Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150858 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Synopsis
Grisly and blackly humorous, the book details the gruesome history of torture, restraint and punishment from the days of the Normans to the late nineteenth century. How it must have felt to be faced with horrifying torture and to have lived during a time when torture was considered an acceptable form of punishment, is chillingly conveyed through eyewitness accounts of the time. This is a fascinating account of torture, in all its various and gruesome guises and provides vivid insights into the lives and times of both torturers and tortured.

Customer Reviews

A great taster for Geoffrey Abbott
For anyone unfamiliar with the writing of Mr Abbott this book is indeed a great place to start. He successfully combines what is obviously an extensive subject knowledge along with vast amounts of research and a little bit of black humour just for good measure. This indeed does help occasionally to soften the blow as your eyes glaze over ghastly accounts of people's encounters with such instruments as the famous Rack. For anyone interested in just how horrible and unforgiving life once could be for those who chose to live against the wishes of a king or outside the boundries of society this book is a fantastic starting point. Be warned however that over certain areas due to sheer volume certain subject matters in the book are only touched upon and this leaves you intrigued to buy more of Abbott's books to truely gain a perspective of how inhumane life once was, be it about instruments themselves or about the truly intriguing people (such as Henri Sansom) in charge of using them.