Or we could just read Shakespeare itself.

I seem to remember a British political figure remarking of the French Revolution that observing events there had helped him get his mind around how the powerful people whose careers survived or flourished through the sequence of revolutions in 17th century in England had behaved. I don’t remember who it was, but given the date of the remark, he would probably have read Shakespeare, and many of the people who approvingly repeated the remark had likely read Shakespeare too. Shakespeare wrote entertainingly and insightfully about many things, but a full appreciation of life in a vast unstable snakepit is hard to convey accurately within the confines of a stageplay.

It’s Shakespeare with boobs and arterial spray.

Or we could just read Shakespeare itself.

It may read a bit oddly at first to an American reader as much of the translation is almost literal word-for-word; turns of phrase that are poetic and natural in French seem just really unusual to a prosaic American ear. But it’s well worth it, especially when you realize that every single major incident described in this gripping and fascinating series of novels actually did happen. Going to read the wikipedia pages about the various historical figures involved after I’d finished the books was surreal, Druon has stuck to the verifiable history so well.