Delta of Venus

I'm going to say right off the bat that this book is definitely not for everyone. Many of the stories feature some very specific kinks that to most will no doubt be gut wrenching. I listed some of the worst in my warnings below as a fair warning for those that haven't read the book. There are good number of stories in this collection that are pretty disturbing and violent, that made me really uncomfortable reading. I could never recommend this book to the average reader looking for your run of the mill pornography.I will however say that I understand why this book is hailed as a literary masterpiece and has become a pioneer of feminist fiction. The stories written for this compilation were all commissioned by a private collector that had instructed Nin to exclude romance and poetry in favor of graphic and sexually explicit stories, which she carried out the latter in great detail. Despite this, Nin was still able to add her personal touch that gave many of the short stories several layers that went beyond sex and explored themes of love, sensuality, and female eroticism as compared to men. She places great distinction between male and female sexuality that is presented elegantly even against the most graphic and sordid scenes.The biggest issue I had with this collection, besides the distressing nature of many of the stories, was the focus on a set of recurring characters over the course of multiple stories. Most of them started out alright at first, but as I got further into the book I started to dislike all of these characters and had to slog through the second half of the book. I found them to be dreadfully boring and almost put the book down entirely.I had to give this one at least a three for the talented writing alone, but I can't say that I really <em>enjoyed</em> the book despite how beautifully it was written. It's memorable, but it isn't exactly one that I'd say that I remember fondly.

Writing is authors art,and she hopes to be published and make it big someday. She does eventually enjoy great success and acclaim as an author and goes on to teach at the college level. . But in the beginning, she earns some quick cash per page for what is supposed to be hard core porn for a wealthy private collector. She suspects, and I think correctly, that the anonymous customer is actually the publisher himself, that he is not simply the middlemen at all, but the actual collector. He is lusting for porn written by a woman, from a woman's point of view, and he wants her to keep it short and to the point and "without the poetry". He stresses over and over he wants porn written by a woman but WITHOUT THE POETRY. So she used various other authors X and R rated writings for inspiration and for subject matter, and eventually compiles enough short stories to fill this book. Are you curious by now? Well I'm not going to do a spoiler here, I have said enough. I recommend you read the book :)

Delta of Venus joyously explores the art of human sexuality. Anais Nin's writing style is at once lyrical and straightforward. While she leaves no doubt in the reader's mind just what is going on, her countless love scenes are imbued with so much warmth and dignity that one could scarcely find them offensive. But most importantly, Anais understood that sex is nothing without emotion, and it's the emotions of her myriad characters that cause the reader to turn happily florid with every page. She understood that while sex is not to be taken lightly, it's certainly not something to be restrained, either. Lastly, of all the locales depicted in this collection of stories, she lends a special affection to Paris. I suspect that of all of Anais' lovers, the City of Light was the dearest to her heart, to wit: "At five I always felt shivers of sensuality, shared with the sensual Paris. As soon as the light faded, it seemed to me that every woman I saw was running to meet her lover, that every man was running to meet his mistress." and "But we were enjoying an orgasm, as couples do in doorways and under bridges at night all over Paris."

Okay so I was listening to a trivia show on the radio and one of the questions was like - what legendary feminist writer is known for having a collection of erotica published posthumously - and then neither of the folks on the air could guess the answer but my interest was piqued.I read up on the author and read like, a single headline. Anais gets mad props on the front page of Google and I was like bet. I’m not super into erotica but this is short stories (which I like) and she’s apparently super cool so why not culture myself. Was totally not prepared for the shookifying turn that the first story took. I have a weak constitution and won’t be able to finish the book right now but it was really well written and if you can handle it then you should.

Rating the book condition itself and not the contents of the book. The book came in good condition and didn’t have any major cosmetic damages.

This is not a book for everyone, there are some very taboo subjects within the pages (paperclips to bind those pages together make it easy to skip over those stories without ruining the rest of the book). Other than those few spots, the book is beautifully written and far wins out over the uncreative drivel found in most book stores and online, touching on the topics in these pages written so long ago.

I understand the era in which this was written; defeatism was high, the separation between rich and poor was extreme, and the church and public was quick to condemn anyone that stepped out of the ethical norm. All of this affects how a story, book, novel, porno, is written. That being said, when even the forward from the author warns that it isn't as good as they wanted it to be, you can't have high expectations. This still fails to meet the low lying bar. The settings are all harsh or bland, regularly the latter, the erotic scenes, edgy or not, are never arousing, and the characters are less real than the digital screen I read this on. Two stars instead of one because the price was so low, I didn't feel I was really stolen from, though it was close.

This is just porn and nasty porn at that, with lots of sadism and masochism and, far worse, doses of paedophilia and incest, without any great deal of literary merit - I think that, if it was written today, it would never see the light of day.In the first parts of her lengthy preface, written in 1940 and 1941, Nin explains that she and other financially challenged authors were knocking out explicit porn at a dollar a page, for a "collector"; in the final part of the preface, written in 1976, she tells us that, upon reviewing it, she came to thinking that she was a brave standard bearer for writing normally male dominated eroticism from a female viewpoint - she wasn't, she was just knocking out porn at a dollar a page.Hail Penguin Modern Classics for allowing a taste of a writer before buying and venturing into a full scale work - this one just leaves a nasty taste.

Forgot how unpleasant this opens, left it too long so just deleted it from library. There’s erotica and then there’s erotica I guess. Pedophilia and incest and that’s just the first few pages. There’s better stuff out there, even allowing for Nins reputation.

Powerful writing that should be compulsory reading for budding erotic fiction writers. Although the setting and mores of the stories are from another era and perhaps feel a little dated, the scenarios are perhaps more imaginative and better described than many of today's authors are able to manage.

Only ordered this as it was mentioned in a book I’d been reading , Absolute trash, ridiculous scenarios , after two short stories it went into the recycle bin

Bought this on a whim. More interesting than I had anticipated - clearly some modernist influence in the writing. And a pretty quick read.