Erotic literature Lifted Curtain or Laura's Education", about a young girl's sexual initiation by her father, written by the French revolutionary politician Comte de Mirabeau; also Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in 1782. In the late 18th century, such works as "Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue" and "120 Days of Sodom" by the Marquis de Sade were exemplars of the theme of sado-masochism and influenced later erotic accounts of Sadism and masochism in fiction. De Sade (as did the later writer Sacher-Masoch) lent his name to the sexual acts which he describes in his
The lion, the boar and the vultures often deceived and should only be placed in God. A century later, at the end of several civil conflicts, Roger L'Estrange’s reflection was ultimately sceptical: “There are several sorts of men in the world that live upon the sins and the misfortunes of other people…for the wrangling of some is the livelihood of others.” He lists those who gain as lawyers, religious divines and soldiers. In the 18th century William Somervile adapted the theme of the profits of combat going to others, giving it the contemporary context of bear-baiting in his fable of “The Dog and the Bear”. There Towser