Customer Reviews

Sodom, Or the Quintessence of Debauchery (The New Traveller's Companion Series)

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Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery, is just exactly what it says it is: the most obscene play ever written. And one of the funniest. Rochester pokes delightfully cruel fun at Charles II and his lascivious court with a clear eye and a wicked wit. He skewers all the mistresses, court ministers, rakes and hangers-on with delicious ease at the same time providing a spectacle of human foibles that laughs at and with itself. It's pithy, it's hilarious, and yes, it is about as dirty as it can be. Bravo Lord Rochester! Sodom is a winner.

Those not familiar with Charles II's court would do well to check out Wikipedia or some such site to get a bit of political grounding before diving into the orgy. It helps to make the jokes even funnier and the entire scope of the play shines when seen as the Mother of all Obscene Political Satires. It should rank right up there with Lysistrata as one of those plays, written for a specific time and place, that show a universality within human sexuality by attacking mankind's ever-expanding attempts to legislate morality and hide from our own essential silliness.