Authors | Guy Portman's Blog

Bizarre Author Deaths IX

Jun 27 2014

I have stated on several occasions that there would be no further instalments to the Bizarre Author Deaths series. However, it has since come to my attention that I have omitted two authors. Here they are.

Petronius

Circa 27 AD – 66 AD

Notable works: Satyricon.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter was a Roman courtier during the reign of the Emperor Nero. Petronius belonged to a group of pleasure seekers whom Seneca described as ‘men who turn night into day’. He also held a number of official positions, including governor of the province of Asia, as well as serving on The Consul, the highest position in Rome. Petronius is widely accepted to be the author of the satirical novel Satyricon, a scathing satire, which ridiculed the pretensions of Rome’s newly rich. Satyricon went beyond the literary limitations of its day by concentrating less on plot than character and by portraying detailed speech and behaviour.

Petronius’s high position purportedly made him an object of envy. In 66 AD, Tigellinus, the commander of the Emperor’s guard, accused him of plotting to kill the Emperor Nero. Petronius was arrested. Instead of waiting for his sentence, the author decided on the slow process of committing suicide by having his veins opened and then bound up again. The bandages were bandaged to prolong life, so that Petronius could spend the last hours as of his life conversing with friends, dealing with his slaves and enjoying a sumptuous banquet, after which he went to bed to die in his sleep. Tacitus wrote of the author’s demise, ‘so that his death, though forced upon him, should seem natural.’

Yukio Mishima

January 14th 1925 – November 25th 1970

Notable works: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Spring Snow.

Yukio Mishima was the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka – a novelist, playwright, poet, short story writer, essayist and critic. His literary output included thirty four novels, twenty five books of short stories and fifty plays. Considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the Twentieth century, Mishima was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mishima’s writing was a fusion of modern and traditional aesthetics that focused on subjects such as death, sexuality and politics. Many of his most famous works were translated into English, resulting in the iconic author becoming popular in both Europe and America.

Mishima was a nationalist with a commitment to the code of the Samurai (bushido). In 1968 he formed Tatenokai or ‘shield society’, a private militia sworn to protect the Emperor of Japan. On November 25th the author and four members of Tatenokai barricaded themselves in the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan’s self-defence forces. Having delivered a speech from the balcony to the soldiers below, Mishima committed Seppuku, a Japanese ritual suicide consisting of disembowelment followed by beheading.

Tatenokai member, Masakatsu Morita, who was acting as Mishima’s accomplice, failed in his decapitation duties, resulting in another member severing the author’s head. According to Mishima’s biographer and translator John Nathan the author was using the coup as a pretext for the ritual suicide he had long dreamed of.

Click here to read Bizarre Author Deaths VIII

Controversial Authors (Part 7)

Jun 13 2014

This week’s blog post sees the latest instalment of my popular Controversial Authors series. It will likely be the last. However, as you may be aware from my never-ending Bizarre Author Death series, I am partial to changing my mind, and there may be a further instalment, or possibly two at some point.

Aristophanes

Circa 446 BC – 386 BC

Notable works: The Clouds, The Birds, The Frogs, Lysistrata

Often referred to as ‘the father of comedy’, Aristophanes was an ancient Athenian comic playwright, whose plays are still performed to this day. Though regarded as being old fashioned and conservative, Aristophanes was also extremely controversial. Respected and feared for his comic wit, the playwright was merciless in his scathing satire of religion, politicians and poets. His victims included such influential figures as Euripides, Cleon and Socrates.

Plato, outraged by Aristophanes’ play, The Clouds, labelled it slanderous. The populist Cleon denounced his second play, The Babylonians, as being misrepresentative of the Athenian state. We can only assume any legal action Cleon may have taken was unsuccessful, as Aristophanes caricatured him relentlessly in his subsequent plays, most notably in The Knights.

Arguably Aristophanes’ most controversial work, the play Lysistrata, was written during the Peloponnesian War, a conflict the playwright was bitterly opposed to. The story is about one woman’s efforts to end the war. Having a female lead would have been considered highly controversial in male dominated Athenian society.

Over two thousand years later in 1873 Lysistrata was banned in America, due to its perceived obscene and immoral content.

