Pleasure, " wrote Oscar Wilde, "is the only thing worth having a theory about." What is pleasure? When is it good? When is it bad? What are the best ways to get it? And why does the quest for pleasure sometimes suck us into the quagmire of self-loathing and addiction? This is a book about the lengths people go to for pleasure, and the scientific reasons behind those impulses. Packed with extraordinary insights from science, history and literature, it will inform and amuse in equal measure.