Scan barcode
andrewsutton's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
candylovegirl's review against another edition
4.0
Beautifully crafted. Stunning writing. Erotica can be beautiful and not trashy. The fact that this was written in an era where women were not often seen as sexually beings makes the book even more fascinating. Superb.
nprtotebag's review
4.0
Some of the most horrifying, taboo subjects written unbearably well. Anais was really like, oh you want erotica? You got it sickos! Iconic. Gorgeous. I love taboo!
cophoff's review against another edition
5.0
When I added this book to my list of must-reads I imagined it would be something like D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, a work I greatly enjoyed. But while Lawrence's Chatterley is a striking modernist novel about the class system, gender disparity, and sexuality with many well written and daring erotic scenes, Nin's Delta of Venus is a book filled with daring erotic scenes, with many well written stories about class, gender disparity, and sexuality thrown in. Delta of Venus is actually a collection of short works written by Nin for a collector of erotica. Her instructions were to eliminate poetic writing in favor of heavily descriptive sex scenes, but Nin melds description and story telling artfully. Her writing, her tendency to delve further and further into the relationships and personal emotions of her characters, reminds me Lawrence's modernist handling of prose, while her characters' sexual abandon reminds me of Martin Amis's more recent novel, The Pregnant Widow, about the feminist and sexual revolution of the 1970s (which, by the way, harks heavily back to Lawrence). This book probably isn't for everyone but Nin is credited with giving literature a language for sex and sensuality, and I think for giving women a place in that language as well. She continued what Lawrence started, and what society in general continued a few decades later.
kendrajbean's review against another edition
4.0
Why bother with sub-par prose found in such books as Fifty Shades of Grey when you can read Anais Nin? I mean, honestly.
francescafed's review against another edition
3.0
If you want to read a million stories about French people getting their freak on in a sticky sloppy way, then go for it. I didn’t really enjoy because the first story mentions both p*dophelia and inc*st, and ngl that freaked me out!!!
marypickfords's review against another edition
3.0
this book is so short but took me many months to finally finish because everytime i picked it up i was transported to such a.. dark place. i hate to be that person without many words but the Vibes in this are really something else. i'm not sure if that's how nin wrote erotica or if it was the person she was writing these to.. what a darksided little book. at least when i finally decided to finish it today i was halfway through the story 'linda' which is one of the best ones, i was thinking all this (why is this book so dark will i ever be able to finish this) and then found myself enjoying linda and felt bad. but i do like the style of little else matters but desire. the stories change characters and setting in the middle of a paragraph and they end whenever they feel like it, it's not always about making sense or even telling you a proper story (though it does do that sometimes). overall i suppose it is meant to be vivid enough to get one off and in that sense it works.. even with stories blending this book feels so alive, for better or worse. it's not bad but i did feel off whenever i picked it up and so i could never read much of it at once lol. but now.. i am free!
gotobedmouse's review against another edition
3.0
Well that was shocking. I am not sure how I feel, there were some pretty taboo subjects that I skipped over because I refused to go there. It has some great $7 words and it was well written. Alas, it had to be one of the raspiest books I have ever read...rape rape rape..be warned proceed with caution.