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The Big Book of Pain: Torture Punishment Through History by Mark P. Donnelly?
^ I don't believe it was "The Big Book of Pain", as it seems that book was first published in 2009, but thank you for the suggestion.
Are you sure you are thinking of an audio book, and not the old Disney record Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House?
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!
^ I think that must be the audio I was searching for? The woman's voice sounds so familiar. Thanks Bananaquit!
I have that record Bananaquit and just played it. You are correct!
As a kid in the 90's and early 00's, I listened to a lot of books on tape. I recently remembered one odd snippet that I can't seem to put in any sort of context, but I'll try to describe as best as I can:
A slow and calm woman's voice described various methods that ancient societies used to interrogate or torture spies and prisoners. The narration didn't go into too much gory detail, just a general overview of how nasty warfare and espionage was in the past. As the voice described Chinese water torture, the sound of dripping water could be heard in the background. As she finished describing how the torture would slowly drive prisoners insane she paused for a moment, and a male voice started to shout some Foreign Sounding Gibberish. (It was probably meant to sound Chinese? I don't think it was actually Mandarin or Cantonese so much as a guy yelling vaguely Asiatic sounding words.) The narrator said something to to tune of "this one sounds ready to talk," and with that the section on Chinese water torture ended and the narration moved on to another topic.
I have no idea what on Earth this could have come from. The weirdest thing is that I'm almost sure it was produced as children's content? Everything from the lady narrator's tone of voice to the theatrical flair of the whole clip was clearly aimed at kids. If it sounds familiar to anyone please let me know.
Edited by Leporidae