Amazing Stories of Female Executions by Geoffrey Abbott


taken from the introduction

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The Law, in its wisdom, did not differentiate between men and
women when it came to passing sentence of death on those found
guilty of capital offences, and so in these pages you will read
how, in some countries, many women were first tortured on
the rack, in the boots, by the bridle, the water torture or the
thumbscrews. They were whipped and exposed to public
humiliation in the pillory; they died by the rope, axe, and sword;
by the electric chair, the gas chamber, the firing squad; by being
pressed beneath heavy weights or boiled to death, by lethal
injection or burned at the stake; by being drowned, or beheaded
by the guillotine or Scottish Maiden. Nor, afterwards, were they
all given a decent burial; some were dissected, others skinned to
provide bizarre souvenirs.
A few, such as Margaret Clitheroe and Alice Lisle, were
martyrs; some, such as Marie Brinvilliers and Mary Ann Cotton,
were serial murderesses; others, like Elizabeth Barton and Mary
MacLauchlan, were mentally unbalanced and, in more civilised
times, would instead have been given the necessary psychiatric
treatment.
Some executions were botched either by the executioners or
by the equipment involved, yet despite the appalling ordeal they
faced, some women were incredibly brave, some resigned to
their fate; a few fought with the executioner, others were
hysterical or in a state of collapse; some indeed were totally
innocent, yet nevertheless were put to death.
But even the Law with all its sombre overtones has its lighter
side, and so the cases are interspersed with quirky quotes.

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It begins with the protagonist, an upper class gentleman named Edward Prendick, finding himself shipwrecked in the ocean. A passing ship takes him aboard, and a doctor named Montgomery revives him. He explains to Prendick that they are bound for an unnamed island where he works, and that the animals aboard the ship are traveling with him. Prendick also meets a grotesque, bestial native named M'ling, who appears to be Montgomery's manservant.

When they arrive on the island, however, both the captain of the ship and Doctor Montgomery refuse to take Prendick with either of them, stranding him between the ship and the island. The crew pushes him back into the lifeboat from which they rescued him. When they see that the ship truly intends to abandon him, the islanders take pity and end up coming back for him. Montgomery introduces him to Doctor Moreau, a cold and precise man who conducts research on the island. After unloading the animals from the boat, they decide to house Prendick in an outer room of the enclosure in which they live. Prendick is exceedingly curious about what exactly Moreau researches on the island, especially after he locks the inner part of the enclosure without explaining why. Prendick suddenly remembers that he has heard of Moreau, and that he had been an eminent physiologist in London before a journalist exposed his gruesome experiments in vivisection.

The next day, Moreau begins working on a puma, and its anguished cries drive Prendick out into the jungle. As he wanders, he comes upon a group of people who seem human but have an unmistakable resemblance to hogs. As he walks back to the enclosure, he suddenly realizes he is being followed. He panics and flees, and in a desperate attempt of defense he manages to stun his attacker, a monstrous hybrid of animal and man. When he returns to the enclosure and questions Montgomery, Montgomery refuses to be open with him. After failing to get an explanation, Prendick finally gives in and takes a sleeping draught.

Prendick awakes the next morning with the previous night's activities fresh in his mind. Seeing that the inner door has been left unlocked, he walks in to find a humanoid form lying in bandages on the table before he is ejected by a shocked and angry Moreau. He believes that Moreau has been vivisecting humans and that he is the next test subject. He flees into the jungle, where he meets an Ape Man who takes him to a colony of similarly half-human/half-animal creatures. The leader, a large gray thing named the Sayer of the Law, has him recite a strange litany called the Law that involves prohibitions against bestial behavior and praise for Moreau. Suddenly, Moreau bursts into the colony, and Prendick escapes out the back into the jungle. He makes for the ocean, where he plans to drown himself rather than allow Moreau to experiment on him. Moreau and Montgomery confront him, however, and Moreau explains that the creatures, the Beast Folk, are animals he has vivisected to resemble humans. Prendick goes back to the enclosure, where Moreau explains to him that he has been on the island for eleven years now, striving to make a complete transformation from animal to human. Apparently, his only reason for the pain he inflicts is scientific curiosity. Prendick accepts the explanation as it is and begins life on the island.

