The Naughty Bits: The Steamiest and Most Scandalous Sex Scenes from the World's Great Books [Paperback]

Jack Murnighan (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 2001

The literary education you've always lusted for.

Fresh from the virtual pages of Nerve.com comes this collection of "naughty bits," an irreverent look into the steamy, scandalous side of literature past and present. With bite-sized salacious excerpts from the classics -- new and old -- each with a fresh, insightful introduction, The Naughty Bits presents the world's great books as you never thought you'd see them.

Includes naughty bits by:

Dante
D. H. Lawrence
Philip Roth
Goethe
Toni Morrison
Julio Cortázar
John Cheever
William Shakespeare
Thaddeus Rutkowski
John Donne
Thomas Malory
Günter Grass
Herman Melville
John Barth
Ernest Hemingway
Erica Jong
Thomas Carew
M. F. K. Fisher
William Kennedy
Jeanette Winterson
Paul West
Harry Mathews
Catullus
Clarice Lispector
Giovanni Boccaccio
James Baldwin
Nicholson Baker
Tom Wolfe
John Wilmot
Kevin Canty
Plato
James Joyce
Lydia Davis
François Rabelais
Kenneth Starr
Henry Miller
John Updike
Geoffrey Chaucer
Marquis de Sade
Sir Philip Sidney
Holly Hughes
Martin Amis
Andrew Marvell
The Pearl Poet
Thomas Pynchon
Sappho
William Gibson
Mark Leyner
Margery Kempe
Jean Genet
Edmund Spenser
John Cleland
Kurt Vonnegut
Anaïs Nin
Petronius
Keith Banner
Umberto Eco
J. G. Ballard
Mario Vargas Llosa
Ovid
Jean de Meun
Catherine Breillat
George Eliot
Kenzaburo Oe
Cormac McCarthy
Larry Flynt
Rupert Brooke
The Old Testament

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jack Murnighan, former editor-in-chief of sex-friendly Web site Nerve.com, gathers short erotic excerpts from works by more than 70 authors from the Marquis de Sade to Thomas Pynchon, Sappho to Jeanette Winterson, Ovid to J.G. Ballard. Culled from his popular weekly online column, The Naughty Bits (also Brit slang for genitalia) is billed as "the book that literary perverts have been waiting for." One of several recent Nerve.com tie-ins, it's a great idea and one needn't be especially literary or perverted to enjoy it. Murnighan's thoroughly good-natured, erudite introductions add to the bawdy fun.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Most people don't read a good book or have great sex nearly as often as they should; then again, most people don't know that the Great Works e.g., Joyce's Ulysses, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and Plato's The Symposium are as rife with "naughty bits" as a frat house is with hormones. The general public has Murnighan, former editor-in-chief of the popular sex web-zine Nerve.com, to thank for gleaning the gamut of world literature for amorous interludes, from the painfully romantic to the puke-inducing. Murnighan first excerpted these findings in the web site's "Naughty Bits" column, of which the cr me de la cr me is collected here. Besides giants like Shakespeare, D.H. Lawrence, Dante, and Herman Melville, lesser-knowns, such as 1960s French teen novelist Catherine Breillant, medieval English autobiographer Margery Kempe, and lesbian playwright Holly Hughes, make appearances alongside contemporary cads Larry Flynt and Kenneth Starr. Almost more savory than the wildly varied extracts are Murnighan's learned prefaces. The fan of erotica, the student of literature, and the aspiring sex worker will all relate to his language, a strangely seamless mix of lit crit and potty talk. Highly recommended for erotica collections and larger world literature collections. Heather McCormack, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1st edition (May 29, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609806602
• ISBN-13: 978-0609806609
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #648,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much than I expected - fantastic!, January 20, 2002

By 

"fungshui" (Hong Kong Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Naughty Bits: The Steamiest and Most Scandalous Sex Scenes from the World's Great Books (Paperback)

I bought the book par hasard yesterday while waiting for my husband in a bookshop in Taipei. I justified it with a line Mr Murnighan quoted to justify his book: "let me be read ... by the gentle girl who longs to please her new-made spouse." My husband was embarassed that I would soon be reading a book with the title "The Naughty Bits" and he tried to the denigrate the possibility that it could be a good book - I mean, a book that chopped up classics and took important scenes out of their context purely for sexual titillation! I was swayed by his argument so I read on to make my mind up. The excerpt that I randomly choose to read by Philip Roth confirmed I shouldn't put this gem of a book down. It wasn't that it was on how to aplease my impatient and incredulous husband, (in fact it was about a guy mastabating into a baseball mitt somewhere in America), but the piece was so hilarious, the writing so exhilarating and it delighted me so, that shedding all the foreboding in my heart, I ran with it to the cash register.

Yes, this book is not a collection of Jackie Collins and Anais Nin clippings gathered into a convenient format that saves the reader from flipping through the boring bits - this book is so much more! The short introductions by Mr Murnighan are so insightful and funny, and from them I have gleaned much about writers that I always wanted to read or know more about simply because their names are so big in the world of literature. Too tired to read last night, I just scanned his intros to read what he thinks of one writer from another. Also they (the intros) leave me giggling as they are an honest look at things people don't normally talk about or think about, but do. The excerpts need more time to digest; although some left me with a "huh?", others have me wanting to read the full book. Thanks for providing me with a new list of books for the next few months! Oh! And my husband is won over too, as I kept leaning over and reading to him funny lines and "look the author likes Charles Bukowski too!"

Mr Murnighan is obviously very learned, and it's refreshing that he seems to be close to my generation (Vanilla Ice posters ha ha) and includes medieval works as well as more contemporary items such as the Kenneth Starr report!

Anyway, I haven't finished the book yet, but I wished Mr Murnighan wrote more than erotica, as he seems such a fine writer that it would be a shame to limit himself, and also might he write more than just editing and collecting?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scandalous, August 17, 2008

By 

Lacy Conner "Wildflowers Photography" (Osawatomie, Ks USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Naughty Bits: The Steamiest and Most Scandalous Sex Scenes from the World's Great Books (Paperback)

Perfect beach read. In this great book no more rummaging through pages of your favorite books just to get to the juicy scenes, they have all been compiled into one delicous book that is sure to please all of its readers.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular, November 10, 2005

By 

Mia (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Naughty Bits: The Steamiest and Most Scandalous Sex Scenes from the World's Great Books (Paperback)

I couldn't put this book down. Mr. Murningham has captured enthralling scenes from some of the best classics out there. I was excited, aroused, entertained and educated - all at once.
Read it, then flip back to page one and read it again.