Delta of Venus

I've been trying to re-read some of the books of my youth, in part to determine how my perspective has changed over the years. One that has been on the list, since it was one of the first 20 books I've read, is Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer My "gut" has been telling me that will be a bit of a slog, so I compromised, and decided to read this one, by Miller's good friend, with similar subject material, and which I read when it was first published, in the late `70's.

This too proved to be a bit of a slog, and if I didn't abide by my practice of (almost) always finishing a book once I started it, I never would have made it. You start with a preface, purported written in 1940, about a wealthy male collector paying a dollar a page for this work, and his admonition to "leave out the poetry." Particularly since the dollar a page remark makes it to the back cover, the purported origin just reeks of being a ploy from the marketing department. So, consider my own fantasy, and it is just that, since I have no factual information to support it: it's the mid-70's, two women from the publisher's marketing department meet with Anais Nin, in Los Angeles, late in her life (she died in early 1977); they had a couple of drinks, drew up a list of all known sexual fantasies on the proverbial cocktail napkin, and challenged her to write one book that incorporated them. And she met the challenge.

The problem I had, and it is shared by some 1-star reviewers, is some of the supposed fantasies aren't. They should not have been listed on that cocktail napkin: pedophilia, necrophilia, priests and boys, and violence would certainly be on my short-list to delete. A couple of those supposed fantasies were not discussed much in the `70's, now pedophilia and the particular subset, priests with boys, seems to be the weekly staple of most popular news sites. Regrettably, Nin's first story starts with pedophilia, and the third concerns priests and boys. Off putting enough to discard the book, perhaps into the fireplace.

And that would be a shame, since there are some quality stories, incorporating some fairly reasonable and quite pleasant fantasies. The best story is "Elena," and it is almost a fourth of the book. I'd buy it just for this one story. There are insights into the male / female relationship that are worthy of the best of Barbara Pym or Anita Brookner, and certainly Nin provides a more comprehensive view, as it were, whereby Pym and Brookner would just tail off into ellipsis to be fulfilled by the reader's imagination. As in Hotel Du Lac, Switzerland is the setting where Elena first meets Peter, of the mysterious "work." Later she becomes fixated by his somewhat worn belt, and wonders how many before have undone it.

Augmenting the spectrum of fantasies is the geographic dispersion in setting, with Paris, naturally being preeminent, but ranging to Peru as well as the sea at Mallorca. There are scenes of artists and models, fairly standard fare which enables an easy incorporation of voyeurism, and there is once scene involving Marianne, and allowing for gender reversal, seemed to come straight out of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue: The Ten Commandments, but since Nin's book came first, by more than a decade, perhaps it served as an inspiration for Kieslowski. There is other standard fare, including the warming effects of horseback riding, with the setting being the Bois de Boulogne. The climactic scene, as it were, could be the three-way lesbian fulfillment. As for the poetry, well, phrases like "the effulgence of their pleasure," seemed to have flown under the radar of that buck a page big spender.

Forget the marketing ploy, avoid the true perversions (and crimes!), and concentrate on the poetic and more comprehensive view of the male / female relationships. 3-stars.

The manager of an apartment I lived in the early 80's was a member of a book club in which Delta of Venus and Little Birds were two that she had ordered. One day she brought them over and thought that I would like them.

Now, I had never read erotica before, so I had no idea what to expect. I would say that those two books were my '50 shades of grey" moment. I experienced something from reading those books that the majority of women had experienced as teenagers. I, of course, ended up buying the books myself, still have them and pop them open occasionally to read a few of the stories to the man in my life. Some liken erotica to sexual porn stories, but there is a world of difference.

Erotic. Sensual. Tasteful. Anais Nin.

Anais Nin is famous for writing erotica that was decades ahead of its time; this is a collection of several of her erotic short stories. They are quite good, quite well-written, but I can't say that they're flawless. There are two main problems, one of which is certainly the result of her having written the stories for a patron whose stated interests clearly colored her writing, and the other of which may be a result of the same influence or may be the result of Nin being, in spite of her best efforts at being liberated, a product of her time and culture.

The first problem is that the stories seem rather rushed and disjointed; she provides a fair amount of description and plot, but somewhat spottily and occasionally sacrifices both to rush to the descriptions of the sex act. This is clearly the result of the creative tension between her desire to write a good story, and the fact that her patron was constantly telling her to cut out the boring stuff and get to the sex. The second problem is that far too many of her stories involve female characters longing to be dominated by aggressive, even brutal men. This may well be a common fantasy, but it's far from as universal as she portrays it to be, and I'm unsure whether she utilized that fantasy as frequently as she did because she was catering to what she expected her patron to be interested in, because it was privately a fantasy of her own, or because she was a product of her time and assumed it to be near-universally true, but in any case I found it somewhat off-putting.

