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Product Description
Product Description
Sex and travel have always been intertwined, and never more so than on the classic Grand Tour of Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Today the Continent is still littered with salacious remnants of that golden age, where secret boudoirs, notorious dungeons, and forbidden artifacts lured travelers all the way from London to Capri.
In The Sinner’s Grand Tour, celebrated historian and travel writer Tony Perrottet sets off to discover a string of legendary sites and relics that are still kept far from public view. In southern France, an ancient text leads him inside the château of the Marquis de Sade, now owned by fashion icon Pierre Cardin. In Paris, an 1883 prostitute guide helps him discover the Belle Époque fantasy brothel Le Chabanais and the lost “sex chair” of King Edward VII. Renaissance documents in the Vatican Secret Archives point the way to the Pope’s very own apartments in Vatican City, wherein lies the fabled Stufetta del Bibbiena, a pornography-covered bathroom painted by Raphael in 1516.
With his unique blend of original research, sharp wit, and hilarious anecdotes, Perrottet brings us a romping travel adventure through the scandalous backrooms of historical Europe.
In The Sinner’s Grand Tour, celebrated historian and travel writer Tony Perrottet sets off to discover a string of legendary sites and relics that are still kept far from public view. In southern France, an ancient text leads him inside the château of the Marquis de Sade, now owned by fashion icon Pierre Cardin. In Paris, an 1883 prostitute guide helps him discover the Belle Époque fantasy brothel Le Chabanais and the lost “sex chair” of King Edward VII. Renaissance documents in the Vatican Secret Archives point the way to the Pope’s very own apartments in Vatican City, wherein lies the fabled Stufetta del Bibbiena, a pornography-covered bathroom painted by Raphael in 1516.
With his unique blend of original research, sharp wit, and hilarious anecdotes, Perrottet brings us a romping travel adventure through the scandalous backrooms of historical Europe.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
"(My wife) Les was very understanding when I'd first broached the idea of this trip back home in Manhattan ... 'It sounds great. But I'm coming too. And so are the kids.'" - Author Tony Perrottet on the Sinners's Grand Tour concept
According to the author of THE SINNER'S GRAND TOUR, his feverish visions of an odyssey of discovery through Western Europe to validate personal suspicions regarding the existence of salacious and historically suppressed sexual practices began when he was an Australian teenager attending a strict Irish Catholic high school. Yes, well, raging hormones will do that. But in this case, it also resulted in a fun read, though perhaps one of no enduring literary significance.
In eight chapters, Perrottet's travel essay focuses on Scottish male masturbation clubs, Parisien prostitution during the Belle Époque, the Marquis de Sade and his château at Lacoste in Provence, the sex lives of French medieval peasants as recorded by the Inquisition, the free-love lifestyle of British expats Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley in Switzerland, the amorous career of Casanova in Venice, the legendary existence of a bathroom in the Vatican decorated with pornographic tiles, and the island of Capri's traditional reputation for sexual hedonism.
THE SINNER'S GRAND TOUR isn't consistently salacious, though it does have its prurient moments. How can it be when the author's research is a (large) part of his family summer vacation? I mean, a narrative of the Amsterdam red light district based on personal experience this isn't.
To a large degree, what is best about Tony's book is his easy-going, dry, and sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor of which this recollection from a Scottish pub is typical:
"The bar maid leaned forward to pour another round of beer, revealing her majestic décolletage. Conversation froze as everyone admired the Secrets of Nature. Talk picked up again when she turned away. This happened over and again, like clockwork. It seemed to encourage the pace of drinking."
THE SINNER'S GRAND TOUR even contains a couple dozen or so black and white travel snaps taken by the author himself.
Perhaps the best chapter is that describing Perrottet's persistent effort to defeat the Vatican bureaucracy and gain entrance into the erotic Stufetta del Bibbiena. Honor and a medal are due.
According to the author of THE SINNER'S GRAND TOUR, his feverish visions of an odyssey of discovery through Western Europe to validate personal suspicions regarding the existence of salacious and historically suppressed sexual practices began when he was an Australian teenager attending a strict Irish Catholic high school. Yes, well, raging hormones will do that. But in this case, it also resulted in a fun read, though perhaps one of no enduring literary significance.
In eight chapters, Perrottet's travel essay focuses on Scottish male masturbation clubs, Parisien prostitution during the Belle Époque, the Marquis de Sade and his château at Lacoste in Provence, the sex lives of French medieval peasants as recorded by the Inquisition, the free-love lifestyle of British expats Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley in Switzerland, the amorous career of Casanova in Venice, the legendary existence of a bathroom in the Vatican decorated with pornographic tiles, and the island of Capri's traditional reputation for sexual hedonism.
THE SINNER'S GRAND TOUR isn't consistently salacious, though it does have its prurient moments. How can it be when the author's research is a (large) part of his family summer vacation? I mean, a narrative of the Amsterdam red light district based on personal experience this isn't.
To a large degree, what is best about Tony's book is his easy-going, dry, and sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor of which this recollection from a Scottish pub is typical:
"The bar maid leaned forward to pour another round of beer, revealing her majestic décolletage. Conversation froze as everyone admired the Secrets of Nature. Talk picked up again when she turned away. This happened over and again, like clockwork. It seemed to encourage the pace of drinking."
THE SINNER'S GRAND TOUR even contains a couple dozen or so black and white travel snaps taken by the author himself.
Perhaps the best chapter is that describing Perrottet's persistent effort to defeat the Vatican bureaucracy and gain entrance into the erotic Stufetta del Bibbiena. Honor and a medal are due.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
15 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Buckle Your Seatbelts
23 May 2011
Format:Paperback
He's done it again, folks. Tony Perrottet's new book is chock full of history, humor and one-of-a-kind detail you will NOT find anywhere else. Whether you're planning a European adventure or you're looking to spice up your dinner party banter, Perrottet has got you covered. How could anyone resist titles like "Love In the Time of Body Lice" and "The Attic of Royal Sex"? I couldn't. And I consider myself the better for it. Seriously. Invite me to your next dinner and you'll see: thanks to Perrottet I'll be the life of the party. I loved his book "Napoleon's Privates"...and I love "The Sinner's Grand Tour." Maybe even a smidge more. Buy this book immediately. You won't be disappointed.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
one naughty travelogue
22 May 2011
Format:Paperback
I never thought learning about the more raunchy side of history could be so entertaining until I picked up this book. I highly recommend you read this naughty travelogue so you can impress and shock your friends with stories about Casanova's escape from prison and King Edward VII's sex chair. I admit this book made me blush, but it also made me laugh at how there never seems to be a lack of erotic escapades throughout history. A great read
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Wickedly entertaining
27 May 2011
Format:Paperback
I'm not sure who you can compare Tony Perrottet to as a writer and historian. He's as funny as Kingsley Amis when detailing his travails as a traveler and reporter (and husband and father--he tends to undertake his research jaunts with faithful wife Lesley, and exuberant small sons Henry and Sam in tow), but he's also as meticulous and resourceful as the best historians. Evidently determined to wreak vengeance on every grade school history teacher who managed to make the past seem deadly dull, Perrottet has a special talent for bringing the past vividly alive, often through illuminating corners of history that fustier heads overlook. In this instance, the sex chair. And (oh God) the "test platter." (You'll have to read the book). And then there is the chapter on Pierre Cardin and the Marquis de Sade. If there is a funnier, more harrowing, more interesting chapter in a nonfiction book this season, I'd like to know what it is. Highly recommended.
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