Just ahead of Part Nine of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade, may I invite you to join me later today for the conclusion of our latest tomorrow Tale for Our Time - The Scarlet Plague by Jack London - and tomorrow for our latest monthly anthology of The Hundred Years Ago Show.
In this week's episode of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade, I contrast two Continental monarchies - one enormously wealthy but publicly discreet, the other occasionally impoverished, eternally erratic, and very louche and public:
His American wife, who'd brought celluloid glamour to a realm where the real thing had been in short supply, died after a car crash in 1982.
His older, "sensible" daughter married unsuitable Euro-playboys.
His younger, wilder daughter—now an older, wilder fortysomething—preferred consorting with butlers, gardeners, elephant trainers, and a Portuguese trapeze artist. Her marriage to her bodyguard collapsed after he was captured on film guarding somewhat too closely somebody else's body—that of Miss Bare Breasts of Belgium. Princess Stephanie was herself no slouch in that department, as the most casual student of European photojournalism of the late twentieth century would confirm. For a few months after using the high-speed Internet in a Paris hotel, I regularly woke up to spam e-mail containing extensive pictorials of Her Serene Highness giving us the full Monte...
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can listen to Part Nine of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time or see any of our video poetry, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club. Membership is available now - and, if you sign up, you'll be all set for Part Ten of Mark Steyn's Passing Parade next weekend (and all the earlier episodes, of course). And, if you've a friend who likes classic fiction, don't forget our special Gift Membership.
See you later for the finale of The Scarlet Plague.
