Everybody has heard of the Inquisition. This was an institution that pursued heretics, philandering priests, and sexual deviants in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America for a period of over 350 years, changing its focus with the times and enduring stubbornly into the nineteenth century. Today the word implies dread, fear, and a withheld threat o...more

Another autobiographical novel from Kerouac, THE DHARMA BUMS, encompasses the ideals of freedom set forth by Whitman and Thoreau, with Buddhism thrown in for good measure. Focusing on the friendship between Ray Smith (modelled on Kerouac) and Japhy Ryder (Gary Snyder), the Buddhist sub-theme is evoked in Smith and Ryder's wish to introduce the conc...more

Who but the Marquis de Sade would write not of the pain, tragedy, and joy of love but of its crimes? Murder, seduction, and incest are among the cruel rewards for selfless love in his stories--tragedy, despair, and death the inevitable outcome. Sade's villains will stop at nothing to satisfy their depraved passions, and they in turn suffer under th...more