J.D. Salinger

January 1st 1919 – January 27th 2010

Notable works: The Catcher in the Rye, Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey

The reclusive J.D. Salinger was an American author, whose seminal work The Catcher in the Rye spent thirty weeks on the New York Bestseller List, and went on to sell over ten million copies worldwide. To this day the book continues to sell around a quarter of a million copies a year.

At the time of its publication in 1951 many were concerned by what they regarded as the immorality and perversion of the book’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield. The text is replete with religious slurs, casual sex and prostitution; subject matters that were highly controversial in the conservative nineteen-fifties. One concerned parent counted two hundred and thirty-seven occurrences of the word ‘goddamn’, fifty-eight ‘bastard’s’, thirty-one ‘Chrissake’s’ and six ‘fuck’s’.

The book was later banned in some countries and in many U.S. schools. In the nineteen-seventies several high school teachers who had assigned The Catcher in the Rye were forced to resign from their posts. A 1979 study of censorship noted that The Catcher in the Rye was the most frequently censored book in America, in addition to being the second most taught (after Of Mice and Men).

Click here to read Part 6.

Controversial Authors (Part 6)

May 23 2014

In recent weeks I have written about various subjects including social media and my recently released satirical black comedy, Necropolis. This week’s blog post sees the latest instalment of the Controversial Authors series.

Goethe

(August 28th 1749 – March 22nd 1832)

Notable works: The Sorrows of Young Werther, Faust, Westlöstlicher Diwan, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship

Johan Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and statesman. His prolific and versatile writing, included works of prose, poetry, scientific studies and literary criticism. The iconic cultural figure was a modern thinker, who was a pioneer in fields as diverse as linguistics, evolution and the theory of optics.

The Sorrows of Young Werther, published in 1774, brought the young writer instant fame, and made him one of the world’s first international literary figures. The book was viewed by some as somewhat controversial due to its rebellious tone and the suicide of its hero, the nature of which brought accusations that it made suicide appear frivolous.

In an era when the private nature of sexuality was stringently enforced, it was the erotic occurrences in a number of Goethe’s works, particularly Faust, the Roman Elegies, and the Venetian Epigrams that were to lead to him being viewed as a controversial literary figure. Parts of the Venetian Epigrams were withheld from publication due what was perceived as their scandalous sexual content.

Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn

(December 11th 1918 – August 3rd 2008)

Notable works: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Cancer Ward, The Gulag Archipelago

Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist and historian, whose accolades included winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. His novella, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, appeared on the Independent newspaper’s poll of the top hundred books, and is widely considered one of the most powerful indictments of the USSR’s gulag system ever written.

After serving in World War II, where he was decorated for his courage, Solzhenitsyn was denounced for criticising Stalin in a letter and sent to the Gulag for eight years. Though the author remained an ardent critic of Soviet totalitarianism and a polarising figure in his home country, he found himself back in favour during the post-Stalin political thaw. In 1973 the first of his three-volume account about life in the gulags, The Gulag Archipelago, was published in the West. This caused such outrage in the Soviet Union that the author was denounced as a traitor, stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the country.

On his return to his homeland after the fall of Communism, the elderly Solzhenitsyn continued to court controversy. His magnum opus, Two Hundred Years Together, resulted in him being labelled by some as an anti-Semite, due to the book’s depiction of the role of the Jews in Soviet era Russia.

Click here to read Part 5

Satire in Literature

Apr 11 2014

Satire Definition: A literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.

Satirical literature generally comments on current issues, particularly those of a political nature, but also economic, religious and symbolic. Although satire is more often than not amusing, it is designed to provoke a serious reaction. Many satires make use of humour, but not all comedies are satires.

My book, Necropolis ~~(Release Date: April 24th)~~ is a humorous work of dark Fiction about a sociopath, who works for the Burials and Cemeteries department in his local council. Necropolis is a black comedy that utilises satirical methods such as humour, exaggeration, understatement, ridicule and mock seriousness to parody the sociopath/psychopath genre, as well as to comment on aspects of contemporary society, such as bureaucracy, political correctness and our attitudes towards death.

