a sexy shadow literature for the turn of the 19th century, where people are aware of and embrace their kinks, where women are knowledgeable about sexuality and their bodies, where the lines between straight and gay are not even remarked upon because they are not relevant to the human experience of fucking. on top of being affirming and feminist, The Quintessence of Birch Discipline is also genuinely erotic. I love seduction games and intertwined irritation and horniness, and Birch writes both experiences well. reading this really helped me understand the appeal of voyeurism in a way that decades of exposure to the concept in boring shock media did not. a great BDSM read, for a world that has never been vanilla. long live the libertines.