One day, as he and Montgomery are walking around the island, they come across a half-eaten rabbit. Eating flesh and tasting blood is one of the strongest prohibitions in the Law, so Montgomery and Moreau become very worried. Moreau calls an assembly of the Beast Men. He identifies the Leopard Man (the same one that chased Prendick the first time he wandered into the jungle) as the transgressor. The Leopard Man flees, but when the group corners him in some undergrowth, Prendick takes pity and shoots him, sparing him a return to the operating table in Moreau's "House of Pain". Moreau is furious but can do nothing about the situation.

As time passes, Prendick begins to deaden himself to the grotesqueness of the Beast Folk. One day, however, he is shaken out of this stagnation when the puma rips free of its restraints and escapes from the lab. Moreau pursues it, but the two end up killing each other. Montgomery falls apart, and having gotten himself quite drunk, decides to share his alcohol with the Beast Men. Prendick tries to stop him, but Montgomery threatens violence and leaves the enclosure alone with bottle in hand. Later in the night, Prendick hears a commotion outside; he rushes out, and sees that Montgomery appears to have been involved in some scuffle with the Beast Folk. He dies in front of Prendick, who is now the last remaining human on the island. After the death, Prendick notices the sky behind him grow brighter and sees that the enclosure is on fire. He realizes that he had knocked over a lamp while rushing out to find Montgomery and that he has no chance of saving any of the provisions located inside the enclosure. He suddenly decides to flee from the island but notices that Montgomery has burnt the only boats, in order to prevent their return to mankind.

He does not attempt to claim Moreau's vacant throne on the island, but he instead settles for living with the Beast Folk as he attempts to build and provision a raft with which he intends to leave the island. He lives on the island for 10 months after the deaths of Moreau and Montgomery. As the time goes by, the Beast Folk increasingly revert to their original animalistic instincts, beginning to hunt the island's rabbits, returning to walking on all fours and leaving their shared living areas for the wild. They also gradually cease to follow Prendick's instructions and eventually kill his faithful companion, a Beast-Man created from a dog. Luckily for him, eventually a ship inhabited by two corpses drifts onto the beach. Prendick dumps the bodies, gets supplies, and leaves the next morning.

He is picked up by a ship only three days later, but when he tells his story the crew thinks he is mad. To prevent himself from being declared insane, he pretends to have no memory of the year he spent between the first shipwreck and his final rescue. When he gets back to England, however, he finds that he is rigidly uncomfortable around other humans, because he has an irrational suspicion that they are all Beast Folk in danger of sudden and violent reversion to animalism. He contents himself with solitude and the study of chemistry and astronomy, finding peace above in the heavenly bodies.

i've been lazy and on the last 80 pages of dance, dance, dance for months now

a couple months ago i did read empire by antonio negri and michael hardt though, it owns

"There is an ancient legend that might serve to illuminate the future life of communist militancy: that of Saint Francis of Assisi. Consider his work. To denounce the poverty of the multitude he adopted that common condition and discovered there the ontological power of a new society. The communist militant does the same, identifying in the common condition of the multitude its enormous wealth. Francis in opposition to nascent capitalism refused every instrumental discipline, and in opposition to the mortification of the flesh (in poverty and in the constituted order) he posed a joyous life, including all of being and nature, the animals, sister moon, brother sun, the birds of the field, the poor and exploited humans, together against the will of power and corruption. Once again in postmodernity we find ourselves in Francis's situation, posing against the misery of power the joy of being. This is a revolution that no power will control-because biopower and communism, cooperation and revolution remain together, in love, simplicity, and also innocence. This is the irrepressible lightness and joy of being communist."
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Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.

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quote:

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In Texas on 3 February 1998, hundreds of spectators and scores of
reporters from all over the world gathering outside a prison there, in which
Karla Fay Tucker was executed for murder. The excitement was intense,
snack bars did a roaring trade, pictures of the condemned person were
displayed, prayers were said, hymns sung, and protesters raised their voices
in condemnation of the verdict. Those who were unable to attend listened
to the non-stop radio commentaries or watched the pictures unfolding live
on their television screens. It seems that human nature doesn’t change all
that much.

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Wages of Whiteness (an in-depth look at the struggle for whiteness that most Eastern Europeans like slavs, Poles, Italians had to do to become distinctively white).

The average american male.... HILARIOUS ***MUST READ****

just read it for a second time , finished yesterday. This book owns soooooo hard.... readu it please. i cant read it for more then 3 minutes without LOL'n....

Also "i hope they serve beer in hell" Very good as well

YEAHHHHH

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Originally posted by NachoCat
The average american male.... HILARIOUS ***MUST READ****

just read it for a second time , finished yesterday. This book owns soooooo hard.... readu it please. i cant read it for more then 3 minutes without LOL'n....

