Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
This is my first erotic novel. Also my first Anaïs Nin novel. It took me about 2 months to really digest the things I read about. I enjoyed this book, but there was so much to take in. I honestly knew that I was getting into heavy erotica. I hadn't expected it to be such a beautiful read.
At first, I have to admit that I misunderstood this novel. This novel is a group of short stories. Delta includes things like incest, rape, and pedophilia. I figured out that erotica in this sense isn't supposed to turn you on, as much as to go to places other writing can't possibly explore. To push taboos and expand your mind. I looked past some of the grossest
But this is extremely good stuff.. it is a writing that is pure, and one that is rarely seen in today's market. The book has a perfect weaving of characters and themes that make up the sensual eroticism of the book. While she takes a dark approach to everything, I believe she is trying to shock and disturb you. There are some difficult scenes, ones that will make you gasp and groan at them. They will shock you because they are taboo.
This is literature, not erotica, it has taken some freedoms and explored the darkness of man, but it is quite beautiful, and even more brilliant.
I can't write this review without mentioning something crucial, that an extremely broke Anais Nin wrote porn at a dollar a page for an unknown collector who kept telling her to write less literary crap, more of the in and out. This pissed her off and made her anger, due to the fact she believed he was destroying everything interesting about sex. This is so relevant because it is basically the same debate people are having today about internet porn.
So she keeps punishing him for it. Incredible sensual stories that are marked with taboo and shock the senses. She is basically ruining his mood. I find that to be quite hilarious in itself.
ok la, porn, what more is there to say
except Anais was a visionary for her time, a woman open to her sexuality, and i can appreciate that
now me and my frens just talk about fellatio and anal for fun, thank u anais
except Anais was a visionary for her time, a woman open to her sexuality, and i can appreciate that
now me and my frens just talk about fellatio and anal for fun, thank u anais
I think the preface, made up of excerpts from her diary, is fundamental to understand the book. It is anatomical, as she says, but at the same time, a part of her own thought still transpires. It is perhaps her weakest work, surely the least personal. Yet her prose is languid and enthralling – it definitely made me intrigued to read her other writings.
I have mixed feelings about this one, like a lot of people.
On the one hand, it's Anaïs Nin, the one-woman powerhouse who wrote erotica in the 20th century. Erotica from a female perspective, which no one was doing at the time. On the other, reading it, it didn't always feel like her.
And I generally don't read books for the plot or the characters, I read it for the writing. So if it didn't feel like her, it just took me twice as long to read one story as it might've otherwise.
I realised, while reading this book, that I much prefer Nin's stories when they were written from a female perspective. I feel that she puts parts of herself in her stories, and the more I read, the more I'd find out about her. Her vulnerabilities, her eccentricities, her dreams.
Yes, it was dark, yes it was erotic and sensual in that it engaged all the five senses.
It's hard to rate this book because overall, it's not my favourite of her works, and yet some of the stories were my favourite in this book and otherwise.
It's been a strange and wild ride, Anaïs. Only you could puzzle me the way you do.
And thank you so much to Christina for buddy-reading this with me! It's been on my shelf so long, it's great to tick it off my to-read list.
(Uh, also, I should say, this book is riddled with triggers. So, let's get started. tw: rape, non-consensual sex, beastiality, necrophilia, underaged sex... all the things. It's pretty dark.)
On the one hand, it's Anaïs Nin, the one-woman powerhouse who wrote erotica in the 20th century. Erotica from a female perspective, which no one was doing at the time. On the other, reading it, it didn't always feel like her.
And I generally don't read books for the plot or the characters, I read it for the writing. So if it didn't feel like her, it just took me twice as long to read one story as it might've otherwise.
I realised, while reading this book, that I much prefer Nin's stories when they were written from a female perspective. I feel that she puts parts of herself in her stories, and the more I read, the more I'd find out about her. Her vulnerabilities, her eccentricities, her dreams.
Yes, it was dark, yes it was erotic and sensual in that it engaged all the five senses.
It's hard to rate this book because overall, it's not my favourite of her works, and yet some of the stories were my favourite in this book and otherwise.
It's been a strange and wild ride, Anaïs. Only you could puzzle me the way you do.
And thank you so much to Christina for buddy-reading this with me! It's been on my shelf so long, it's great to tick it off my to-read list.
(Uh, also, I should say, this book is riddled with triggers. So, let's get started. tw: rape, non-consensual sex, beastiality, necrophilia, underaged sex... all the things. It's pretty dark.)
Okay,so I've read this only because I was curious.And,I must say,this book is pure porn as it was intended in the first place.
I guess it was okay for a porn book,but I kind of hated how everything always came down to only sex and I know it's supposed to be like that,it's a porn book,but I wished(like every other girl) that there was more romance in it.So okay,dude saw a girl,he liked the girl,they had sex,but I didn't feel any romance between them.All of the characters relationships are cold and sex-based.And I don't think that's how it works in the real life(maybe a little bit,but I don't thin they're as cold as these).
Either way,I should probably grow up a bit and re-read this book.
I guess it was okay for a porn book,but I kind of hated how everything always came down to only sex and I know it's supposed to be like that,it's a porn book,but I wished(like every other girl) that there was more romance in it.So okay,dude saw a girl,he liked the girl,they had sex,but I didn't feel any romance between them.All of the characters relationships are cold and sex-based.And I don't think that's how it works in the real life(maybe a little bit,but I don't thin they're as cold as these).
Either way,I should probably grow up a bit and re-read this book.
Very dated, and vaguely homophobic in parts. The prose itself was gorgeous, and some parts were genuinely hot, but large parts of this book were surprisingly boring. Middle-of-the-road.
I went into this book with no knowledge of Anais Nin other than that she was a famous author, and turns out her writing is not my cup of tea. I tried to stick it out because I'm a smug bastard and wanted to be able to say I'd read Delta of Venus, but I'll suffice to say that I've read enough Anais Nin to know I do not care for her work. While I wouldn't consider myself prudish in any sense, this book was deeply uncomfortable and unenjoyable for me, even from an purely artistic standpoint.
erotica in the truest sense. it’s sensual and perverse and pushing almost every boundary that could possibly pushed. as a reader it’s terrifying and exhilarating, which made me take long breaks between reads. this is truly something i will never forget, both because of the taboo stories Nin has created, but also because of her beautiful use of language to drag you into these worlds of rejected pleasures.
now i can sing along to "anais nin by numbers" without feeling like a psuedo intellectual.
(now instead of /feeling/ like one, i've /become/ one.)
(now instead of /feeling/ like one, i've /become/ one.)