Nothing: A Very Short Introduction

Nothing: A Very Short Introduction by Frank Close

Frank Close is an Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford who has been awarded the Institute of Physics' 1996 Kelvin Medal and Prize for "for outstanding contributions to the public understanding of physics". Nothing is just one of many books he has written that explains complex topics in particle physics to the average layperson. So he is highly qualified to write an introduction to Nothing.
Nothing doesn't seem much to write about, so one might not expect a short introduction to Nothing to be 145 pages and requiring a decent knowledge of modern particle physics. Fortunately Dr. Close has been able to do this without one formula or mathematical expression.
He takes the reader on a history of the concept of Nothingness, starting with the idea of a Vacuum and then starts looking deeper and deeper into particle physics, finally ending up with the statement that Everything comes from Nothing.
I still don't understand what Nothing is but I have a deeper appreciation and realize that there is Much Ado About Nothing, as Shakespeare once said.

The Memoirs of Dolly Morton

The Memoirs of Dolly Morton by Jean de Villiot (pseudonym)

The Memoirs of Dolly Morton is English language flagellation erotica originally published in Paris in 1899. It is subtitled The Story of a Woman's Part in the Struggle to Free the Slaves, an Account of the Whippings, and Violences that Preceded the Civil War in America, with Curious Anthropological Observations on the Radical Diversities in the Conformation of the Female Bottom and the Way Different Women Endure Chastisement. It's author was probably Hugues Rebell, a French author of flagellation literature who wrote erotica under the pseudonym "Jean de Villiot". The book contains a Preface by the publisher Charles Carrington that provides details on the Underground Railroad and the flight of escaped slaves from their captivity.
In the book which is set in the late 1850s Dolly Morton accompanies a Quakeress Abolitionist who rents a house in Virginia to establish a station on the Underground Railroad, the clandestine route that runaway slaves of the American South used to escape to the Free States of the North or Canada. Little do they know that their landlord is Mr. Randolph, the owner of the largest plantation in the area. When Randolph meets Dolly out walking, he is taken with her beauty and attempts to have his way with her. She fights off his advances, so he tells her he knows of their illegal efforts. He offers to look the other way regarding the Quakeress's work if Dolly will be his live-in mistress, and again she says no. He leaves saying that she will regret refusing his offer.
Several weeks later a mob of 15 men come to close the Underground Railroad Station and to punish the two women. They are stripped, raped, and whipped, then left to ride a split rail with the threat that worse will happen if they don't leave the state of Virginia. After the mob leaves Randolph shows up offering to free Dolly of the painful rail if she will become his mistress and submit to his advances.
In excruciating pain, Dolly submits to his demands and he takes her home to his plantation house which is staffed by lovely mulatto, quadroon and octoroon female slaves, all of whom have been used sexually by Randolph. Randolph maintains order by whipping or paddling his slaves if they do not perform as required. While Dolly is treated with fine dresses and a lovely bedroom, she is not given any opportunity to escape her confinement and Randoph's frequent "pokings".
This book is an example of late 19th century erotica that portrays a licentious plantation owner and the sexual freedom he might take with the enslaved women under his control. Being told with the voice of a white woman witness, it does get to express some of the injustice of slavery while still satisfying the interests ot readers of flagellation/spanking literature.