Consuming Passions: A History of English Food And Appetite (Penguin Classic History S.) - Softcover

Pullar, Philippa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141390662 ISBN 13: 9780141390666

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2001

Synopsis

What have the ancient Romans with their orgies, the primitive Christians with their fasts and their guilt to do with the English traditions of food? Why are oysters and celery believed to be aphrodisiacs? How is eating connected to sexual desire? Inthis history of English appetite, Philippa Pullar answers these questions, always wittily, sometimes hilariously. She draws such apparently unconnected subjects as phallic worship, cannibalism, agriculture, wet-nursing, prostitution, witchcraft, magic and aphrodisiacs into a fascinating synthesis. Starting with the Romans, she charts the development of the art of cooking, drawing surprising parallels between eating habits, religion and sexual mores.

About this title

Review:

"* 'A book so readable and so engagingly full of unstuffy knowledge, wisdom and just plain fun' NEW STATESMAN * 'The author has found time for astonishingly wide reading. It is impossible to give more than a tiny sample of the fascinations to be found in this book - instructive, funny and macabre.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT"

About the Author:

Philippa Pullar was born in London in 1935. She received a Cordon Bleu Certificate of Cookery and was a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. She also wrote an acclaimed biography of FRANK HARRIS to be published in Penguin Classic Biography in August 2001.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0141390662
• ISBN 13: 9780141390666
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320