Customer Reviews

The Art of Lovemaking: An Illustrated Tribute

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There's a lot to like in this little volume. A half dozen brief essays comment on the natural and social history of sex. They assert that the human animal is built for physical pleasure like no other creature on earth, and that social and legal acceptance are gradually turning Western society into a culture that better supports our loving nature.

Those essays constitute only a small portion of this book, however. The larger part alternates samples of visual and literary art that celebrate the beauty of sexuality. These works cover every era from classical Greece to the current era. Occasional examples of unfamiliar works by familiar artists (including Picasso, Munch, and Matisse) might surprise some viewers - these works come from parts of the artists' ouvres that Mrs. Grundy would prefer to keep hidden.

All of the artworks appear in black and white. This works well for line drawings and woodcuts originally meant for that kind of display. Paintings originally in color lose a lot, though, and some reproductions aren't the sharpest. And, of course, there's always reason to want more of everything. On the whole, it's not a must-have for any collection, but still easy to enjoy.

-- wiredweird

Great book- This book was given to me by my pastors wife. It's very informative and contains lots of useful information about sex, lovemaking, health, relationships and pornography. The book is well illustrated and I found it very pleasurable to read. The book stays away from using graphic terms or blunt words, yet the author gets her message across. This is the type of book, you can easily hand down to a daughter or loved one who just turned 18.

This book is well written and makes for good reading material. Alot of the sexual books written today are crude and in bad taste. This book is written in a tactful manner. It's well illustrated and gives good informative tips.

One of these days, someone will write a magnificently-defended and immaculately artful defense of sex as being disgusting, repulsive, hateful, depressing, and just plain ugly. Which, after all, is how it probably is to the majority of the people who don't even leave the lights on to see what's happening when they go through with it. Until then, well-intentioned but soft-headed and ultimately ephemeral books like this are only going to be able to show half the picture, no matter how many soft-focus shots or cutesy-pie "poetic" captions they use.