A lover's pinch

the long version

From the ancient Christian flagellants to the Fifty Shades trilogy, the history of consensual sadomasochism is a story of fascinating individuals, unlikely connections, and strange twists and turns. Meet Arthur Munby, the Victorian gentleman who secretly married Hannah Cullwick, his maid of all work, and called her his slave; and Jack McGeorge, the UN weapons inspector who was outed as a BDSM club leader just before the Iraq war. Explore the links between Robinson Crusoe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and modern BDSM pornography, as well as those between fetish fashion and anti-Catholic propaganda. Learn how the nineteenth-century middle-class household nurtured dominant-submissive sexuality. Discover the secret history of a hidden world--back cover.