Other than these two quibbles, I find this book to be very nearly as good as its author's reputation would suggest.

Delta of Venus, Erotica by Anais Nin contains of fifteen erotic stories written by the author, and Anais Nin is known for her erotic writing. So be advised, all of the stories in this book are X-rated.

In my opinion, Anais Nin is an excellent storyteller. Of course, I have read harsh reviews by other readers. Some say she can't write a story. And those readers are certainly entitled to their opinions. After all, that's what this whole exercise is about, diversity of opinions. But I liked her stories. She writes in short paragraphs with lovely descriptions, and more adjectives than I have in my entire memory. And she definitely knows how to use words, colorful words, sensual words, to create the exact image and the precise message she wants to convey to her readers. Some of her stories are outrageous, and her story plots are simple. But it's sex. How complicated can it be? But like I said at the beginning, these are erotic stories, and their only purpose is to entertain and titillate your libido. So whatever your sexual proclivity, I'm sure at least one of her stories will arouse your primal pleasure center just as surly as if you had tiny electrodes implanted into your brain. Plus, Anais Nin's charming style moves her stories along smoothly and at a reasonable speed. You can easily get through most of the book in one or two sittings. I give the book five stars.

The author documents her sad life of nymphomania while seeking the elusive - joy.
I was expecting an insight to her relationship with Henry Miller during the Paris years.
It post-Paris, the American years, when Miller had gained some fame and notoriety.
He showed up broke, horny and looking for what money she could spare.

I suggest a more accurate title for this book, "Bored with Copulation" by Inane Nincompoop.
Don't expect this shoddy diary to enhance your bag of sexual tricks to surprise your lover.

Nowadays, we use the terms "erotica" and "pornography" interchangeably, with "erotica" having a slightly more positive connotation. It is interesting to note that "erotica" is derived from the name of the Greek god of love, Eros, while "pornography" is derived from a Greek word "pornos" that means "on the slave market" or "sold on the slave market." Hence, the higher quality, more artistic, more noble works of titillation are described as erotic. This book, Delta of Venus, defines erotic. There are some passgaes in it that read like music, others that are so subtle, and yet they all arouse the senses and cast an erotic veil around the reader. This book is a feast for the senses. If you want to be turned on, buy this book. If you are seeking the blow-by-blow of Penthouse Letters, go somewhere else.

Anais Nin brought an artistic elegance to her erotica. Delta of Venus is a fantastic example of her craft. Written in the 1940's for an anonymous collector, the short stories explore various aspects of sexual expression with a delicate sensibility that does not shy away from darker impulses.

The characters in Delta exist in a hedonistic fantasy. Nin's Paris is full of writers, artists, models and whores. They have enough money to spend on drinks, drugs, parties, hotels, prostitutes and cafes, but none of them seems to have jobs that interfere with their passions. Monogamy isn't an expectation in marriage and a single glance across a bar is enough to spark an anonymous liaison in a closet. Everyone seems both comfortable with their own bodies and willing to explore someone else's. In the hands of a lesser writer, these stories might come out no better than the artificial letters in Penthouse Forum. In Delta of Venus, Nin creates a vision of Paris that is decadent, sensual and stylish.

If you're not a fan of stream of consciousness writing, this book might be hard to follow. Characters in stories will often tell stories of their own that can become confusing, especially if you're listening to the audio book. Nin also has a tendency to float away on tangents about Parisian women or German occupation before WW II that accentuate the setting but diffuse the erotic tension. None of this takes away from the quality of the writing, but it does take some getting used to.

Anais Nin is one of my favorite writers and Delta of Venus is one of her best books. If I could create an intimacy in my writing that comes anywhere close to this, my journey as a writer will be completely. Maybe I just need to move to Paris...

Have fun.
Gamal

I totally disagree with the reviewer who says that Ms. Nin doesn't vye for female rights. The stories in DoV show women as empowered. In those tales where they let go of their "empowerment" it is only, as you will notice, for a short time. The natural state of females in this text is sexually subversive, creative and soulful beings. Words like wanton harlot are hurled by threatened males on the make...Ms. nin will last for all time...because she summons the essence and sublime beauty of Venusian power like no other woman writer has before or since. Thanks God for Ms. Nin especially in this day and age when the desexualization of our entire culture by the cyber age has made sensuality and true erotica like DoV a thing of the past...

At first, I was a bit jarred with how some of the stories didn't really have an ending but my god this is good! I spent the past couple of days reading the stories; I'm drawn into them. I have a couple more left to read, they're all the longer ones so I can't wait to dive in.

Vulgar? No, in my opinion.
Sensual. Yes.
Her words just seem to flow, I really like that.

