Download or read book Painful pleasures written by Christopher Vaccaro and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely volume ventures into the subject of sadomasochism in varied aspects of medieval life. Saint’s Lives and mystical treatises provide evidence of failed sadism and empowering masochism. Literary culture in the form of epics and courtly tales preserve stories of eroticised power. These exciting chapters join together to form a picture of medieval culture that is kinky in its practice and deeply psychological at its core.