The Sleeping Beauty Novels: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty / Beauty's Release / Beauty's Punishment [BOX SET] (Paperback)

by A. N. Roquelaure (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Anne Rice casts her lurid gaze upon the the traditional tale of "Sleeping Beauty" under the pen name of A.N. Roquelaure. Her re-telling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire. Reminiscent of the charged erotica of her novel Belinda.

Product Description
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty:
Anne Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure. In the traditional folk tale "Sleeping Beauty," the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. Anne Rice's retelling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire.

Beauty's Punishment:
This sequel to The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, the first of Anne Rice's elegantly written volumes of erotica, continues her explicit, teasing exploration of the psychology of human desire. Beauty, having indulged in a secret and forbidden infatuation with the rebellious slave Prince Tristan, is sent away from the Satyricon-like world of the castle. Once again Rice's fabulous tale of pleasure and pain dares to explore the most primal and well-hidden desires of the human heart.

Beauty's Release:
In the final volume of Anne Rice's deliciously tantalizing erotic trilogy, Beauty's adventures on the dark side of sexuality make her the bound captive of an Eastern Sultan and a prisoner in the exotic confines of the harem. In Beauty's Release, Anne Rice makes the forbidden side of passion a doorway into the hidden regions of the psyche and the heart.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Plume (October 31, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452152984
• ISBN-13: 978-0452152984
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (162 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #121,546 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read!, March 17, 2000

By	Sandra Cooper (Fresno, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sleeping Beauty Novels: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty / Beauty's Release / Beauty's Punishment (Paperback)

When I read the first of the Sleeping Beauty books by Anne Rice, I read it in an afternoon. I immediately went out and bought the remaining two books in the trilogy. I had purchased the first one out of curiosity, after paging through it. At first, these books may seem to be just a lot of sex, and S and M type of stuff, but there is more to it than that. Rice explores the feelings of the characters and how they adjust to their situation and surroundings, and how they relate to each other in such an extraordinary setting. I found myself reading as fast as I could to find out what happened to Beauty and her friends. If you are offended by extremely explicit and graphic sex, you would not like these books. But if that doesn't bother you, and you like a sense of fantasy and seductiveness, these are the books for you.

96 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Erotica A La Anne, February 13, 2002

By	W. Kaplan "calyndula" (Wynnewood, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Many years ago, as rumor has it, Anne Rice set out to prove that the world of erotica was not limited to male writers. It was her contention, so the story goes, that a women could contribute to this genre just as well, if not better.

And so, under the pen name A. N. Roquelaure, Anne created a trilogy of intense sado-masochistic erotic novels loosely based on the fairytale "Sleeping Beauty."

To say that these books are overwhelmingly intense is not to state the case. It is possible to read them without having a predeliction toward the acts that are graphically described on almost every page, but be warned that Anne, aka Roquelaure, pulls no punches, and there is absolutely nothing subtle or hinted at in these books.

Like everything Anne wrote before "Memnoch the Devil," the Beauty Chronicles are works of genius, in my opinion. They contain the same richness, the same historical detail, the same darkness as all of her later books to come, including her chronicles of the witches, and the vampires. I am not a regular reader of such novels, so I cannot compare them to others of the genre, but I venture to say that these books have to stand out as unique at the least, mind-blowing at the most.

It is easy to understand the deep eroticism of Rice's witch and vampire books after sampling the Beauty chronicles. For many many years, I imagined Rice as a veritable cauldron of bubbling thoughts, erotic and otherwise, sane and otherwise, struggling to break free. These three books seem to prove the point, which is why I can view them as more than trash.

Anne knew what she was doing, and she did it, as only she can, in a spectacular manner. Again, be warned: If you are going to read the Beauty Chronicles, expect pure, savage erotica, with nothing hidden or explained away. I read these novels to gain more insight into what makes Rice tick. I did not come away unshocked or unscathed, but I certainly read her later works with a new understanding.

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sleeping Beauty Awakens, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sleeping Beauty Novels: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty / Beauty's Release / Beauty's Punishment (Paperback)

Sleeping Beauty awakens to find Prince Charming is taking her to his castle not to make her his wife but take her through an adventure which makes her subject to the whims of the countless inhabitants of his castle. Her adventures continue when she visits the local village in the second novel and is abducted and taken to a Sultan's castle in the third. But in the end her greatest adventure is finding true love.

I read all three of Ann Rice's Sleeping Beauty novel's, and almost every other book she's ever written. I loved her other books because of the sensual, erotic way in which she writes. When I bought the trilogy, I never imagined I would encounter the best erotic fiction I have ever read. I loved the Trilogy. I would highly recommend it to anyone with an open mind, however if you are not, then read at your own risk.