Also "i hope they serve beer in hell" Very good as well

YEAHHHHH

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Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.

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House of Morgan by Chernow, a look at the rise of JPMorgan and how it parallels the rise of American finance in general

Also finishing rereading Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Robbins and want to pick up the new Justice Brandeis biography when I'm done.

Last edited by Sappy on Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:10 pm; edited 1 time in total

just got done reading this a few days ago...good book.

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Mindhunter enters the minds of some of the country's most notorious serial killers to tell the real-life story of the Investigative Support Unit (ISU) -- the FBI's special force that has assisted state and local police in cracking some of the country's most celebrated serial murder and rape cases. The unit specializes in understanding the chemistry and mechanical workings of the brain's of these serial criminals, and did its homework by interviewing such murderers as Charles Manson and David Berkowitz (the Son of Sam). John Douglas, who worked for the FBI for 25 years, is an authority on the unit, and his book combines the best of nonfiction with that of a murder mystery.

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bill simmons' book of basketball

The Law of nines by Terry Goodkind
_________________
I 40-0'd your mother.

Dune

"I Am the New Black" by Tracy Morgan

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Originally posted by Location: Texas
"I Am the New Black" by Tracy Morgan

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almost done with the serial killers club by jeff povey.
excellent horror/comedy novel, reminds me a little bit of the movie shaun of the dead.
_________________
"i don't have pet peeves, i have major psychotic fucking hatreds"

zx

Last edited by cracky on Fri Feb 12, 2010 5:18 pm; edited 1 time in total

I've been reading 3 fabolous books during the christmas time, MUST READ!

Based on a true story

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Originally posted by

This is an account of how the author answered an advertisement for a "wife" to spend a year on a tropical island with a writer, and subsequently found herself alone on a remote desert island with a "husband" she hardly knew.

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quote:

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Originally posted by

A lustrous, beautifully written reimagining of the Brontë family — and of Emily Brontë's passionate engagement with life.

Enigmatic, intelligent, and fiercely independent, Emily Brontë refuses to bow to the conventions of her day: she is distrustful of marriage, prefers freedom above all else, and walks alone at night on the moors above the isolated rural village of Haworth, Yorkshire.

But Emily's life, along with the rest of the Brontë family, is turned upside down with the arrival of an idealistic clergyman named William Weightman. Weightman champions poor mill workers' rights, mingles with radical labor agitators, and captivates Haworth — and the Brontës especially — with his energy and charm.

An improbable friendship between Weightman and Emily develops into a fiery but unconsummated love affair. And when tragedy strikes, the relationship continues, like the love story at the heart of Emily's beloved novel Wuthering Heights, beyond the grave.

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lisa don't post in this thread again
_________________
"i don't have pet peeves, i have major psychotic fucking hatreds"

_________________
"I tend to thougoughly enjoy my encounters significantly more with 120+ types, as I find them more stimulating. 100-110 people are okay too operating at full capacity." - Paper_Boy

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Originally posted by Jon;
lisa don't post in this thread again

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jag forstar litte svenska
_________________
"i don't have pet peeves, i have major psychotic fucking hatreds"

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Originally posted by Lisa
It's recommended by Ophah, which means it's a MUST read.

Full sypnosis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina

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Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.

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Originally posted by Jon;
jag forstar litte svenska

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Originally posted by hassan-i-sabbah

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Originally posted by Lisa
It's recommended by Ophah, which means it's a MUST read.

Full sypnosis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina

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lolll this is wrong on so many levels

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Originally posted by Jon;
jag forstar litte svenska

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seriously though if you need oprah to tell you that anna karenina is a good book and tolstoy is a good writer i just like...i don't even know what
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Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.

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Nah that was just to make you guys read it if you haven't already read it.
_________________
The air was smoked out like a cheap cigar.

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Originally posted by Lisa
Nah that was just to make you guys read it if you haven't already read it.

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Originally posted by Lisa

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Originally posted by Jon;
jag forstar litte svenska

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vad bra, fortsätt studera det, föreslår att du läser lite böcker och tittar mycket på svenska filmer med undertext som typ twilight??

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Originally posted by hassan-i-sabbah

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Originally posted by Lisa
It's recommended by Ophah, which means it's a MUST read.

Full sypnosis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina

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lolll this is wrong on so many levels

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Originally posted by ~Dakine..HeX
bill simmons' book of basketball

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