The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author) "THE PRINCE had all his young life known the story of Sleeping Beauty, cursed to sleep for a hundred years, with her parents, the King..." (more)
Key Phrases: pubic lips, little buttocks, little brass bells, Prince Alexi, Lady Juliana, Lord Gregory (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

* "One of the most wonderful, erotic, sensual books ever written" - Sting on INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. *"a literary odyssey into a world of forbidden lust...the same kind of skillful writing that brought respectability into the works of Henry Miller, Anais Nin and D.H. Lawrence" - UPI --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

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. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Plume (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452281423
• ISBN-13: 978-0452281424
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (284 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,283 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #3 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Erotic
  #5 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( R ) > Rice, Anne
  #31 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Erotica > Adult Fiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dive right in..., August 26, 2009

By	Holly Flores - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

...the water's warm! But, seriously, I had heard about this erotic novel for some time and for some reason, never took the time to read it. Big mistake! It was that good for me. Of course, I am totally into these bdsm or s/d books and finding good ones has become increasingly hard. But, still, this sensual erotica tale is just what I was looking for. Anne Rice isn't just for fans of vampire fiction, i.e. "Interview w/the Vampire". This one is for any reader who WANTS sexy literature and wants to enter into another world. A very high recommend to anyone who wants to explore subjects of this nauture, along with Breaking the Girl and Eager to Please: Two Erotic Novels of Submission.

346 of 453 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Preposterous, October 18, 2004

By	S. C. Mitchell (Mesa, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let me make clear at the outset, I am no kinkophobe. I can certainly enjoy a bit of ... let's call it "consensual rope"; I've read some blindfolded-and-tied-to-the-bed scenarios that I enjoyed a lot. But I have a very peculiar kink of my own: I like the fiction I read, even the erotica, to make some kind of sense. I like my readings to hang together, to be based at least on some frail thread of real-world logic.

And these don't and aren't. Rice's "Beauty" trilogy is almost comically implausible. I think it was Shirley Jackson who offered a bit of advice to writers of fiction: the reader, she said, may accept for the purposes of a given story that there exists a Land of Oz, but he will not accept that he can see the Land of Oz from his kitchen window. Similarly, I can accept that there exists such a phenomenon as sexual slavery; but I cannot, for this or any other story, accept the notion that sexual slavery was the linchpin for the entire socioeconomic structure of Medieval Europe.

And yet this is the notion on which the entire series is based. "Beauty" and her "Prince" are unusual only in that he has *taken* her after awakening her from her hundred-year sleep. The rest of the slaves in his mother's palace -- dozens or hundreds of them, princes and princesses all, and every one not merely attractive but exquisitely beautiful -- are "tribute", sent by their royal parents from the surrounding kingdoms. (I valiantly resist the temptation to render that as "kinkdoms".) In this palace, they spend several years learning to be completely obedient and submissive sexual property (being spanked, being publicly displayed, being spanked, crawling around on their hands and knees, being spanked, being forced into various forms of pony-play, being spanked, picking up rosebuds from the floor with their teeth, being spanked, calling grooms and pages and kitchen help "my lord," being spanked); then they return to their own lands. And this situation has obtained long enough that Beauty's own parents, over a century before, served in this way themselves. Apparently every kingdom and principality in Europe participates in this one-sided "tribute" arrangement.

Oh ... did I mention that Rice *really* likes to describe her princes and princesses being spanked?

Also, Rice seems to have included any notion that struck her as "erotic" at the time, without stopping to consider the real-world implications. "Dear god, who knew that Ms. Rice had such a disgustingly vast knowledge of sexual torture", one review asked: well, she DOESN'T. She has no idea what she's writing about: Anne Rice is completely ignorant, irresponsibly so, about her subject matter. What we see in the "Hall of Punishments", to give one specific example, would cripple or kill a human being within a very few hours, although we're told that "punishments" are not to cause injury, only pain.

There were things in this book that bothered poor squeamish little me in other ways. I believe I've made clear that I thought Rice's obsession with spanking -- and spanking, and spanking, and spanking, and spanking -- her characters grew monotonous, excruciatingly so. And I REALLY didn't need the specific information that the fifteen-year-old heroine's "groom" arranges her hair in such a way as to make her look even younger than she is. (Nor is this the most offensive item. In the grotesquely racist third volume, Rice crosses the line into obvious pedophilia, mentioning the specific presence of "little boys" .)

And it goes on, and on, and on. Spanking. Tying up. Spanking. Lovingly detailed descriptions of how humiliated the heroine feels. More spanking. Leather straps. Suspension. Spanking. Pony-play (apparently this fantasy version of Medieval Europe has no draft animals at all, only "princes"). More humiliation. Spanking.

I can only apply to this astoundingly tedious book, and to its sequels, that single worst word that can be applied to any piece of erotica:

They are BORING.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sexy & Entertaining, November 2, 2007

By	saris "~kajira~" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

I spent a good deal of tonight reading through reviews for this book and I am astonished at how many people expected the novel to be anything more than a sexy, erotic tale which was a twisted version of the old Sleeping Beauty story. I was also a bit disappointed in the way that many of the reviews came across as being rather closed-minded to some of the core concepts and those who seemed to expect more than what is reasonable from an erotic story.

Don't walk into the book thinking that you are getting some deep insight into the past or that there's any magic information that will tell you what the medieval socio-economic situation was, that's just ludicrous seeing as how it's fiction. Furthermore, why would you want to have some sort of deeper meaning when reading a fiction erotic novel?

If you enjoy Domination/submission with a BDSM twist that dances along the edges of punishment, torture, humiliation and raw sexuality then you will most likely be pleasantly surprised. This tale takes the basic story of Sleeping Beauty being woken by her prince charming and twists it into a whole new realm of (im)possibility, but it's the kind of situation that many people who lean towards non-vanilla tastes will find quite tantalizing.

Keep in mind that this book will put off anyone who does not see romance and sensuality in a power exchange. If you can't tolerate the idea that a woman, or man, may actually wish to submit to another person because they wish to please the Dominant then the concepts will probably seem too far fetched to keep your attention. Also, if you are put off by homo-erotic concepts then you'd best keep a distance. It's not for everyone, but for those open to the above mentioned "flavors" then the book will probably be entertaining at the very least.

As for the writing itself, I can't say that I had any major complaints. There were a few places where I felt things could have been either shortened or expounded upon, but ultimately I know I could not write a better book myself so I just let my mind follow the story and delight in the images that were conjured in my imagination. Many times there were shivers up and down my spine as I got lost in the imagery.

As a side note, I would write the same general review for the following two books in the series, though I do feel that the first was the best of the three in most regards. However, the third did sum up the whole story quite nicely and had a nice ending.