The Beginnings of Modern Erotic Writing

[Brigit Astar]

Some would claim that you must start with the Marquis De Sade if you want to read the first "modern" erotic writing. I do not dispute that De Sade was the first modern ponrographic writer. But De Sade did not write erotica. His writings are not erotic. Take "Justine," for example--probably De Sade's best-known work and the best writing he did. To De Sade, slitting the inner arm of a woman and watching the blood flow is something that turns him on no end, and he writes about it as if it's the most erotic, glorious and exciting thing any one could ever see. De Sade was a poor writer. His writings are filled with half-baked philosophical ideas interspersed with episodes that De Sade thought were really exciting and erotic and stimulating, but actually, they are almost pathetic. De Sade was a bad writer. If it were not for the fact that the words and the meanings of terms such as sadism, sadistic, sadist were derived from De Sade's name, he would be forgotten and he would not be read. By no stretch of the imagination, can De Sade be said to be an erotic writer. The first modern erotic writer was a contemporary of De Sade, and his name was Bretonne. I will write more about Bretonne and the first modern erotic novel--which he wrote in the late eighteenth century and privately published in he early nineteenth century--in another post.

[Brigit Astar]

Twenty-eight minutes after posting the above, I attempted to edit what I had posted, and the message came up: "The administrator has determined that you cannot edit posts after thirty minutes." And I was not able to edit my post. I have news for the administrator in case he or she doesn't know: twenty-eight is less than thirty. It's two minutes less.

[Saffer]

I Haven't really experienced this particular problem...but, could it be that the 30 minutes are determined from the start of the thread. I.e.: When you begin your writing, not when you post it? I can't really understand why this would be so, but thought I'd offer a suggestion for your angst.

[frankjohnmoore]

i would think that time can,t start till you hit enter,

[Brigit Astar]

twenty-eight minutes after I posted the first one, I tried to post the second one.

[Brigit Astar]

Bumped because it deserves to be read

[ImmortalBeloved]

Yeah, it's funny Astar, for such a famous/infamous person, I doubt if anyone I have ever met has even read de Sade. All I have really gleaned is that, as you basically say, he was a bit of a nutter, and not someone I'd want to get into.

[Brigit Astar]

A few days ago I reread Pleasures and Follies of a Good-Natured Libertine by Bretonne. In my opinion this was the first modern erotic work. It's a fantastically hot novel--I mean it is really good. It's amazing to think that Bretonne wrote it in the 18th Century.

[ImmortalBeloved]

Interesting, I must try and source that. A few nights back I was rifling through boxes of stuff never unpacked from years ago and found a rather good-quality looking hardcover guide to erotic literature that I can hardly remember owning. I've ever only browsed it I think, but must read it properly.

[Brigit Astar]

It's not on the internet--or at least I can't find it. I've only been able to find it in paperback. Now there are sites on the net that tell about Bretonne and the novel but the novel is not posted.

[ImmortalBeloved]

Yeah, I tried googling it with no luck. Odd that something so old is not floating around freely available, for example most of Anais Nin's works are easy to find.

[Brigit Astar]

You can buy the paperback of Pleasures and Follies on the internet, but it's not available for reading on the net. It is strange that a novel that is more than 200 years old isn't available for reading on the net.

[Landy]

I have just found an e-book copy which includes PDF and HTML versions so I may be able to post a copy here. Watch this space.

[Brigit Astar]

I hope so. There is absolutely no reason why Bretonne's novel is not available to read on the net. It's not like it's a modern novel; good grief, it's over 200 years old