Erotic Literature

In case everything else about the cover doesn't tip you off, these aren't the "bedtime stories" to read to small children.

"Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets."

— Andy Warhol

Written stories about people doing it, often known by the classier and more evocative term, Erotica.

According to that other wiki, Erotica has been around since the time of The Bible. This just means that even way back when, people still wanted to read about other people doing it.

Although it's like porn, Erotica can be educational, well-written, and sometimes even pass into the literary canon as acknowledged classics. This ranges from the ancient and quasi-sacred, like Kama Sutra — full of information about sexual relations, with a brief foray into cryptography and other methods of concealing your salacious affairs — to the fairly modern, such as Lady Chatterley's Lover. In some cases an erotic book can come to challenge entire philosophies about sex and sexuality, like Venus in Furs. As mentioned above, even the Bible has erotica in it: the "Song of Solomon" a.k.a. "Song of Songs" is remarkably couched in sensual language. One of its opening passages, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth" is one of the most famous verses of the Bible itself. Since sex is such a key part of most people's experiences of being human, erotica, in the hands of a skilled author, can easily cross over into Lit Fic.

A way to divide the two is to mentally remove the sex from the story. If you still have a story, it is erotica. Right in two.

Modern day books tend to deal with the emotional side of sex and sexuality, and often — with varying degrees of success — attempting to introduce a story or arching plotline. Some of these have been adapted to film.

Compare and contrast Romance Novel. See also Erotic Film, Ecchi, and Hentai.

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Examples include:

• The 120 Days of Sodom
• 365 Days
• Addicted Series
• Anita Blake ^note the series didn't start out as this but by the later books the main focus of the stories is Anita's sex life and intimate relationships
• The Boss
• Broken Love Series
• Captive Prince
• The Change Room
• A Deal With A Demon
• Delicate Fire
• The Dogs
  • What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse
• A Dowry of Blood
• Emmanuelle
• Exit to Eden
• Fanny Hill
• Fifty Shades of Grey
• A Fox Tail
• The Girl in 6E
• Holey Matrimony
• The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et al.
  • Lovers and Beloveds
• Juliette
• Kama Sutra
• Kushiel's Legacy
• Lady Chatterley's Lover
• The Little House
• Live Girls
• The Lords of Satyr
• Merry Gentry
• Mister & Missus series
  • The Mister
  • The Missus
• My Very Own Gender Swap
• The Never After series, by Emily McIntire:
  • Hooked
  • Scarred
  • Wretched (2022)
  • Twisted (2023)
• The Occupation Saga
• Once
• Out of Position
  • Camouflage
• Sixes Wild
• Song of Songs
• The Story of O
• Tales of MU
• The Teresa Knight Trilogy
• These Words Are True and Faithful
• Three Weeks
• Tsun-Tsun TzimTzum
• Venus in Furs
• Volle
• Windfall

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