Monday, September 8, 2014

S22: Messalina

The Biblio-Mat has been going in and out of commission for the past month or so but luckily it was back to running order right as I got to the Monkey’s Paw this week. Can’t help but feel it’s a little happy to see me, though.

Sex sells, regardless of era.

Title: Messalina

Novels are fairly uncommon offerings from the Biblio-Mat and novels with a nude woman holding a sword is even rarer. Written by Jack Oleck and published in 1959, the 307 acid-washed pages have faded into a burnt yellow, making it look much older than its age.

Which 5 letter word?

The book itself is pretty tame, having no illustrations or fancy script work. However, the end flaps are actually pretty amusing.

And it gets very uncomfortable...

It also seems to romanticize and re-imagine life during Imperial Rome, which doesn’t sound too appealing, until you bring Caligula into play.

I have a feeling this won't end well.

Might be worth reading just to see how Oleck unravels the ruling class.

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