Gordon Grimley

'Beatrice' (usually published anonymously) is one of the best-known classics of erotic literature, one which specialises in the portrayal of erotic chastisement, and in this Scarlet Library edition it has been illustrated by one of the best exponents of chastisement artwork currently active. Paula Russell's depictions of young ladies suffering distress to their exposed nether regions, and enjoying other erotic attentions, are amongst the best available, and this volume offers more than a dozen. The story begins with Beatrice leaving her husband following a three-way erotic encounter with his step-mother, but the reasons for the separation are left unclear. She returns home as her father is about to leave for India, but before he goes he spanks her erotically and leaves her with a whip, as well as with ill-defined indications of an illicit relationship with her younger sister. His brother, her uncle, invites her to visit his house, and he takes up where her father left off, again with sensuous behaviour, albeit short of incest. His own wife and daughter, as well as her sister and a family friend, are complicit in her entrapment in voluptuous goings on, and soon she finds herself and her sister being undressed and tied up for chastisement with a leather strap before being dressed in scanty, transparent clothing and paraded in manacles before being enjoyed by strange men. Another young woman is introduced, and treated in similar fashion. Beatrice and her sister, their bottoms naked, are whipped with a riding crop as they ride horses in a circle. The majority of the erotic tableaux, described in the book at a luxurious pace, involve tying women to various kinds of frame, undressing women, particularly their lower quarters, before beating them with birches or straps. Most forms of sexual activity are included.… (lisätietoja)

A beautifully illustrated hardcover reprint of a classic erotic novel produced by the late, and very much lamented Erotic Print Society as part of their Scarlet Library series. This seems to be an exquisite indulgence of personal fantasies, first published anonymously in 1982 by a highly literate and capable writer who was a managing director at Penthouse and an expert in Victorian erotica. A disgraced young lady in what seems to be the late nineteenth or early twentieth century is handed over to a dubious 'Aunt' and 'Uncle' for initiation into a variety of elaborate and naughty erotic rituals. A great deal of corporal punishment and sex, straight and sapphic, is on the curriculum for our heroine, before she emerges into a dominant role. Lynn Paula Russell's illustrations must be some of the best that she ever produced, with none of the awkwardness that, to my mind, mars her earlier work. Chunky English roses in ruffles and boots, having their posteriors elegantly rendered even more rosy - the image of our heroine in her bloomers and chemise, prone and ready on a rocking horse, is a particular favorite. The breathless, 'poetic' style certainly won't appeal to everybody, and borders on the Surrealist at times, but for me it all adds to the fever-dream atmosphere of the piece. I imagine it read aloud in the plummy upper-class tones of a depraved ex-public schoolgirl (Nigella? Mariella? Joanna?), reveling in every moment of the rudery. It would make a fabulous audio book!… (lisätietoja)