Historically significant satirical works include:

Candide by Voltaire – This humorous story ridicules optimism, a central component of Enlightenment philosophy, in addition to criticising organised religion.

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift – So concerned was the publisher with being charged with treason for publishing Gulliver’s Travels that he tried to tone down the book’s political content, resulting in Swift finding a new publisher.

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray – The amusing and verbose Thackeray adroitly presents a panoramic portrait of English society during this period.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain – Written shortly after the Civil War, this iconic work embraces satire to mock aspects of the modern world, particularly slavery.

Animal Farm by George Orwell – This serious satirical work can be viewed as an indictment of Stalinism. So effectively did the book achieve this that it was banned in the Soviet Union.

This is the blurb for Necropolis:

Dyson Devereux works in the Burials and Cemeteries department in his local council. Dyson is intelligent, incisive and informed. He is also a sociopath. Dyson’s contempt for the bureaucracy and banality of his workplace provides ample refuge for his mordant wit. But the prevalence of Essex Cherubs adorning the headstones of Newton New Cemetery is starting to get on his nerves.

When an opportunity presents itself will Dyson seize his chance and find freedom, or is his destiny to be a life of toil in Burials and Cemeteries?

Brutal, bleak and darkly comical, Necropolis is a savage indictment of the politically correct, health and safety-obsessed world in which we live.

‘Not only a funny, twisted, erudite satire on the psychopath genre, this novel also boasts a compelling plot and finely sculpted characters’

‘A black comedy of true distinction’

‘I was at once fascinated and disturbed by the devious Dyson Devereux with his malicious pedantry, wicked schemes and grotesque good taste. A barbed joy’

Sociopaths in Literature

Mar 28 2014

Sociopath – A person with a psychopathic personality whose behaviour is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

Sociopathic personality traits include – superficial charm, glibness, manipulative behaviour, lack of remorse, grandiose sense of self, lack of realistic life planning, shallow emotions, lack of remorse, lack of empathy, incapacity for love, promiscuous sexual habits and/or parasitic behaviours.

My second book, Necropolis ~~(release date April 24th)~~ is a humorous work of dark fiction about a sociopath, who works for the Burials and Cemeteries department in his local council. His name is Dyson. Dyson has many of the characteristics associated with sociopathic personality types.

Sociopaths have long fascinated us. One of the reasons for this is that we wonder what we could accomplish if we were not burdened by that complex obstacle that is a conscience.

There are numerous examples of sociopathic type personalities in literature. These include in chronological order:

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (We, the reader are urged to be sociopathic)

Othello by Shakespeare (Iago)

Macbeth by Shakespeare (Macbeth)

Persuasion by Jane Austen (Mr. Elliot)

Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (Becky Sharp)

East of Eden by John Steinbeck (Cathy)

A number of influential books have had sociopathic protagonists. These include:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (Alex)

The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (Lou) [Click on link to read my review]

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (Patrick Bateman) [Click on link to read my review]

Necropolis is a darkly humorous addition to the sociopath genre.

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Black Humour

Mar 21 2014

My second book, Necropolis ~~(Release date: April 24th)~~ is a humorous work of dark fiction about a sociopath named Dyson, who works for the Burials and Cemeteries department in his local council. This week’s blog post is dedicated to the black humour genre.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines black humour (black comedy) – As writing that juxtaposes morbid or ghastly elements with comical ones that underscore the senselessness or futility of life.

(Note: Click on links to read my review of the given book)

Prior to the 1960’s the term black comedy was not commonly used. Early exponents include Joseph Heller, Nathanael West and Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita), Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut.

It could be argued that the antecedents of the genre include the 5th Century BC Greek comedian Aristophanes and Voltaire’s seminal work, Candide.

Contemporary authors who utilise black humour in their writing include Irvine Welsh, Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho, Less Than Zero & Glamorama), Andrey Kurkov (Death And The Penguin) and Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Haunted, Damned, Doomed & Choke).

The following is a short extract from my ~~forthcoming~~ book, Necropolis.