I heard about Anais through a friend of mine and decided to give her a shot. Glad I did.

People often seem to confuse erotica with porn; I've read too many "erotica" stories that are just plain porn...modern day erotica.
Anais' work is what erotica should be, sensual, titillating high art...but then again, one person's erotica is another person's porn.

Anyways, it's a quick, interesting read...a mixture of short stories that I think Anais Nin just wanted to try out to see where they would and wouldn't go.

These are selected and re-worked stories from those she wrote for a collector during the dark period in her career when the war weary times were not producing a market for her work.
They were innovative in being erotica in English by a serious talented writer, and also in being erotica written by a woman from a woman's point of view.
The stories are diverse and amusing. Most are based on incidents she heard about from here diverse friends or experienced herself as she lived a life designed to be written about.

With other kinds of literature, we might say that a story is successful if it entertains, if it strikes us as realistic, if we recognize ourselves and our lives in the characters and events, or any number of other characteristics. With erotica, the temptation is strong to assume that it's only successful if we read it and get horny. And with "Delta of Venus," with its intended female point of view, we might be inclined to say that it's only successful if it makes women horny.

Still, that seems an unlikely criterion. This is not sheer pornography, after all, even though Anais Nin claimed that she wrote these stories for an anonymous collector who constantly demanded more sexual content and less literary quality. Whoever the original audience was, collector of smut or otherwise, Ms. Nin at the time hung around with a group of extremely inventive and daring writers, including Henry Miller. The likelihood that she would write without at least intending to do so with quality is pretty slim. So the question remains - if the intention of these stories is at once to arouse the reader and to satisfy the author's writerly ambitions, how can we tell if they are successful in their intent? Particularly if we are a man reading erotica allegedly aimed at women? (Which is exactly what we are, by the way, in case you were wondering.)

One way in which these tales stumble is the odd and very noticeable tendency to refer to body parts in the abstract. Surprisingly often, a character will be looking at or touching the body of another, and the narrative will refer to "the breasts" or "the hair", not to mention "the" other things. I found this a little surprising. In many essays on the politics of writing about sex, feminists protest that sort of dissociation, advising that tearing the body apart in words is exactly the opposite of erotic and recommending that we find a way to appreciate the entire body, and the mind and heart while we're at it, in our erotica. Given that, I would not have expected a woman writing for women to use the article "the" quite so often. But maybe I'm being unfair to Ms. Nin - she was exploring an area of erotic writing that had barely been touched upon in her day. And besides, however uncomfortable it makes me personally, why shouldn't a women objectify a partner from time to time if she wants to?

Thus we bump up against one useful element in "Delta of Venus" - as it did when first published, it can provoke some very useful debate to this day. Which is all very well, but you could say the same thing about any controversial piece of junk; "The Turner Diaries" might provoke useful debate, for goodness' sake, but it's still a piece of fascist propaganda and artistically illiterate besides. Political usefulness does not necessarily make for good fiction.

The same can be said for the erotic quality of these stories. I, for one, found some of the later ones arousing, and many of the early ones not at all. Ms. Nin had the courage to explore a wide variety of sensual expressions, and I'm a trifle surprised to find that in many of these stories the female protagonist ends up unsatisfied or discovers her greatest joy in utter submission to some man. Sensibly, however, the author expanded her repertoire of sensual plotlines to include a good many other possibilities, including tenderness and violence, voyeurism, domination, love and anger, even more troubling activities - everything, indeed, except monogamy and marriage. Oh well.

None of this addresses the question yet of what may make "Delta of Venus" good fiction, rather than only erotic fiction, but it does begin to get at the point. As I said, regardless of what her personal tastes may have been, Ms. Nin was careful to include almost as much variety of experience as she could in her stories, which necessarily required her to include as much variety of character as possible. In other words, the narrative takes an obvious interest in the sexuality of these people, but it also takes an equally intense interest in the other parts of their lives, although without the same emphasis. So "Delta of Venus" approaches the whole person as a sensual being, and is all the more sensual for that. It's a lovingly humanist approach to the erotic. Yep, it's good fiction.

Some of the psychology seems a little elementary in this day and age, and as with most erotica the characters are all impossibly attractive, but I for one find myself grateful to read stories about people enjoying each other's bodies with their minds and hearts fully functional. Whether they turn me on at that moment or not.

Benshlomo says, The body is holy.

`Most of the time the sexual life is a secret', says somebody in a story called "Marianne" in Anaïs Nin's seductive "Delta of Venus". Assuming that this sentence is a universal truth, the writer exploits the dark and not-so-dark secrets of some people's lives with her short tales collected in this book.

