Vice: An Anthology

"Vice is not just an anthology but a celebration. Pagan and voluptuous in tone, it is a rallying cry against the New Puritanism, hygienic living and other modern dreariness. It is a collection of poetry and prose extracts, fiction and non-fiction, selected to promote and savour the fleshier and more carnal aspects of the good life. By turns funny, raunchy, self-indulgent and cynical, full of unexpected vices and fine writing, it gives hope and encouragement to all those who love pleasure or enjoy sensual delights. It has consolation, too, for sleaze merchants, style victims and burnt-out cases." "There are sections on Dancing, Dressing and Shopping which show the joys, vanities and extravagances of their subjects. Motoring and Theatricals, like Schadenfreude and Snobbery, are revealed in all their viciousness. The splendours of Drink, Drugs, Food and Tobacco, but also the miserable tackiness of excess, are marked in separate sections. And there is a great deal of sex - gay and straight, indoors and outdoors, for love or money, adulterous, orgiastic, solitary, sado-masochistic and voyeuristic." "Starting before The Canterbury Tales and ending after Last Exit to Brooklyn, the range of authors includes ancient Greeks, dissipated aristocrats, French courtesans, and streetwise Californians. Many excerpts are from Spanish, Italian and French literature. Baudelaire, Boccaccio, Bukowski and Lord Rochester lie beside Virginia Woolf, Dickens, Marlon Brando and Princess Diana. Scholarly and entertaining, it is a must for all whose motto might be Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)