Why, when I work in Burials and Cemeteries, is everyone always so alive? Take this morning for instance. Council workers mingle incessantly in the passageways, talking animatedly about the usual banalities; Christmas shopping, weekend plans and family updates – anything other than work. The telephone rings remorselessly, the in-tray creaks under its heavy burden and there are requests too. Frank asking me to proof-read a sheltered housing proposal document, the education department with a question about Sage, and Grace, appearing at my desk, crucifix dangling from her neck, requesting that I speak to a Guyanese council leisure facility user on the telephone in French. On such a sunny day I only wish I were alone in Newton Old, perched on a grave, reading a newspaper and drinking a cafe latte extra hot with soy milk from Starbucks.

Bizarre Author Deaths VIII

Mar 07 2014

Yes I am aware that I stated fairly emphatically four weeks ago that there would be no further instalments to the Bizarre Author Deaths series. However it transpired that I had overlooked two worthy inclusions.

Albert Camus

(November 7th 1913 – January 4th 1960)

Notable works: The Rebel, The Stranger & The Plague

The Algerian born Albert Camus was a Nobel Prize winning author, journalist and philosopher, who contributed to the rise of absurdist philosophy. Camus is perhaps best remembered today for his seminal work, The Plague, a philosophical work of fiction about a plague epidemic that explores themes such as destiny and solidarity.

In January 1960 the forty-six-year-old writer was about to embark on a train journey from Provence to Paris, when his publisher and friend, Michel Gallimand, persuaded him to take the train instead. The author never made it to Paris, as Gallimand lost control of the car near Sens, killing Camus instantly.

Fifty-one years later a Milanese newspaper claimed Camus had been killed in an elaborate plot orchestrated by the KGB, due to the author’s relentless criticism of the Soviet Union. Examples of Camus’s hatred for the Soviets included a scathing attack in his work, L’Homme Révolté (The Rebel), as well as an anti-Soviet speech in 1957 on the anniversary of the previous year’s Hungarian Revolution. However most analysts have dispelled this conspiracy theory as being false and fanciful.

Gustav Kobbé

(March 4th 1857 – July 27th 1918)

Notable works: Miriam, The Pianolist & The Complete Opera Book

American music critic and author Gustav Kobbé had a successful career contributing music and drama related articles to a host of influential magazines and periodicals. After starting his career as co-editor of the Musical Review, he went on to become the music critic of the New York Herald. Kobbé was on the verge of international fame with his nearly completed, The Complete Opera Book, when he met his demise.

On July 27th 1918, Kobbé, an avid sailor, was out sailing in the Great South Bay off Bay Shore, New York, when an errant seaplane coming into land, misjudged its descent and struck his boat, killing the opera critic instantly.

Kobbé’s almost finished work, The Complete Opera Book, was published posthumously in the United States in 1919 and the UK in 1922. To this day it remains the opera lover’s bible.

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My second book, Necropolis, ~~is due for release on April 24th. Necropolis~~ is a work of humorous dark fiction about a psychopath, who works for the Burials and Cemeteries department in his local council. Further information to follow …

Click here to read Bizarre Author Deaths VII

Transgressive Fiction II

Feb 21 2014

My second book, Necropolis, is a humorous work of dark fiction about a psychopath, who works for the Burials and Cemeteries department in his local council. Necropolis could be described as Transgressive fiction, and it is for this reason that I have dedicated two blog posts to the subject.

Transgressive literature is a genre that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of those confines in unusual and/or illicit ways.

Protagonists in Transgressive literature are in one form or other rebelling against society. Due to this they may appear to be anti-social, nihilistic or even sociopathic. Transgressive literature deals with potentially controversial subjects such as sex, drugs, crime, violence and paraphilia.

Last week we looked at a number of early and mid 20th Century authors, who wrote books that could be labelled as Transgressive. The authors were James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Vladimir Nabokov and William S. Burroughs. This week we continue in the same vein with:

Charles Bukowski

August 16th 1920 – March 9th 1994

Notable Transgressive Works: Post Office, Factotum, Women, Ham on Rye

Charles Bukowski’s writing could best be described as Dirty realism and/or Transgressive literature. Heavily influenced by his home city of Los Angeles, Bukowski wrote about disillusionment, alcohol consumption, women, a loathing of authority and the dehumanising nature of low-level work, all presented in his unique visceral writing style. His seminal work, Post Office, is a semi-autobiographical account of his years of drudgery at the post office prior to writing the book by the same name. Bukowski is a cult figure, whose writing remains popular to this day, despite the fact that he has been accused by some of being misogynistic.

