Customer Reviews

Erotica: The Fine Art of Sex

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I am a great fan of Edward Lucie-Smith's books so I was delighted to find, what I thought was, a new book listed. Unfortunately when I received my copy of Erotica: The Fine Art of Sex, it turned out to be a slightly updated version of his 1997 book Ars Erotica. The new version with a very different cover, has an additional 32 pages with twenty new images. The rest of the book is exactly the same as the first with the same illustrations and text.

If you do not own Art Erotica by all means buy this new version. Had I not had the first version I would certainly have given it five stars. If, however, you own the original the new images do not really add that much to the book and I would certainly not have purchased it had I known I was going to be so dissapointed.

Edward Lucie-Smith continues to write books that embrace all aspects of art and this current release is not exception. Originally released in 1997 by Rizzoli having been produced by The Ivy Press in the UK with the title ARS EROTICA: AN AROUSING HISTORY OF EROTIC ART, this book remains intact in the St. Martin's Press release. The quality of the paper and the quality of the art reproductions is of the highest nature.

Lucie-Smith has the gift to inform conversationally as he writes about the history of eroticism in art. His writing includes excerpts from poems, novels, articles, and quotations that are liberally reproduced throughout this extremely visual book. The overview of erotic art is divided into chapters: Sex in the Head, Naked as Adam, Naked as Eve, Loves of the Gods, Down to Earth, Looking On (voyeurism), Boys will be Boys, Women in Love, En plein Air, Solitary Pleasures (onanism), Coming Together (group sex), All Change (gender alterations as well as costumes), and Love Hurts (sadomasochism). He has selected a wide range of artists - painters, sculptors, printmakers, photographers - who truly span the timeline with titillations form Egyptian and Greek imagery to present day practitioners of Eroticism.

Lucie-Smith may concentrate on potentially over-the-top images, but he never loses sight of his mission to inform. His writing is lucid, often humorous and equally often deeply thoughtful when challenging the mores of our time. A fun and very informative book.