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THE 10 BEST EROTIC NOVELS TO READ

NOW
BY JESSICA GROSE FEB 7, 2014
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Unlike a lot of my sneering literary colleagues, I was excited to read Fifty

Shades of Grey. A naughty novel that American women are going wild for?
Sign me up! Imagine my tremendous disappointment, then, to discover
that Fifty Shades of Grey didn't even have all that much transgressive sex
in it, certainly not by erotica standards. If memory serves, it took about 80
or so pages of the least erotic blather around to even get to the first sex
scene. Hadn't any of the women reading Fifty Shades gone through an
exploratory Anas Nin phase in college? Anas would have laughed her
fabulous butt off at 50 Shades.
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In honor of Valentine's Day, here are ten erotic classes to wet your
whistle. The list is excessively Frenchbecause, obviouslyso we'd love
to hear your more diverse suggestions in the comments.
Related: 15 Books That Changed Women Forever


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Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille (1928)
A pair of teenagers explores their sexual perversions in a series of
vignettes. Their exploration includes orgies, vague necrophilia, sticking
soft-boiled eggs into various orifices, and exhibitionism. Not for the faint
of heart or vagina.


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Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934)
First published in France, then later banned in the U.S. and finally
declared not-obscene by the Supreme Court in the early '60s, Miller's
erotic classic is a semi-autobiographical account of the author's sexual
exploits in bohemian Paris. The narrator rendezvous with lots of
prostitutes and other nameless women. The working title of Tropic of
Cancer was "Crazy Cock," which tells you pretty much everything you
need to know.


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The Story of O by Pauline Rage aka Anne Desclos (1954)

If you want to read about female submission, Rage's O makes Fifty

Shades' Ana look like a Disney princess (more on them later). The
masochistic acts O submits to are varied. Most notably she submits to an
anus widening, so that her lover might penetrate her more easily.

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Delta of Venus by Anas Nin (1977)
This book was published after Nin's death. It was mostly written in the
1940s, and its fantastical international tales of incestuous Hungarian
adventurers, exotic Brazilian dancers, and dank Peruvian opium dens are
still luscious and magical, and yes, transgressive, 70 years later.


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Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill (1989)
I wouldn't exactly classify Bad Behavior as erotica. It's more literature
with some extremely-well-written-yet-disturbing sexy bits. The short
stories here deal with sexual humiliation, masochism, and the girlfriend
experiencethough they're emotionally resonant first, erotic second.


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Baise-Moi by Virginie Despentes (1999)
Despentes, who has worked, variously, giving happy endings in massage
joints, in a record store, and as a freelance porn critic, wrote Baise-Moi,
which she later made into a film. It's been described as a porny Thelma &
Louise. Two young female friends go on a sex and murder spree. If you
like your erotica ragey, this is the book for you.


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The Sexual Life of Catherine M. by Catherine Millet (2002)
This is the female, totally autobiographical version of Tropic of Cancer.
Millet describes her swinging Parisian sex life in incredibly graphic
detail. Never have I read so many descriptions of the human penis in all
its turgid glory! As Stephanie Zacharek put it in Salon: "To put it any
other way would be coy: Millet likes to fuck."


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Lost Girls, Vols. 1-3 by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie (2006)

If you've ever fantasized about fairy tale characters getting it on in every

possible demented permutation, this series of graphic novels will delight
you. It's about the sexual awakenings of Alice (of Wonderland); Wendy (of
Neverland), and Dorothy (of Oz). I won't reveal too much except to say
that beastiality is involved.

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Wetlands by Charlotte Roche (2008)
Slate's Troy Patterson called Wetlands "the two girls, one cup" of novels.
Roche, a German television presenter, tells the story of Helen Memel, an
18-year-old obsessed with all of her body's functions, both sexual and
otherwise. If you're turned off by extensive discussion of hemorrhoids,
best to skip this one.


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House of Holes by Nicholson Baker (2011)
Baker's novel is a rollicking, surrealist story about a fantasyland called
the House of Holes, where all your erotic dreams can come true. People
get to the House of Holes through golf holes and dryers at the
Laundromat. Once there, they encounter pleasure-giving adult
amusement park rides called "masturboats" and "groanrooms." Who says
erotica can't be funny, too?
And Of Course...50 Shades of Grey

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