Click here to read my blog post about Charles Bukowski

Click on the links to read my reviews of Post Office, Factotum & Pulp

Hunter S. Thompson

July 18th 1937 – February 20th 2005

Notable Transgressive Works: Hells Angels, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas, The Rum Diary

Hunter S. Thompson was a controversial author and journalist with a penchant for alcohol, drugs and guns. The Gonzo Journalist’s most famous work, the cult classic, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas, is about a journalist and his attorney consuming a vast array of pharmaceuticals in Las Vegas. First published in nineteen seventy-one against the backdrop of Vietnam, and President Nixon’s declaration of war on drugs, the book can be viewed as a savage indictment of a corrupt, violent, ignorant, polarised and disillusioned nation, hell-bent on a path to self-destruction.

Click here to read my blog post about Hunter S. Thompson

Click here to read my review of Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas

Irvine Welsh

Born: 27 September 1958

Notable Transgressive Works: Trainspotting, The Acid House, Skagboys, Filth, Porno

As the titles of many of the iconic Scottish writer’s books suggest, Irvine Welsh’s controversial themes include, drug abuse, soccer hooliganism, sexual perversion, inner city poverty and brutality. His first book, Trainspotting, about Scottish housing scheme dwelling heroin addicts, disgusted some in the literary world, was later adapted for the cinema and is now regarded as a cult classic. Perhaps Welsh’s most controversial book, Filth, has a tapeworm afflicted, misanthropic, corrupt policeman as its protagonist, whose pastimes include sexual abuse and gorging on junk good, alcohol and cocaine.

Bret Easton Ellis

Born: March 7th 1964

Notable Transgressive Works: Less Than Zero, American Psycho, Glamorama, The Informers

Disillusioned, nihilistic and even sociopathic characters are the staple of cult author Bret Easton Ellis’s books. His most famous work, the infamous American Psycho, caused outrage even before it was published, as many in the literary establishment were disgusted with the sexual violence and what some viewed as the misogynistic nature of its contents. American Psycho went on to become one of the most influential books of the nineties and secured the author his legacy as an important literary figure.

Click here to read my reviews of Less Than Zero, American Psycho, Glamorama & Lunar Park

Chuck Palahniuk

Born: February 21st 1962

Notable Transgressive Works: Fight Club, Haunted, Choke, Snuff

Palahniuk has constantly courted controversy with the content of his books. Fight Club, which remains to this day his most celebrated effort, was viewed as extremely controversial when the film version was released in 1999, only six months after the Columbine school shootings.

Palahniuk’s dark and disturbing fiction has continued to scandalise ever since. His book Haunted is often voted in polls as one of the most disturbing books ever written. In Turkey, the translator of Palahniuk’s book, Snuff, was detained and interrogated by the police over what the authorities regarded as the book’s offensive content.

Click on the links to read my reviews of Choke, Damned, Fight Club & Haunted

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Transgressive Fiction

Feb 14 2014

Transgressive literature is a genre that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of those confines in unusual and/or illicit ways.

Though fiction of this kind has only relatively recently been labelled as Transgressive, its origins lie in the literature of the past. The writing of the Marquis de Sade, Émile Zola and even Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s seminal work, Crime and Punishment, have been described as Transgressive, due to what at the time was perceived as their controversial subject matter.

The following 20th Century authors all wrote books that could be labelled as Transgressive. They are presented in chronological order:

James Joyce

February 2nd 1882 – January 13th 1941

Notable Transgressive Work: Ulysses

James Joyce was a central figure in the modernist avant-garde. His seminal work, Ulysses, embraced a revolutionary stream of consciousness style that influenced many later writers. At the time of its publication, the masturbation scene in the book’s Nausicäa episode was viewed as so scandalous that it was the subject of an obscenity trial in the United States. Ulysses came out victorious and the case is today remembered as a landmark in literary free speech.

