Bill Ward BDSM Art

The Cruelty Connection
a Bizarre Book BB - 122
a novel by Brian Hobart
illustrated by Bill Ward
Eros Publishing, Co.
Wilmington, Delaware
1974

digital replica with optimized pictures

plus

a pictures only version

In the 1970s, Eros Publishing Company launched the Bizarre Books series with diagonal Eros Goldstripe ribbons on covers. The series featured male domination and female domination themes, often with forced transvestism and fetish rituals, usually illustrated by a gifted artist.

The back cover summarizes premises of the novel —

Whitehaven, a seedy antebellum mansion seething with perversion, incest, sadism and nymphomaniacal lust. An old man dying a slow and pitiful death. A black-haired bitch goddess and her youthful hot-blooded protegee. A hulking simpleton with more to offer than most women could deal with. And Andrew Thompson, the prodigal son who returned to this pesthole of depravity, corruption and sadosexual madness.

Such are the grim ingredients of THE CRUELTY CONNECTION! What was his chance of survival? Summoned to Whitehaven by his ailing father, Andrew found himself caught up in a maze of mysterious events.

Someone was trying to murder him, but he was unable to discover who hated him enough to want to see him dead. Was it Estelle, his stepmother, a woman who ruled Whitehaven with a stern and domineering hand? Or was it Lizbeth, the housekeeper's daughter, as fond of her simple-minded brother as she was of games of pain and punishment? Or was it Vernon, the idiot outcast, unable to control his bestial passions? Andrew didn't know, but time was running out and so began a chase for life itself, a chase which led him along the pathways of abuse and bondage, discipline and deranged lust.

THE CRUELTY CONNECTION, for those who relish a thriller with a difference, a Gothic tale of sexual madness and blood-curdling physical abuse.

Soon after he arrives, Lizabeth whips him to his knees and commands, “Lick me. Touch me, Andrew,
but just with your tongue. No fingers, just your long . . . fat . . . thick tongue.” And he obeys.


His sexy stepmother uses Andrew as a destination for her sadistic furies, hurting him with varied whips, bow and arrow, fish hook, and a strap-on. When he asks why she treats him this way, she laughs with contempt.


The two cruel beauties who abuse him always present themselves in glamorous fetish costumes that include corsets, high heels, hosiery, and long gloves. Aware of his desires, they enjoy frustrating and humiliating his manhood.


The prose makes multiple references to literary works, including Whiplash by Gary Fender. We can speculate that Brian Hobart works as pseudonym for Mr. Fenger or that he introduced Mr. Hobart to the publisher.


The action unravels in the American South. Much of the dialog is configured to reflect a casual rural dialect.

The text has been completely re-set for the ebook version. Few changes were made to the carefully-crafted prose. 37,000 words.


The ebook shows the covers and all content of the paperback book, except ads. Tasty fetish features of the 12 dynamic images by the Great Bill Ward are repeated, enlarged, on separate pages (as shown above, on the right). The ebook shows pictures on more than 40 pages, which provides the visual experience of optimized presentation.


Illustrations show females in dominant roles, as punishers, with males as their victims. Women wear bikinis, high-heeled shoes and boots, nylons, garter belts, gloves, and corsets. Costumes expose voluptuous pulchritude.


Illustrations depict some incidents in the story and grand female figures of dominating characters. As permitted by story content, page sequence positions each picture close to related prose, but not every picture is described precisely. Most pictures relate to events in the story. Many events in the prose do not appear in the pictures.


Brightness and contrast of images were adjusted.


All new scans.


A second optimized ebook presents only illustrations.


Discontinuity between the narrative content of prose and pictures suggests inattention to detail. For example, prose describes episodes in which brunette Estelle and blond Lizabeth punish men. But in a few scenes, Mr. Ward has drawn the other bitch. Or, the text says boots but the picture shows shoes.


The kinky beauties in high heels who function as protagonists are typical Bizarre-Books sadists who pursue male humiliation. The ebook offers a convenient mechanism for enjoying this relic of 1970s fetish culture.

Two optimized ebooks, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.