The Hell Fire Club (Ballantine books, 354K)

Brilliant, amusing, and utterly immoral, young noblemen, politicians, artists and other eminent men of eighteenth century England thronged to the abbey of Medmenham and the elaborately decorated caves and gardens of West Wycombe Park to attend meetings of a club that outraged and threatened the security of an entire country – the notorious Hellfire Club. Dedicated to black magic, sexual orgies, and political conspiracies, the records of their elaborately obscene rituals, jests, and parties have both fascinated and appalled the world for over three centuries.The Hellfire Club became popular during an age of scandal. Standards of respectability had become middle class – a middle class who knew nothing of art and literature and whose outlook was bound by a set of stereotyped conventions. Respect for the monarchy, religion, or the ideals of decency and morality? Bah humbug. The club's members – “mad geniuses who. . . could do anything from writing double entendre verses in Greek to ruining an opposing statesman by a clever satirical sketch” – set out to ridicule and destroy these conventions and at times they almost succeeded. In the ruined abbeys and elaborately decorated caves of England, the notorious Hellfire Club held meetings that shocked and terrified the countryside. London madams scoured the city for young girls to supply the club. Rakes flocked to its meetings. Yet it was typical of the late eighteenth century that the club's members included famous men of the arts, politicians, even the then-Prime Minister; that a list of members reads like an "honors list" of the eminent men of the day; and that when news of the club's activities leaked out, it caused the biggest political scandal in British history. Brilliant, perverse, equally capable of elaborately obscene jests and the intricacies of parliamentary politics, the members of the Hellfire Club were the most astonishing men of their time, and the record of their revels has fascinated and... The compelling story of the rise and fall of a shocking secret society. In the ruined abbeys and elaborately decorated caves of England, the notorious Hellfire Club held meetings that shocked and terrified the countryside. London madams scoured the city for young girls to supply the club. Rakes flocked to meetings. Yet it was typical of late eighteenth century England that the club's members included famous men from the worlds of art and politics, even the then-Prime Minister. The list of members could almost be mistaken for the honours list of the most eminent men of the day and when news of the clubs activities leaked out, it caused the biggest political scandal in British history. Brilliant, perverse, equally capable of elaborately obscene jests and the intricacies of parliamentary politics, the members of the Hellfire Club were the most astonishing men of their time. Since its inception over two hundred years ago, the record of their revels has fascinated and repulsed the world. The rise and fall of a shocking secret society! In the ruined abbeys and elaborately decorated caves of England, the notorious Hellfire Club held meetings that shocked and terrified the countryside. London madams scoured the city for young girls to supply the club. Rakes flocked to its meetings. Yet it was typical of the late eighteenth century that the club's members included famous men of the arts, politicians, even the then-Prime Minister; that a list of members reads like an "honors list" of the eminent men of the day; and that when news of the club's activities leaked out, it caused the biggest political scandal in British history. Brilliant, perverse, equally capable of elaborately obscene jests and the intricacies of parliamentary politics, the members of the Hellfire Club were the most astonishing men of their time, and the record of their revels has fascinated and repulsed the world for two centuries. Brilliant, perverse, equally capable of obscene jests and the intricacies of parliamentary politics, the members of the Hell Fire Club were the most astonishing men of their time. The record of their revels has fascinated and repulsed people for over 200 hundred years.