Click here to read my blog post about James Joyce

D.H. Lawrence

September 11th 1885 – March 2nd 1930

Notable Transgressive Works: Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Rainbow

D.H. Lawrence’s novel The Rainbow faced an obscenity trial and was banned, all copies being seized and burnt by the authorities. Perhaps his most famous novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, though published was heavily censored, due to what was regarded at the time as its pornographic content. Thirty years after Lawrence’s death in 1960 Penguin attempted to publish the original version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, but were forced to go to trial because of the ‘Obscene Publications Act’ of the previous year.

Click here to read my blog post about D.H. Lawrence

Vladimir Nabokov

April 22nd 1899 – July 2nd 1977

Notable Transgressive Work: Lolita

Lolita, Nabokov’s most famous work, is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century. The book is also amongst the most controversial books of all time due to its sensitive subject matter. To this day Lolita continues to court controversy. In 2013 the producer of a long-running one-man show in Saint Petersburg, in which Leonid Mozgovoy reads out passages from Lolita on-stage, was assaulted after being accused of being a paedophile.

Click here to read my review of Lolita

William S. Burroughs

February 5th 1914 – August 2nd 1997

Notable Transgressive Works: Junkie, Queer, The Soft Machine, Naked Lunch

The writers of The Beat Generation wrote about disillusionment and rebellion. One of its most famous exponents, William S. Burroughs, was a controversial character with a penchant for rent boys and heroin, who rebelled against the social norms of his era by writing about disillusionment, drugs and homosexuality. Arguably his most famous book, the non-linear Naked Lunch was viewed as so scandalous at the time of its publication that it underwent a court case under U.S. obscenity laws. In 2012 a Turkish publisher faced obscenity charges after releasing a Turkish translation of The Soft Machine.

Click here to read my review of Queer

Click here to read Transgressive Fiction Part 2

Bizarre Author Deaths VII

Feb 07 2014

This is likely to be the final instalment of my Bizarre Author Deaths series. I have more or less exhausted this fascinating if morbid subject matter, and there will be no further additions until there is a fresh batch of deaths.

Sherwood Anderson

(September 13th 1876 – March 8th 1941)

Notable works: Winesburg, Ohio & Dark Laughter

The Ohio born Sherwood Anderson is today remembered more for his influence on the following generation of writers than for his own writing efforts. Ignoring the literary devices of his era, Anderson wrote portraits of American life in a precise, simple and unsentimental writing style that others would become more famous for than he.

Though many of his works were published posthumously, Anderson did find fame during his lifetime with his interrelated short story sequence, Winesburg, Ohio, published in 1919, and his bestselling novel, Dark Laughter.

The writer is also remembered for the bizarre nature of his death. In 1941 at the age of sixty-four, Anderson fell ill with abdominal pains on a cruise to South America. He was rushed to hospital in Colón, Panama, where he was diagnosed with peritonitis and died. The autopsy revealed that he had swallowed a toothpick, which had damaged his internal organs, causing the infection. It is widely assumed that this occurred when the author was eating the olive from a martini.

Pietro Aretino

(April 20th 1492 – October 21st 1556)

Notable works: La contigiana & La talenta

This Italian author, playwright, poet and satirist was a major influence on both contemporary art and politics, in addition to being regarded as the inventor of modern literate pornography. An unrepentant satirist, Aretino is perhaps best remembered for his humorous and scathing letters, in which he attacked both the authorities and a host of aristocrats. This practice earned the writer fame, numerous enemies and the nickname, flagello dei principi or scourge of princes.

Ironically the humourist purportedly met his demise due to laughing himself to death. There has been much speculation over how this occurred. One version is that he was at a party, when a guest told Aretino a humorous joke, involving the writer’s own sisters (possibly imaginary ones) and the brothel that they were employed at. Rather than taking offense, Aretino found the story so amusing that he was unable to stop laughing, and falling back in his chair, died of suffocation.

Click here to read Part VI

Category - Authors

Bizarre Author Deaths IX

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Controversial Authors (Part 7)

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Controversial Authors (Part 6)

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Satire in Literature

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Sociopaths in Literature

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Black Humour

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Bizarre Author Deaths VIII

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Transgressive Fiction II

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Transgressive Fiction

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Bizarre Author Deaths VII

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Category - Authors

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