Absolutely GORGEOUS
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This is one of the most delightful, delicately humerous books you'll ever get your hands on.
The tone and style is spot on. The illustrations are pure works of genius. The whole concept is ... well, what can I say? ... fabulous!
Buy it, treasure it, and it'll put a grin like a cheshire cat on your face.
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Perverse scholarship
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A delightfully erudite book. If your reading of, say, the Guardian brings you in contact with words such as ecdysiasm (striptease) or paliatsophilia (the erotic appeal of clowns) then this book will explain them to you. Of course, if your classical education rivals the Reverend Croom's, you may not need the mere definition, but still the book will illuminate and illustrate. And in little sidelights we find out something of the Reverend's own proclivities. He is no mere observer. "My own researches have led me to come a skilled practitioner", he writes when discussing the cane. The illustrations are suggestive rather than explicit, but nevertheless striking: I tried to read the book on a plane, but the copious line-drawings really aren't the sort of thing that you want the grandmother in the next seat to notice. "Oooh, that looks interesting, dear." Yes, well.
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Gorgeous!
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I love this book to bits. First came across it in an email newsletter, obviously couldn't help having a look, and decided it would make the perfect christmas present for a particularly kinky friend of mine! :)
Once it arrived, I couldn't help peeping, and was so delighted with the contents I immediately ordered another for myself.
I can highly recommend this book!!!
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The perfect stocking filler for real stocking enthusiasts
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If you can imagine it, someone's doing it. Or, at least, so it would seem from this 'Gentleman's Collection of Beastliness', proudly presenting itself as 'The Most Decadent Book in the Realm'. Purportedly the product of over fifty years' dedicated research into paraphilias - kinky sex to the uninitiated, the kinds of thing you hope your parents never got up to behind closed doors, let alone out in the woods - the Reverend Croom's book appears at first glance to be from 1901, until a quick scan of the copyright page suggests that this is indeed an entirely modern tome. If there were any justice in the universe, this would fly off the shelves at the same rate as The Dangerous Book for Boys, as it's far funnier and has much more useful tips - how to prepare birches and canes, the correct way to turn your paramour into a piggy-girl, and why you probably shouldn't try to have sex with an octopus.
The range of kinks covered is extraordinary, from 'Agalmatophilia' - 'a rare but ancient paraphilia in which the subject falls in love with a statue' - to 'Chionolagnia', 'the association of carnal pleasure with snow', while the period detail (thank god for sex toys, I say: we've come a long way from the 'eviscerated chicken' used for certain unspeakable acts here) and moralising Victorian tone are pitch-perfect. And while Croom may be making up some of the names, and most (I hope!) of the scenarios, I suspect these are all real kinks, however obscure (do people *really* get turned on dressing up as clowns?); while if you take nothing else away from it, skimming through the book will improve your Latin, as Croom constructs ever more arcane terms for ever more bizarre behaviours. But best of all are the subtle hints the worthy reverend occasionally drops, for all his quasi-scientific bluster and paternalising, that his interest has gone beyond the merely scientific: while discussing breast-milk fetishism he lets slip that 'The cheese is especially good', and is constantly falling out of trees/wardrobes etc where he's hidden in the name of 'research'.
The entries are probably best savoured as individual morsels rather than read through all at once, although the more depraved will have trouble putting it down. Add to this the gorgeous illustrations, perfectly judged depictions of monocled cads and blushing fillies (with the occasional lobster costume thrown in for good measure), which manage to arouse and amuse while staying on the right side of respectability, and you've got the perfect gift for anyone who wants more from their sexual reading than Cosmo's top ten orgasm tips - this will, in my humble opinion, lead to a far richer sex life. And more ecstatic grinning. Just be sure to follow the reverend's advice and not leave it lying around for the fairer sex, those in service, or those who have not had the benefit of a worthy education.
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Highly educational
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I have learned a great deal from Curious Pleasures, discovering many new and interesting practices, as well as new names for old, familiar ones.
I recommend the book without reserve, both to the sexually depraved and to the lexicographically curious.
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