index and is definitely a "keeper" for my research shelf.
September 23, 2019
Fantastic. Hilarious and blood-boiling at the same time. This confirmed socialist wishes every school kid would read this exposure of aristocratic hypocrisy, incompetence and avarice, and realise that many of the same families (and the institutions which allow them network, and consolidate their power) are still in charge today.
November 24, 2024
I spent so much time today trying to speedread and get to the end of this book... after three years, we got there. It is a great book in terms of telling fun stories, incorporating humour and making light of situations people found themselves in. I enjoyed the style of the footnotes - the information it was adding was often just humourous detail or little tid-bits of information that related to the main story but weren't always needed. It was a little bit hard to get through and I don't know how much I could actually share with you if you asked for examples of some of the exploits mentioned, simply because there were SO many people talked about. The breaking down of stories by theme within chapters was good though, and often the linking of sub-chapter titles was well done!
March 30, 2021
Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know is a tongue in cheek tour through the terrible deeds of our so-called superiors that will still make you want to kick the door in of every last aristocrat in the land to give them a proper shoeing.
Shaw takes us through some of the eccentrics, the gamblers, the rakes, the soldiers, the imbeciles and the many, many rapists and murderers that have made up our ‘betters’ – Byron, whom the title refers to, is by far and way one of the least actively harmful to others inside as he’s greatly outnumbered by the sheer number of outright murderous scum to whom the law has never applied. There’s always been one rule for them and another for the rest of us, but it seems that even hunting your local peasants, raping everyone you meet and cooking and eating servants is totally acceptable as long as your blood is blue. Consequences? Ha! That’s only ever been for the likes of plebs like you and me.
To really help kick my rage up a notch, it’s also a fun game to count how many of these family names still hold power in various spheres in the UK today, as well as being reminded me how laughable the idea is that the Royal Family will ever cooperate in making Prince Andrew face the music – and as a nation of bootlickers how unlikely we are to ever demand it.
If you’re not British, read this and laugh at how lucky you are not to have to kowtow to people like these (although there’s a sprinkling of Europeans inside, I’m sure wherever you are you have your own special brand of assholes in charge). If you’re British, read it and burn with a fury that could power the sun.
**Also posted at Cannonball Read 13**
Shaw takes us through some of the eccentrics, the gamblers, the rakes, the soldiers, the imbeciles and the many, many rapists and murderers that have made up our ‘betters’ – Byron, whom the title refers to, is by far and way one of the least actively harmful to others inside as he’s greatly outnumbered by the sheer number of outright murderous scum to whom the law has never applied. There’s always been one rule for them and another for the rest of us, but it seems that even hunting your local peasants, raping everyone you meet and cooking and eating servants is totally acceptable as long as your blood is blue. Consequences? Ha! That’s only ever been for the likes of plebs like you and me.
To really help kick my rage up a notch, it’s also a fun game to count how many of these family names still hold power in various spheres in the UK today, as well as being reminded me how laughable the idea is that the Royal Family will ever cooperate in making Prince Andrew face the music – and as a nation of bootlickers how unlikely we are to ever demand it.
If you’re not British, read this and laugh at how lucky you are not to have to kowtow to people like these (although there’s a sprinkling of Europeans inside, I’m sure wherever you are you have your own special brand of assholes in charge). If you’re British, read it and burn with a fury that could power the sun.
**Also posted at Cannonball Read 13**
October 29, 2023
This is a good, but not great and certainly not well researched book about plenty of ghastly British peers - the number of European aristocrats is so light that it borders on false advertising. It is also heavier on 18th century UK (I use the terms because there are a large number of peers from Scotland and Ireland - the later still having their own Irish parliament with a house of lords until 1801) because there were plenty of books detailing the scurrilous goings on of toffs in the Hanoverian era produced in the late 19th century which, long out of copyright which the author has clearly plundered for stories some of which have had only minimal rewrites.
