The Bedside Book of Bastards

by Dorothy M. Johnson, R. T. Turner

This entertaining and informative book is a collection of amusing tales and anecdotes about villains, murderers, cannibals, plotters, and knaves--among them, Nero, Attila the Hun, the Borgias, Blackbeard, the Marquis de Sade, a curiously ravenous fellow named Liver-Eating Johnson, among others. As the authors say in their "History records the names and misdeeds of some perfectly awful people. The list, alas, is all too long. We present some of the worst of them, some famous and some obscure."

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Historical, True Crime, Essays

311 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Dorothy Marie Johnson (December 19, 1905–November 11, 1984) was an American author best known for her Western fiction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...

Reviews

[Andrew Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was refreshing. This book gave a brief account (6-10 pages) on the worst people in world history. Many of the trivial evils in daily life seemed less important when placed against this background. It also has a title that makes random people at the coffee shop give you strange looks.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I can say is that I had to read this book and snippets because some of the actions of these “bastards“ were so revolting that they were hard to read back to back. But nonetheless the whole book was extremely fascinating. I didn’t know most of these villains but of course I’ve heard of many. And the author sure has a sense of humor… Which quite honestly you would kind of have to have of your writing on this subject matter! I appreciated the levity that she used when writing but the fact that she was never deliberately disrespectful to any of the victims or even in some cases to co-conspirators. She was very witty and quite interesting. Considering the subject matter it was an excellent book to read right around Halloween…

[Oda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated (1973?) but very interesting and with a really funny turn of phrase!

[Shiloh Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought I would read a chapter at a time before bed but instead got hooked and read the whole book in one setting. This book will amuse, disgust,provoke and amaze you.

You have nothing to lose read it