Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography, by Roger Shattuck .  An astonishingly broad, yet informative overview of the title subject. The first half considers forbidden knowledge in the abstract and its earliest depictions in literature, from Genesis to Milton and Mary Shelley. The second half of the book deals with "case studies" - genetics from Darwin to gene sequencing and the Marquis De Sade. The section on Sade is a must-read for its history of the academic rehabilitation of Sadean pornography. It asks some excellent questions about the merit of such 'dangerous knowledge' and argues for a more balanced evaluation of Sade. There's an excellent bibliography to complement the scattered footnotes, as well as a couple of appendixes detailing Shattuck's categories of knowledge. Very nicely done indeed.