Not that it isn't amusing to read about some Earl of Glocamara who gambled away estates at the turn of card or got into duels or drank absurd amounts liquor but this hardly makes for an indictment of the aristocracy as a class. If anything it reduces them to sort risible fools and endearing eccentrics rather than the monsters they were.
Anyone who has read any real history can provide better examples of just what a waste of space they were - that the French army opened itself to having officers chosen for talent back in the 1790's and the UK didn't abolish the purchasing of commissions until 1871 and real reform only came after the death of the ridiculous Duke of Cambridge died in 1904. That his opposition to change was almost certainly responsible for the enormous death toll of UK soldiers in the Boer war is something far more scandalous then any amount of drunken behaviour in the clubs of St James's.
But that is to take the book too seriously, it is not great or important and certainly not the basis for research (as some Goodread reviewers seem to think) but it is funny in its treatment of foibles but you will find almost no recent scandal against UK peers - not that there isn't plenty if you look.
Not that it isn't amusing to read about some Earl of Glocamara who gambled away estates at the turn of card or got into duels or drank absurd amounts liquor but this hardly makes for an indictment of the aristocracy as a class. If anything it reduces them to sort risible fools and endearing eccentrics rather than the monsters they were.
Anyone who has read any real history can provide better examples of just what a waste of space they were - that the French army opened itself to having officers chosen for talent back in the 1790's and the UK didn't abolish the purchasing of commissions until 1871 and real reform only came after the death of the ridiculous Duke of Cambridge died in 1904. That his opposition to change was almost certainly responsible for the enormous death toll of UK soldiers in the Boer war is something far more scandalous then any amount of drunken behaviour in the clubs of St James's.
But that is to take the book too seriously, it is not great or important and certainly not the basis for research (as some Goodread reviewers seem to think) but it is funny in its treatment of foibles but you will find almost no recent scandal against UK peers - not that there isn't plenty if you look.
December 15, 2018
The Crazy World of Ruperts.
Informative and entertaining, to think their genes are with us still in modern form makes me think of some of their offspring with whom I've served with, quite understandably nuts, a work of sociological history which has given me an insight of the area from which I sprung in Staffordshire, and to this day a statue of one of the richest protagonists still peers I believe over the land he once owned visible from th A34, (Trentham) due to the very fact his wife was involved in the bitter land clearances and their total disregard for the poor they should blow it up.
Informative and entertaining, to think their genes are with us still in modern form makes me think of some of their offspring with whom I've served with, quite understandably nuts, a work of sociological history which has given me an insight of the area from which I sprung in Staffordshire, and to this day a statue of one of the richest protagonists still peers I believe over the land he once owned visible from th A34, (Trentham) due to the very fact his wife was involved in the bitter land clearances and their total disregard for the poor they should blow it up.
August 20, 2017
Oh for a Republic.
Never enough guillotines. The author mentions that in the UK there are about 800 titled individuals and in the book he mentions hundreds over the last 800+ years. The folly of having a ruling class shines through. Given the immense amounts of land and money that only a few had and the bad choices they enjoyed makes this a good read.
A lot of ground is couvered. The index makes this a decent reference boo
Never enough guillotines. The author mentions that in the UK there are about 800 titled individuals and in the book he mentions hundreds over the last 800+ years. The folly of having a ruling class shines through. Given the immense amounts of land and money that only a few had and the bad choices they enjoyed makes this a good read.
A lot of ground is couvered. The index makes this a decent reference boo
January 7, 2020
Wasters
I enjoyed this book a real eye opener, and confirmed my opinion, of those notables,,maybe an odd one, being of sound mind, I cannot imagine the sheer arrogance,that through, an accident of birth, that they were somehow of superior beings,what a lot of tossers, but I enjoy a good read, which this book is
I enjoyed this book a real eye opener, and confirmed my opinion, of those notables,,maybe an odd one, being of sound mind, I cannot imagine the sheer arrogance,that through, an accident of birth, that they were somehow of superior beings,what a lot of tossers, but I enjoy a good read, which this book is
July 8, 2020
They say truth is stranger than fiction- with some justification. If you tried to pass off the real life japes of some of the English and European nobility as fiction your publisher would send it back with unbelievable scrawled all over the title page.
