About the book:
A lost classic of 1940s erotica returns! Written by Anas Nin, Virginia Admiral, Caresse Crosby, and others for a dollar per page, this breathtakingly sensual volume was printed privately and soon became an underground legend. Beginning with a breathless mnage quatre in Alice and ending with the concluding remarks of the uproarious Loves Encyclopaedia, this is a priceless collection of explicit yet sophisticated musings.

Review:
I read about half of this. I made it through the stories, but I just couldn’t with the Encyclopedia of Sex.

While I thought the writing was wretched, it is from the 40s, and maybe that was how erotica was written at the time. What do I know? I could see of the language as precursors to some of the super-cheese I still see in the occasional bodice ripper, but can’t say I enjoyed it here any more than I do in more modern works (less even).

I was also repeatedly dismayed at the stories themselves. We have a 5yo boy being molested. We have a woman being drugged and raped, then taken advantage of by a second man. We have numerous men getting women drunk to take advantage of them and we have a married woman in an orgy with not-her-husband (though that was the least eyebrow-raising one of the bunch). Plus, with the exception of the orgy, every sex scene is essentially the same. Nope, none of them tickled my fancy in the least.

I don’t think anyone believes Anaïs Nin wrote this. I know if thought this was a representation of her work I’d never pick another one up.