De Sade's writing is the endless elaboration of a single principle: "Virtue is vice, and vice is virtue" -- an incitement to debauchery, depravity, and decadence, and a testament to the value of the animal passions. But de Sade didn't merely celebrate and praise acts of sexual perversion and violence

Agitated, Erotic, Excessive, Literature of transgression, Perverse, Phallic, Primal, Repetitive, Violent

Ireland. Ire. Irony. This euphonious trio of words explains the humor of Jonathan Swift; though he reportedly bore the most dour countenance in history, his wit could make readers laugh through his bile. Swift's "Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burde

18th century literature, Agitated, Augustan literature, Dystopic, Excessive, Ironic, Playful, Sardonic, Witty

In 1925, while he was teaching at a boy's school in Wales, the young Evelyn Waugh attempted suicide by swimming out to sea. After getting fairly far from shore, he was forced to turn back: a shoal of stinging jellyfish had beset him. Macabre, comic, and ironic, this incident epitomizes Waugh's entire

Agitated, Angry, Clever, Realist fiction, Religious, Sardonic

The typical male in a Nick Hornby novel is mentally adolescent, moody, consumed with boyish fetishes, and disconcertingly good at wasting free time. These characters often incite irritation or pangs of furtive embarrassment in readers, depending on the latter's gender. Male readers begin to wonder wh

Agitated, Charming, Contemporary comedianism, Depressive, Funny, Pop