Second Illustrated Anthology of Erotica

This second anthology of erotica concentrates on the "forbidden" literature of the West and features a selection of photographs and erotic art from private collections. The book's contents range from fragments of erotic poetry from Ancient Greece to the 20th-century work "The Story of O", and the array of writers covered includes Oscar Wilde, Emile Zola, Anais Nin, Mirabeau and Boccaccio. The first part of the book examines the central role of voyeurism in erotic writing and art. The second part examines the ambivalent nature of the sexual urge; on the one hand sex is associated with the darker side of human nature - vampirism, masochism and prostitution - while on the other it is related to the lighter more, frivolous side of the human character.