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101 Best Sex Scenes Ever Written: An Erotic…
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101 Best Sex Scenes Ever Written: An Erotic Romp Through Literature for Writers and Readers (edition 2011)

by Barnaby Conrad (Author)

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812,148,081 (3.33)None
Making the provocative purposeful, this analysis spotlights the most exciting--or potentially embarrassing--story element: the obligatory sex scene. This sensibly suggestive guide demonstrates how to advance plots and reveal truths about characters through their romantic tableaus. Each scene is accompanied by insight into its authors' intentions, how they accomplished them, and their thoughts on romance, love, and sex. The featured passages include men such as William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck and women from Margaret Mitchell to Toni Morrison and Danielle Steel.… (more)
Member:Chica3000
Title:101 Best Sex Scenes Ever Written: An Erotic Romp Through Literature for Writers and Readers
Authors:Barnaby Conrad (Author)
Info:Quill Driver Books (2011), 163 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Favorites
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Tags:non-fiction-to-read, found-at-the-lib

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101 Best Sex Scenes Ever Written: An Erotic Romp Through Literature for Writers and Readers (Great Books for Writers) by Barnaby Conrad

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When I was 13, I found a book with the title Skye O’Malley in my mom’s closet. It had that standard “romance novel” cover with the muscular, long-haired man holding a woman in a classic Southern dress whose breasts were about to pop out over the top. Naturally, being curious as to what the book was about, I flipped through it.

Every page I turned to was filled with sex. And more sex.

When I asked my mom if I could read it, innocently enough I thought at the time, she said no and hid it. While she was at work, I found it. And read it. Well, at least, the good parts anyway ;) If the book actually had a plot, I was as oblivious to it as the author.

101 Best Sex Scenes Ever Written by Barnaby Conrad has sex on every page. But it’s nothing like Skye O’Malley. Honestly, I was a little afraid it would be. But the word “best” caught my attention and, since the author has a few other “101 Best…” books out, I thought that I would take the opportunity to read through it and see what he had in mind.

In the introduction, Mr. Conrad lays out that this book isn’t going to be filled with scenes to “titilate the reader.” Each was selected because the scene “advance[s] the plot in some way or helped to characterize the protagonists of the story they came from.” So what we actually have here are sex scenes that are intricate to the plot of the novel and not simply gratuitously placed on every other page.

The scenes chosen for this book are taken from a wide reading of literature. From Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterly’s Lover all the way to the scene from Deliverance (yes, THAT scene), the selections from the gamut of sex scenes in literature and are listed by topic in each chapter.

Mr. Conrad takes each scene and tells us what it does for the novel that contains it — and, in some instances, makes the reader want to either read — or re-read — that novel. He talks about what the scene’s place in the novel was, what it did for the story, and why the author chose to represent it the way they did.

At the beginning of each chapter, there is a quote regarding the chapter’s subject. Some of my favorites:

“By the time you swear you’re his/Shivering and sighing/And he vows his passion is/Infinite undying — /One of you is lying.” Dorothy Parker, Chapter 4: “What is This Thing Called Love?”: The First Time.

“The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.” Lord Chesterfield, Chapter 7: “Hah-hah, Was It Funny For You, Too?”

“Oral sex is like being attacked by a giant snail.” Germaine Greer, Chapter 10: Oral Exam.

“I shall be back in two weeks to embrace you passionately. Do not bathe.” N. Bonaparte in a letter to Josephine, Chapter 13: Ugh, E-e-e-uuu, and Gross.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I’m not a romance novel fan, but this book was far more interesting to me than romance fiction. The only thing that kept this book from receiving five stars was that I would have enjoyed a more thorough deconstruction of each scene. But, quite honestly, the scenes did indeed speak for themselves and Mr. Conrad provides enough information to make the entire book worth reading both on an enjoyment level and to revisit when considering writing a sex scene to include in one’s own novel.

I intend to keep this book handy for future reference because these are the types of sex scenes I would want to write in my own novels and this is a fantastic resource for understanding and examples. ( )
  kippras | Sep 19, 2011 |
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Making the provocative purposeful, this analysis spotlights the most exciting--or potentially embarrassing--story element: the obligatory sex scene. This sensibly suggestive guide demonstrates how to advance plots and reveal truths about characters through their romantic tableaus. Each scene is accompanied by insight into its authors' intentions, how they accomplished them, and their thoughts on romance, love, and sex. The featured passages include men such as William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck and women from Margaret Mitchell to Toni Morrison and Danielle Steel.

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