inre: book on MP3
Jun. 4th, 2011 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
justalurkrSo, I'm listening to Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization, one of the most entertaining history books I've heard in a while. Them Byzantine boy didn't know how to act right most of the time, but the weren't a patch on some of the Byzantine girls. Also, I now know where iconoclasm really comes from now, and I am not quite the rebel I originally thought, because raised in Byzantium? I'd have been right down there venerating with everyone else in front of the pretty pictures.
Anyway. I know there are at least two librarians in the flist, and my google-fu failed me this week in locating any extant historical fiction surrounding Eudokia Ingerina, the:
-- Mistress of Emperor Michael III "the Drunkard"
-- Wife of Emperor Basil I
-- Mother of Emperor Leo VI (paternity undocumented)
-- Mother of Emperor Alexander
-- Mother of Patriarch Stephen I of Constantinople
Girlfriend got around. My google-fu sustained me through finding an explicit statement of what "Lost to the West" only hinted at, to wit: Michael married his mistress to his best friend, carried on carrying on with her and more or less gave his sister Thekla to Basil for aconsolation prize mistress in return, all because his uptight mum didn't approve of Eudokia, who was clearly living the iconoclastic dream on so many levels I am awed.
How is there not a metric ton of steamy historical fiction around this chick? Or am I just lookingfor smut love in all the wrong places?
Anyway. I know there are at least two librarians in the flist, and my google-fu failed me this week in locating any extant historical fiction surrounding Eudokia Ingerina, the:
-- Mistress of Emperor Michael III "the Drunkard"
-- Wife of Emperor Basil I
-- Mother of Emperor Leo VI (paternity undocumented)
-- Mother of Emperor Alexander
-- Mother of Patriarch Stephen I of Constantinople
Girlfriend got around. My google-fu sustained me through finding an explicit statement of what "Lost to the West" only hinted at, to wit: Michael married his mistress to his best friend, carried on carrying on with her and more or less gave his sister Thekla to Basil for a
How is there not a metric ton of steamy historical fiction around this chick? Or am I just looking
no subject
Date: 2011-06-04 09:28 pm (UTC)Though I only get one that has her as a named person that's in English, and it was a thesis, so it would definitely be via ILL and no audiobook. "Theodosian empresses : women and imperial dominion in late antiquity" by Kenneth G Holum.
Your best bet would probably be to look for books about the men in her life and they would probably have her mentioned, but not listed in the subjects. Of course history is all about the menz. There's a specific subject for Byzantine Empire Kings and rulers Biography.
I can possibly get some stuff via our databases, but it looks like there's no historical fiction, at least not specifically about her.
this is actually good news
Date: 2011-06-05 04:01 am (UTC)It was hard to miss that most of the historical fiction was about Justinian (married to the notUptight!Theodora, like way not uptight)with a side of Belisarius, which misses the preferred era by two or three centuris (it's a fast read, I keep losing track.)
If getting one's own steamy historical fiction empire depends on the interesting men one bangs, Eudokia may be SOL. Her mister (what's the guy who keeps a mistress called, anyway?) was Michael the Drunkard and not in the party hearty sense -- more of a "Salvation Army doesn't get enough nickels on the drum for this drunk a bum" and her husband was a cuckold with a shorter than usual reign for the period.
Still, I can work with it. :D
Re: this is actually good news
Date: 2011-06-07 04:10 am (UTC)I live to serve NaNoWriMo. Because even though we're a tinky library, I have an upsurge in checkouts and ILL requests for books about historical details in October.
The regulars who sheepishly tell me they're doing a "writing challenge" are shocked when I respond with, "NaNoWriMo?" I just love the look on their faces. ;)