What does reading fictional violence do to us as readers? To find out, this provocative and original book turns to the works of an author synonymous with sexual violence: the Marquis de Sade. Drawing on psychology, cognitive literary studies, and empirical research, it argues that reading is a fundamentally embodied act – and one that implicates us far more than we might like to think in fictional depictions of violence.This book turns not just to Sade for answers, but to his reade...

"In the landscape of the early modern European comic novel the inn often features as a monument to digression - the perfect setting for chance encounters with strangers who always have a story to tell. This wide-ranging comparative study explores the special part played by the inn, tracing the progress of a succession of wayward heroes and narrators in five canonical texts: Cervantes's ""Don Quijote"", Scarron's ""Roman comique"", Fielding's ""Joseph Andrews"" and ""Tom Jones"", Sterne's "...

Sade’s Sensibilities tells a new story of one of the most enduring and controversial figures in European literature. Blending ideas about subjectivity, identity and natural philosophy with politics and pornography, D.A.F. de Sade has fascinated writers and readers for two hundred years, and his materialist account of the human condition has been widely influential in post-structuralism, nihilism, and feminism. This new collection of essays considers Sade’s Enlightenment legacy, both within...

**WINNER OF THE 2017 SCOTT MONCRIEFF PRIZEA new translation of Sade's most notorious, shocking and influential novel.**This disturbing but hugely important text has influenced countless individuals throughout history: Flaubert and Baudelaire both read Sade; the surrealists were obsessed with him; film-makers like Pasolini saw parallels with twentieth-century history in his writings; and feminists such as Andrea Dworkin and Angela Carter clashed over him. This new translatio...

'Beautiful and deep ... **a sumptuous treat for any book lover' The Independent'F**ood for short story lovers everywhere' Irish Times*A major celebration of the French short story and Spectator Book of the Year*The short story has a rich tradition in French literature. This feast of an anthology celebrates its most famous practitioners, as well as newly translated writers ready for redisco...

The first graphic history of sex chronicles sexuality and human intimacy through the ages, from our primate pasts to our robotic futures.Humans have had sex on the brain since pre-civilization either for pleasure, power, revenge, a desire for children, or simply because it isn't allowed. Today, sex is all around us but it's rarely explained and almost never taught. In The Story of Sex, sexologist Phillipe Brenot combines anthropology, sociology, psychology ...

'It is time to die, Madame: there shall be no mercy for you..!' It was one of the most shocking crimes of the seventeenth century, and would provide Sade with the inspiration for the last novel he published. The beautiful and virtuous Euphrasie, admired by the King himself, falls in love with the young and handsome Alphonse, Marquis de Gange. Within the forbidding walls of his castle in Provence, however, sinister forces are conspiring against the young couple. Alphonse's ...