Hellfire and Cannibals: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Erotic Reading Groups and Their Manuscripts

Abstract

Under the cover of darkness on the 30th of November 1737, twenty-four men from localities as far as Edinburgh and Dundee descended on the small seaside town of Anstruther in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. Under their dark cloaks, or secluded in their carriages, the men would have been well-dressed, convivial, and excited—for it was St. Andrews Day. For some of them, this would have marked their fifth year of attendance at a biannual dinner. For a select three, this would have marked their first attendance at this secret feast.