First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Birchgrove Press brings together in one volume two books representing the developing corpus of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English sexual fiction focusing on flagellation: Exhibition of Female Flagellants (c. 1780) and its sequel, Part the Second of the Exhibition of Female Flagellants (c. 1785). Collections of amusing anecdotes about the pleasures of flogging, these novellas focus on birching in aristocratic domestic and scholastic contexts, emphasise the display of blood, and extol the aphrodisiacal qualities of flowers. The author or authors are not known. Part one, Exhibition of Female Flagellants was first published about 1780, possibly by George Peacock in 1777. Part two, Part the Second of the Exhibition of Female Flagellants, was first published about 1785, probably also by George Peacock. Both books were reprinted in the early nineteenth century and by John Camden Hotten in 1872. This Birchgrove Press edition, which is based on Hotten's reprints, includes an Appendix with bibliographic details excerpted from Pisanus Fraxi's [Henry Spencer Ashbee's] Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1877). Ashbee's record provides a fascinating overview of both books' publishing history.

First published in 2005. The line between pain and pleasure is as thin as the tail of a whip, and this classic work is the definitive history of flagellation through the ages. As it shows, flagellation is much more than a punishment - it is also intimately tied to discipline and eroticism, has a romantic and even comic side, and has also been used for medical purposes. No one is above the bite of the birch or rod - convent nuns were chastised severely, queens have been flogged, and even favourites of the sultan have had to endure the whip in the great seraglios. The author deals in great detail with whipping in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the favourite parts of the body for whipping, flagellation and discipline in monasteries and convents, whipping in prisons, the rod in Russia, flagellation in America, whipping in Europe and the Far East, the flogging of slaves, military flogging, school punishments and the birch in the boudoir, all enlivened with colourful anecdotes. There is a chapter on the instruments of whipping, a selection of ribald and erotic poems on whipping, a section on eccentric forms of whipping such as that practised on prostitutes, many detailed line drawings, descriptive accounts and a full index. The work shows the fundamental place whipping has always played in human history, both publicly and in private, and continues to play today.

"The Flagellants is the story of the romantic relationship between Ideal and Jimson. After a brief prologue establishing Ideal's childhood connection to a black community called "the Bottom," the novel unfolds as a series of arguments between the couple, representing the historical gender conflicts between black men and women."--eNotes.

Between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed at least one third of Europe's population. Philip Ziegler's classic account traces the course of the virulent epidemic through Europe and its dramatic effect on the lives of those whom it afflicted. First published nearly forty years ago, it remains definitive. 'The clarity and restraint on every page produce a most potent cumulative effect.' Michael Foot

First published in 2005. Torture, an enduring and seemingly not declining aspect of man's relationship to his fellow man, is an enduring thread through human history. Whether it be practiced by primitive people, the ancient Greeks or the Catholic Church, whether it be ancient China, Japan, 1930's Germany, or Northern Ireland today, torture is alarmingly systematic and consistent in its methods. Impaling, burning, rack or wheel, mutilation, drawing and quartering, burning or hanging alive in chains. A very comprehensive and readable work.

A fascinating account of the phenomenon known as the Black Death, this volume offers a wealth of documentary material focused on the initial outbreak of the plague that ravaged the world in the 14th century. A comprehensive introduction that provides important background on the origins and spread of the plague is followed by nearly 50 documents organized into topical sections that focus on the origin and spread of the illness; the responses of medical practitioners; the societal and economic impact; religious responses; the flagellant movement and attacks on Jews provoked by the plague; and the artistic response. Each chapter has an introduction that summarizes the issues explored in the documents; headnotes to the documents provide additional background material. The book contains documents from many countries - including Muslim and Byzantine sources - to give students a variety of perspectives on this devastating illness and its consequences. The volume also includes illustrations, a chronology of the Black Death, and questions to consider.