Infernal Device: Machinery of Torture and execution

by Erik Ruhling

Erik Ruhling assembles an unmatched array of torture tools invented exclusively for the infliction of pain and the ending of life, each carefully researched with an accompanying fullcolor, highly detailed rendering. This beautifully presented book features classics like the Iron Maiden and the Guillotine, as well as more rarified connoisseur's fare such as the Scavenger's Daughter and the Ear Chopper. And if the Tongue Tearer is not to your taste, there's always the Breast Ripper or the Drunkard's Cloak.

Genres: History, Reference, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2007

Reviews

[Marie]

I bought this hoping for a useful reference (for writing!)

It's more of a light, jokey book. Each device receives one illustration, a 3d model made by the author. There's no notes about dimensions or sources used to create the model.

I guess I'm saying I wanted more footnotes, fewer flavor texts.

[sashi]

bought this in 2012 for a history essay in school, actually used it today for an Obscure Facts Club presentation. teen me would be proud.

[Kali]

I'm rating this book based on the price I paid for it on Scribd - which is to say, it was free to read/view on that site with a membership to the site. And I think, at that price point, this was a delightful little foray into torture devices presented in a different way than you normally see them.

We're all used to the sketchy little black and white drawings in old time books, and the photographs of old rusty relics from days gone by, but here the author presents the devices as 3D renders. Shiny and new and in full color, they take on a different sort of shape in the mind.

That said, the information is very basic. You're not going to see any new devices you've never heard of before, nor learn anything new about the ones being illustrated here. And the book itself is only about 90 pages long or so. Still, I enjoyed paging through it.

HOWEVER, I feel that the $15 price tag on Amazon for the Kindle version is completely out of hand. There is no way, by any stretch of the imagination, that this book is worth that much in digital form. Especially considering the text is small on the pages and some readers/apps will render it nearly unreadable. At full size, the images have clear text - but many portable apps, readers, tablets, etc won't be showing the images at full size at all! Even Scribd shrunk the pages enough to make reading a bit uncomfortable. $15 would be fair, I think, for a PRINT copy of the book that you could actually hold in your hands and flip through, with high res images... but as an ebook, $15 is a complete rip-off.

So, in short... 4 stars for a freeish Scribd adventure. 0 stars for the $15 Kindle rip-off.

[Alice]

Damn. The Spanish Inquisition sucked.

[Jeanne Bernatchez]

Jeez que les humains sont créatifs pour se faire mal

[Jesse]

This is a very interesting and slightly disturbing book. Part of the disinfomation series, it is designed to inform as honestly as possible. It also serves as an excellent introduction to the world of torture devices.

It covers the basic histories and uses of well known devices such as the rack, the wheel, thumbscrews, the iron maiden and the guillotine. It also details other less well known devices such as St. Elmo's belt, the heretics fork, the garrote and the interrogation chair (as seen in the cover art). Each article comes with an excellent picture giving you a realistic idea of what the device looked like. In addition to detailing torture devices, it also contains interesting and miscellaneous piece of information such as the origins of the phrase "Sacre blue!"

This does not include extensive detail or a lengthy list of obscure torture devices and practices but rather paints a very accurate and general picture of the devices used in and around Europe (and borrowed in America). I would say that due to the realistic and honest descriptions and graphic nature of this book, it is best read in small doses.

[Dustin Reade]

meh. the information on all of the devices was pretty neat, but I didn't really learn anything I couldn't have found in a hundred other books with actaul pictures of the devices.
I didn't know when I bought this book that the pictures of the torture implements were computer graphics, and not actual pictures of real devices. I don't see why the author couldn't have simply included some of the real pictures he talks about in the book. Alot of the images in this book look like bad CG, because they ARE bad CG. Spikes seem to hover over the devices they are supposed to be nailed into, and the organic materials (leather staps, wooden chairs, etc.) all look pathetically one-dimensional.
I didn't hate this book, but it was a bit of a disappointment.

[Jasmine]

I was going to start the seducer on my way home. But I was in shakespeare and company and I saw this so I bought two one for me and one for my friend sarah and where better to read it than the subway in direct view of much of new york.

My one complaint there are no pictures of people getting tortured. One device I also didn't quite understand. But lots of pictures and it includes the pear of anguish. I am happy.

[Fred]

What a piece of work is man...

[Astri]

I've always had a keen interest in torture and execution devices. While this isn't the best collection, it does bring up lesser known gadgets such as the Pear of Agony.

[Aljan]

I thought this book was full of actual photos, not graphic art, but it was still interesting enough. Definitely a conversation starter.

[Gospodyina]

I'm sure as an exercise in 3D rendering, this was an interesting challenge for the author. Might have made a nice Tumblr or something.

[Lisa]

True art.