- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Grove Press (Jun 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1852428112
- ISBN-13: 978-0802117168
- ASIN: 0802117163
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.7 x 2.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 821,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Sexual Life of Catherine M.
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
A publishing sensation upon its original publication in France, Catherine Millet’s The Sexual Life of Catherine M is one of the most sexually explicit books ever written by a woman. Ostensibly a semi-autobiographical account of the sexual life of the author, the editor of an influential Parisian art magazine, the book is a frank and detailed account of Millet’s development from an awkward, guilt-ridden Catholic teenager to sophisticated Parisian intellectual and enthusiastic member of the singles bars, orgies and public sex spaces of Paris.
The book has no sequential narrative. Instead, it offers a frank and extremely graphic celebration of the pursuit and gratification of sex. Millet praises the virtues of anonymous sex, admitting that "I can account for forty-nine men whose sexual organs have penetrated mine and to whom I can attribute a name or, at least, in a few cases, an identity. But I cannot put a number on those that blur into anonymity". Nevertheless, she proceeds to offer page after page of exhausting descriptions of sexual couplings in groups in houses, car parks, offices, toilets, museums--the list and the permutations are endless, as are Millet’s descriptions of her own sexual organs and her ability to perform oral sex. Millet wants to celebrate the personal freedom and physical pleasure that casual, anonymous sex offers a woman, but this is never fully explored beyond her assertion that "the certainty that I could have sexual relations in any situation with any willing party" was "the lungfuls of fresh air you inhale as you walk to the end of the pier". Much of the book’s language is equally prosaic. Ultimately, this is a book about sexual fantasy, but as Millet herself admits, "sexual fantasies are far too personal for them ever really to be shared". Millet is too busy describing the literal nuts and bolts, the grunts and bumps of (resolutely heterosexual) sex to produce eroticism on a par with her obvious models, Pauline Reage’s Story of O and Georges Bataille’s Story of the Eye, which leaves The Sexual Life of Catherine M feeling rather naughty, but strangely dated.--Jerry Brotton --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
'One of the most explicit books about sex ever written by a woman' Edmund White
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An astonishingly dull, tedious and mechanistic book about a life spent in the pursuit of clockwork sex. This woman humps her way through dozens, possibly hundreds, of faceless men rather like the Duracell bunny - with considerably less excitement, pleasure and imagination than a trainspotter recording serial numbers from railway engines. All the characters including the author remain resolutely two-dimensional and bloodless throughout. A deadening book which summons up rather more vivid images of the psychiatrist's office than the bedroom.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Readers familiar with Fanny Hill by John Cleland may experience a sense of deja-vu on reading The Sexual Life of Catherine M. When not gracing the reader with intellectual insights on the relationship between space, sex and the natural environment, the author is variously being 'rammed' or 'filled' with a variety of 'members' 'rods' or 'organs'. The author herself is constantly 'taken' by 'insistent' men, and even ends up being pounced upon 'from behind' when she has a stomach upset - not the first thing which would occur to me to ease a case of Dehli belly.
For a memoir touted as a narrative of sexual liberation, I found this book not so much shocking as tedious, mundane, even flaccid. The descriptions of sexual liaisons are phallocentric and repetitive, and the tone is more prudish than provocative in its use of stock pornographic vocabularly. I'd recommend that readers stick to Anais Nin who writes with a truly female voice, and leaves out all the intellectual navel-gazing in which Catherine M indulges.
For a memoir touted as a narrative of sexual liberation, I found this book not so much shocking as tedious, mundane, even flaccid. The descriptions of sexual liaisons are phallocentric and repetitive, and the tone is more prudish than provocative in its use of stock pornographic vocabularly. I'd recommend that readers stick to Anais Nin who writes with a truly female voice, and leaves out all the intellectual navel-gazing in which Catherine M indulges.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is said that to write a good memoir, you have to have lived an interesting life. Catherine Millet easily passed this test, unfortunately she dismally fails the second implicit requirement, an ability to write well.
The book portrays, in a seemingly random sequence, the author's uninhibited experiences of group sex; where no man, woman or sexual practise was taboo. Surprisingly, given the potential gold-mine of salacious stories, the resultant book managed to make orgies as exciting as going to the toilet. There rarely seems to be any attempt to provide anything more than the shallowest description of the mechanics. Ms Millet maintains that her sexual pursuits do not revolve about pleasure, something I find easy to believe as enjoyment, excitement and emotion of claringly missing from the book. Where she does occassionally discuss her pleasure, it just becomes another cold facet of intercourse; an orgasm without feeling.
I also suspect that Ms Millet is trying to provide some philosophical underpinning to her experiences; an attempt to provide some insight into how people relate. However, her style is so jumbled and opaque - with some of the most ridiculous metaphors - that it would be impossible to identify anything of value.
Overall, do not buy this book! The most jaded bodice-ripper would be a better buy than "The Sexual Life of Catherine M"; at least it would have some excitement.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A good book - requires patience and understanding though
I was surprised at all the bad reviews! Although reading them I may have to concede that I'm in a minority enjoying it - fair enough - I guess reading about sex in this way isn't... Read more
Published 1 month ago by London_nurse
Bit of an effort to read but interesting insight..
Potentially very interesting subject matter, but way it was written made it slow and difficult to read. It was a little to poetic and 'arty'. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mr. R. O'regan
The Dullest book about sex ever written
This is another one of those books where the glowing reviews on the cover seem to be entirely at odds with the opinion of the reading public. Read more
Published on 14 May 2009 by Alexis Paladin
Sex, not love
This is a compelling read of the most promiscuous of lives a woman could lead. Catherine has no sexual boundaries. She tries everything. Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2008 by N. DAVIES
Frank and honest
Unsurprisingly, this is very frank and graphic in detail, but it's not really what I would describe as pornographic, despite the language used (yes, there are "unsavoury"... Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2007 by Mrs. K. A. Smurthwaite
Dire, Self-Absorbed Tripe
This has to be the most self-absorbed book I've read since Prozac Nation. Agreed the sex scenes are very graphic, but even they are boring.
A very, very dull book.
A very, very dull book.
Published on 18 Sep 2006 by Ms. Joanna L. Bragger
Interesting, if a struggle after a while
I don't know - when you've decided to write a book about sex, it's bound to be a bit of a chore after a while, especially as she's chosen such an clinical style. Read more
Published on 11 July 2004
A different perspective
This autobiography begins how it ends. Millet delivers detailed illustrations of her varied accounts of sex, whether it be intimate or mass. Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2004 by D L
Excruciatingly dull
I wish I had taken the time to look up the Amazon reader's reviews before the impulse buy at the railway station. So excruciatingly dull and monotonous. Read more
Published on 28 May 2004
Better kept to herself....
Not what it's hyped up to be. Why on earth did the author decide to share her rather dull and monotonous exploits with the reading public? Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2004
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
