Customer Reviews

The Amorous Exploits of a Young Rakehell (Wordsworth Classic Erotica)

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Young Roger is taken to the French countryside chateaux by his mother, aunt and sister for a Summer at the age of 15 and discovers that there is more to life than playing hide and go seek.

Starting with the fact Roger used to take baths with his sister till he was about 14 and she was 15 while the 27 virginal Aunt took special care to make sure they bathed and dried themselves properly, there was very little in the way of male company to teach our budding libertine that it's good to look but you're not supposed to touch .... Of course trhe encouragemnt he received from all the women around him made his life like a sensual and libidinous heaven on earth ....

This book is an old and established member of erotica and I have seen it published in it's entirety in some other multi erotica novels. Unfortunately that makes these small Wordworth Classic Erotica editions probably the most expensive books on the market..... So if ya got the bucks it is one of the best ...

My title pretty much says it all.

To be honest, I only picked up this book (on the Kindle) for the debauchery, and it delivered.

All of the characters, even the narrator, were very stale and lacking in any personality or emotions other than horny. There is really no plot and the book(?) is really short (I read it in one night).

There are some good things about this little bit of book, though. The people are real. When I say that, I mean, physically, they aren't described as supermodels with gorgeous, flowing locks and silken skin the color of... I don't know... lightly toasted bread. These (mostly) women don't conform to modern, westernized standards of beauty and I really liked that. I enjoyed that the book was pretty much the polar opposite of romance novels when it came to people. People are dirty, and weird, and awkward, and look funny in real life, you know?

The sex isn't perfect and mind-blowing and filled with love and passion, either, and I appreciate the book's candor and realism when it comes to those things.

If you'd like a weird, twisted tale of how this young man has sex with pretty much every woman he knows, and don't want to waste a lot of time reading it, this is your book.

This is a story of a young man who has NEVER experienced physical intimacy with women and is now going to make up for "lost time". The action is rapid. The physical activity is well-described.

However, the women are -- essentially -- so shallow as to be "puppets". Every woman described "gives in" to our hero with only the faintest of protests. Even his sister who has a boy friend / fiance gets "moving right along". The closest that we see to a "build-up" and some level of protest is with the Aunt and even there, the objections are almost just pro-forma. I mean, is it really likely that a fairly religious woman would have NO objections to incest? I am willing to accept that the "lower classes" in the story are really amoral but even here, I would think that there would be SOME discrimination as to who a woman chooses to sleep with. If all the hero has to do is promise a trinket to get some wench to "put out" for him, then what sort of impression are we supposed to form? That these women have NO self-pride? I would have preferred to see some "build-up" where the hero has to overcome the "scruples" of the women over time before finally reaching his goal.

The endng is a bit contrived. After "knocking up" these women (including his sister!), he is able to very conveniently marry everyone off.... All's well that ends well but I am sure that this could have been more developed.

On the other hand, this may have been one of Apollinaire's first efforts. So, read it , enjoy it, but do not expect too much....