The Hellfire Club: The Rise and Fall of a Shocking Secret Society

The author of The Way of the Gladiator turns from the arenas of ancient Rome to the center of debauchery and impiety in eighteenth-century England.

“Stranger, refuse, if you can, what we have to offer.” These words, engraved in Latin, welcomed visitors to a rebuilt medieval abbey on the banks of the Thames. Adorned with stained-glass windows featuring the twelve apostles in indecent poses and a pornographic fresco on the ceiling, the abbey was the brainchild of Sir Francis Dashwood, a baron...