Classic Erotic Authors

[Grushenka]

I didn't say he was good

Good on you . But I would never recommend to him to anyone requesting suggestions for erotica, not even to 13-year old boys .

 

[cumallday]

Good on you . But I would never recommend to him to anyone requesting suggestions for erotica, not even to 13-year old boys .

I've actually never read any of his books, but the film adaptation of "Lady Chatterley's Lovers" had lots of nudity featuring the actress from the early "Emanuelle" movies. I farmed a lot of splooge to that movie.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Henry Fielding.

The first novelist

He did write some sex, but not so much that you could consider him erotica, eh?

Although the movie adaptation of "Tom Jones" is way hot- 1963, starring Albert Finney

 

[Stella_Omega]

Good on you . But I would never recommend to him to anyone requesting suggestions for erotica, not even to 13-year old boys .

Especially not, they'll get the idea that a woman's orgasm involves bells somehow

 

[joeys-game]

Especially not, they'll get the idea that a woman's orgasm involves bells somehow

you mean it doesn't?

 

[Stella_Omega]

you mean it doesn't?

I've heard it does when you're around!

 

[joeys-game]

I've heard it does when you're around!

..i like the sound of that

 

[Frank Noir]

couldn't get less Dickensian! *nods*
But do you really think he's that good? or anyway, erotic? I never read SM that turned me on less. It has almost nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with political satire. very yucky stuff, in my opinion.

De Sade's rarely "erotic" in the classical sense, no. Although his work varies - "Philosophy in the Bedroom" isn't nearly as sick as the "120 Days"...

I suppose there's something in the detached scene-setting thing of the former that I find curiously sexy... But of course, I'm weird.

Masoch, now, that poor boob- at least his fetishes resonate still; the furs, the shiny leather...

Masoch was a romantic who took selfless submission a bit further than most. "Venus in Furs" reads like a Victorian romance novel on crack.

 

[Stella_Omega]

De Sade's rarely "erotic" in the classical sense, no. Although his work varies - "Philosophy in the Bedroom" isn't nearly as sick as the "120 Days"...

I suppose there's something in the detached scene-setting thing of the former that I find curiously sexy... But of course, I'm weird.

I admit it, I never read "Philosophy"- I was travelling at the time, and when I left Sodom" behind in a London train compartment (Bwa ha ha ha!) I picked up "Moby Dick instead...

Masoch was a romantic who took selfless submission a bit further than most. "Venus in Furs" reads like a Victorian romance novel on crack.

yes, and as I recall there's no... actual...sex in the book. Still, something about that unresolvable tension punches my buttons. Or did. And Masoch's story is so sad and so funny!

If you want a Victorian pastiche of SM, the "Sleeping Beauty" books are non-stop smut, and utterly unbelievable, and embarrassingly hot...

 

[shereads]

How about erotica that Dickens might kept hidden under his mattress? "The Pearl" was a periodical full of dirty stories, lewd drawings, raunchy poetry and other anti-Victorian nastiness, mostly contributed by Anonymous. Here's a complilation:

The Pearl

They were a lot like the modern USA: hated sex and consumed porn by the gallon.

 

[CharleyH]

Are there any classic erotic authors (aside from Nin) in the style of Dickens et al that anybody could recommend?

Indeed a slew of them and more than the limited list offered here .. PM to remind me, as I am a little tired right now.

 

[CharleyH]

How about erotica that Dickens might kept hidden under his mattress?

NOW THAT DIRTY STORY? Would be a welcome read and I would pay a lot of money ... How do you think he'd name his sluts and studs, Sher? LOL

 

[champagne1982]

The first novelist

He did write some sex, but not so much that you could consider him erotica, eh?

Although the movie adaptation of "Tom Jones" is way hot- 1963, starring Albert Finney

He wrote porn under a pen name before his novel Tom Jones. Please don't ask me why I was watching Antiques Roadshow a couple of weeks ago, but I saw a segment where a man had a book eek: with erotic etchings!!) by some artist, but it was written by this alias of Fielding. (Y'know I'll have to research now.)

 

[Tzara]

Are there any classic erotic authors (aside from Nin) in the style of Dickens et al that anybody could recommend?

Style of Dickens? Aside from Nin?

Uh.

I think Mr. D., you mean classic erotic authors. Ms. Nin is not--at least to my mind--in the style of Dickens. If you really mean "style of Dickens," then I would look at classic Victorian pornography: Frank Harris, et al.

But the good news is, hey! There's a lot of "classic" erotic authors. People have mentioned some: Sade, Cleland, Sacher-Masoch. Stella's John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, was one randy son of a bitch. (Thank you, Stel, for mentioning this guy. Interesting, to say the least.)

The late Susan Sontag, American culturista and all-around really smart person wrote an essay back in the 60s titled "The Pornographic Imagination," in which she named five "pornographic" books as belonging to literature. (I am way oversimplifying what she said, but I think that is a generally fair statement.)

The five were: Pierre Louÿs' Trois filles et leur Mère, Georges Bataille's Histoire de l'Oeil and Madame Edwarda, Story of O by Pauline Réage (Anne Declos), and The Image by Jean de Berg (Catherine Robbe-Grillet).

Golly, you might be thinking, they're all French.

And you'd be right. I haven't read them all, but the ones I have read have some common qualities. Kinkiness, often of a S/M quality. "Artiness," which might be expected, since all were products of the French intelligensia. Oh, yeah. They're all French.

Variable reads, in my opinion. I liked Story of O when I read it years and years ago. I liked The Image, which I read recently--though I'm not sure it is very erotic, let alone pornographic. When I tried to read Bataille I kept falling asleep, which is perhaps not the best recommendation to give for something that's 'spose to be naughty lit.

Anywhose, my take.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I remember that list of sontag's, and I remember thinking what lousy taste she had in smut, even back then

Guess why "the Story Of 'O'" made the list?

Because O kills herself at the end. That's what makes it literature and not merely pornography.

I read "Histoire de l'Oeil" in an English translation about ten years ago and I couldn't find the least erotic thing about it, but I'm a simple soul, really...


I haven't read Cleland, so now I have something to dig out

If it's style you want, and you don't need it to be actually written in the period, I have found a pair of writers who have won my heart. They are both extraordinarily talented, classy, precise stylists, who can tell a gripping adventure with a lot of plot, mixed with outrageous overblown utterly romantic fucking- slash, as they say. This is Age Of Sail fanfiction, (including POTC) which might bother some people, but I'm not ashamed Anyway, it's where most of my own efforts are going right now, and I'm like, totally gassed that they've invited me in to play!

PM for the link, I won't bandy it about on the board, if that's all right.

 

[Grushenka]

I remember that list of sontag's, and I remember thinking what lousy taste she had in smut, even back then

Guess why "the Story Of 'O'" made the list?

Because O kills herself at the end. That's what makes it literature and not merely pornography.

Big grin, and agreement. You're a funny gal. "O" turned me on when I was 20-some, reread it a few years ago and yawned.

Tristan : Bataille's a good sleeping pill for me too.

Gru

 

[Stella_Omega]

Big grin, and agreement. You're a funny gal. "O" turned me on when I was 20-some, reread it a few years ago and yawned.

Tristan : Bataille's a good sleeping pill for me too.

Gru

This is why we write...

 

[SesameStreet]

You should look up most anything by D.H. Lawrence.

Absolutly. For early erotica he is the King.