The book is a must read. Absolutely hilarious.
The book is a must read. Absolutely hilarious.
September 18, 2017
really interesting look into the bad boys and girls of the aristocracy who among their crimes and weird misdemeanours include rape state accepted murder and dressing up as a hummingbird. this book is its title - completely mad but totally enjoyable.
October 21, 2017
A funny book which incidentally sheds light on other bits of history - such as the origins of cricket and football (gambling), why the British hunt foxes (wiped out everything edible or dangerous), and the circumstances of the Charge of the Light Brigade.
April 20, 2020
Great tales of madness & outright silliness!
Great tales of madness & outright silliness proving the old adage even money doesn't buy
happiness! Great book well written with many a tale to surprise all!
Great tales of madness & outright silliness proving the old adage even money doesn't buy
happiness! Great book well written with many a tale to surprise all!
June 16, 2017
Interesting and unbelievable
Enjoyed the book. Cant believe what some of the Aristocats got away with or did to fellow humans.
This gives another view of history
Enjoyed the book. Cant believe what some of the Aristocats got away with or did to fellow humans.
This gives another view of history
August 13, 2017
Entertaining read detailing the bad behaviour of Britain's ruling classes over the last 400 years.
November 23, 2017
I laughed so hard I cried throughout this hilarious title. Full of interesting information, packed with humour, and exceptionally well written.
Brilliant!
Brilliant!
January 15, 2018
A very thought provoking book, which covers a collection of strange, hilarious and awful behaviour on the part of the aristocracy. It makes you wonder how they have survived this long.
May 14, 2018
an amiable time passer of a book,lots of interesting facts,and it's nice to see the blue bloods come unstuck.
February 16, 2021
How the other half lived
Well written and funny. Very enjoyable.
How the hell we had an Empire with some of these buffoons in charge is a miracle.
Well written and funny. Very enjoyable.
How the hell we had an Empire with some of these buffoons in charge is a miracle.
July 22, 2021
Extremely funny
The exploits of generations of aristocrats paddling in the shallow end of the gene pool. Very funny but also disturbing to think this lot still has so much influence
The exploits of generations of aristocrats paddling in the shallow end of the gene pool. Very funny but also disturbing to think this lot still has so much influence
October 21, 2021
I had a lot of fun reading this. Is it the best written book in the world? No. Is it easy to read and my friend who hates reading loved? Yes. More of this rather then super dry non-fiction please.
March 30, 2022
Difficult
About halfway through I began to lose interest, the book is a long list of loosely related facts. Parts are very interesting but I was glad to be done with it.
About halfway through I began to lose interest, the book is a long list of loosely related facts. Parts are very interesting but I was glad to be done with it.
May 20, 2022
Interesting read
Well, now I know why the English make so much fun of their aristocracy. It's almost as bad/funny as the idiots from Hollywood.
Well, now I know why the English make so much fun of their aristocracy. It's almost as bad/funny as the idiots from Hollywood.
June 2, 2022
Very good, irreverent and a fun history of the rich .
September 15, 2023
Fun, light palate cleanser.
September 9, 2025
A head long dive into aristocratic debauchery. I knew they were bad, but not that bad. Wow. Entertaining and jaw dropping.
April 5, 2025
very good concept and at the start it was entertaining but it was so incredibly formulaic. very much
Chapter title:
this guy was called _____, he did _____ and _____. This other called was called _____. He did _____ and also _____.
interesting like but a bit dreary. also absolutely chock full of typos i counted 4
Chapter title:
this guy was called _____, he did _____ and _____. This other called was called _____. He did _____ and also _____.
interesting like but a bit dreary. also absolutely chock full of typos i counted 4
June 23, 2019
Came across this by chance in a discount bookstore and found it to be a rollicking good read that had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions. I have in fact ordered several more of the author's books on the strength of this one alone!
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews