Exploring the complexities of female sexuality and desire, a collection of erotic short stories features works by thirty-one contributors, including Kathy Acker, Edith Wharton, Isabelle Allende, Gertrude Stein, and Amy Yamada.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The editors of The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women join forces again, this time turning their selective eyes to more earthy considerations. Here are 31 tales, spanning 103 years and encompassing six continents, arranged in chronological order. With a compilation that includes such diverse authors as Edith Wharton and Kathy Acker, it's a safe bet that each reader will find some of these tales titillating, others curious and still others repulsive. Among the more intriguing offerings is Danish author Siv Holm's "I, a Woman," in which a woman, choosing multiple fantasies over conventional marriage, posits that civilization and humanity are polar opposites. In Svetlana Boym's "Romances of the Era of Stagnation," an emigre returns to Russia, wading through bureaucracy while queuing for information on two former loves. The adulteress in Elizabeth Cook's "Billets Doux," finding the mark of a wife on her lover's person, competitively decides to leave her own. The curious entries tend to focus on fetishes: Czech-born Iva Pekarkova's "Truck Stop" ends with a virtual paean to sperm; Yuan Ch'iung Ch'iung's "A Lover's Ear" explores the erotic trust necessary for cleaning a beloved's ears. Some of the most imaginative pieces come from those writers with an SF and/or fantasy background (L.A. Hall, Joanna Russ). Head and shoulders above the rest is Carol Emshwiller's whimsical "Sex and/or Mr. Morrison," in which a female being (alien?) eats Fig Newtons while sitting on a man's shoes in his closet, eagerly awaiting a peek at his pecker. Caveat emptor: Erotica is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
The poet Adrienne Rich's definition of the erotic, cited in the Introduction to this remarkably diverse anthology, sums up the thread that ties these works together. In female terms, Rich argues, the erotic is ``an energy not only diffuse but. . . omnipresent.'' The stories here, ranging from work by well-known writers (Katherine Mansfield, Colette) to those little known in this country (Siv Holm, Nicole Jouve), and dealing with such matters as obsessive love (Claire Rabe's ``Sicily Enough''), the intersection of fantasy and desire (Angela Carter's ``Flesh and the Mirror''), or the struggle for equality (Simone de Beauvoir's ``Marcelle''), all demonstrate the extent to which the erotic has as much to do with emotional honesty and the imagination as it does with physical intimacy. A nicely balanced collection of provocative versions of desire. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
MEMO FROM MARS,
By John D. Burlinson "whoa_boy" (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Penguin Book of Erotic Stories by Women (Hardcover)
I approached this book with some pretty high expectations - not all of them prurient. Though by no means an aficionado, I've had some familiarity with erotica and even a nodding acquaintance with its more disreputable elder sibling pornography. If anything, I was anticipating a good mixture of styles and approaches. And there is, indeed, some diversity. Hard core is somewhat under-represented; the most "in your face" writing coming from, of all people, Edith Wharton! There are certainly some quirky takes, the most hinky of which has got to be Carol Emshwiller's "Sex and/or Mr. Morrison". I guess, on the whole, I most enjoyed the tales with a little lighter touch: "An Old Fashioned Girl" by Joanna Russ, "Where the Bee Sucks" by Ann Oakley, and L.A. Hall's "Harmonizing Polarities." Perhaps not surprisingly, the most successful story (at least in terms of entertainment and titillation), is the oldest, and the only one told from the perspective of a man, "Violette", by La Marquise de Mannoury d'Ectot. Frankly, however, the "erotic" element is a decidedly minor ingredient in far too many of these tales. Regrettably, a good number have a certain sameness about them: lack of profile, incident or personal style. Several are extracts from longer memoirs, and most of these have a certain impressionistic quality that, for me at least, inhibits much of a sense of involvement. Overall, I would identify a theme common to nearly all these tales: a woman (typically, but not always, young) venturing (usually in a somewhat passive way) into unknown territory as she explores the nature of her sexuality. Perhaps that's the essence of erotic fiction: extending boundaries. But I was expecting something with a bit more bite and tang, and was, with a few exceptions, disappointed. But, then, I am from Mars.
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