As one of her characters, Nin is a `woman of most exquisite refinement'. With her prose she is interested more in dealing with the senses than with facts and events. So much so that the stories are built out of images of a dreamscape rather than real situations. The real situations do exist but they are just an excuse to invade another territory: the one of love.

When it comes to love, Nin deals with it in two different spheres in the stories of "Delta of Venus". There is the carnal love -- that one that gives pleasure to the body -- and the spiritual one -- that one that give pleasures to the soul. But most characters are in search of a kind of love that conjures both types. Needless to say that it is hard to find, almost impossible. However, Nin and her creations never give up.

Her feminine point of view brings refreshment and charm to a field dominated by man: erotica. Explicit at some point, but never vulgar, Nin seduces both male and female readers because, above all, she has written good fiction. The erotic aspect is, after all, just a detail in her net of relationships, lovers and friends. Her exposition of dark secrets of desire and the human soul is true and sincere. "Delta of Venus" is a book that will be read for many years to come -- probably forever -- because of its beauty and, mainly, because of its realistic portray of sensuous love.

There's absolutely no way you can call Anais Nin's lush erotica either 'smut' or 'pornography'. It is much to poetically, tastefully, artfully written to debase it with those negative terms. She delves into the soul of woman as no other writer, whether writing erotica or in her luminous diaries. Every woman should read her work to better understand her own soul's journey.....Her words take flight and transport you to inner landscapes too wonderful for words.......If my house were on fire and I could only save one author's works, it would be all of Ms. Nin's books that I own....

Delectable is the word that sprung to mind while I read Delta of Venus. The stories are erotic to the core, but they also contain a great deal of symbolism and darkness. Rape, exhibitionism, voyeurism and incest are a few of the disarming and disturbing subject matters addressed in this book. My favorite stories are "Boarding School," "Mallorca," "Manuel," and "The Hungarian Adventurer." These stories enthralled me from beginning to end. They were a delectable reading experience! I look forward to reading more of Anais Nin's work in the future.

For a number of years, when a friend of the family gave me a copy of the Delta of Venus and A Women Speaks, the figure of Anaïs Nin has lingered somewhere on the periphery of my consciousness. I think, perhaps, it has something to do first and foremost with her name - Anaïs - and the covers of her books adorned with monochromatic pictures of naked women in repose, or as in the case of the Delta of Venus, a woman playing with her garter revealing the underside of her leg.

Her appeal is definitely erotic: the myth of a female Don Juan who had an affair with Henry Miller, her cousin, her therapist and her father. I came to the Delta of Venus with this myth of Anaïs Nin informing my expectations, of a woman who wrote of erotic life with a new feminine language of sensuality.

It was perhaps why I was deeply disappointed by this book; for the most part deeply unerotic, dull and flat. There was a couple of short-stories that were engaging - the story of titled Mallorca for instance, but the majority of stories involved tales of necrophilia, pedophilia, gang rape and sexual violence that most certainly did not have a poetry or sense of sensuality that I expected from a women said to have developed a new language of the erotic.

[...]

"Delta of Venus" is an absolute pleasure to read. Each short story here flows seamlessly into the next, making it read like a never-ending hallucination. Anais simultaneously shocked and aroused me with her stories. Her writing is startlingly beautiful, like that of an (eroticised) angel. While her style is conspicuously feminine, Anais Nin doesn't shy away from more hardcore territory, as she confidently explores the taboos of sex: incest, bisexuality, paedophilia (The Boarding School), bestiality and even genital mutilation. Anais's decadent world is rich with exotic imagery and opulence. This is no "Mills and Boon" - this is a literary delight I'd recommend to anyone seeking an all-out retreat from reality. The sheer majesty of Anais's talent for writing is just as seductive as the erotic content within the book.

A truly brilliant and breath-taking fusion of the art of writing and the art of love making. I have read and re-read this book countless times and each time discovered something new about it - like a precious gem when held in the sun, gives out a different shine with every turn and twist, each distinct from the previous yet equally dazzling! A note of caution, this book is not for the devout conventionalists! Everyone else, read it! you won't be disappointed.

"He did not know that when the erotic and the tender aremixed in a woman, they form a powerful bond, almost a fixation,"and contrary to Pierre, one of her characters, Anaïs Nin can write a full doctoral dissertation on the matter. Teeming superlative eroticism and sensuality, Delta of Venus is the pre-eminent anthology of luxury from a feminine panorama, wherein each and every one of the rich though not-necessarily-explicit details are contemplated to the extreme. Prolific with lascivious, quixotic imagination, the fanciful and mystical substance of Nin's writings prove unfailing to delight the most passionless of readers.

When I was 8 I peeped on my aunt breastfeeding through an open doorhole from which the knob had been removed. I blew into the hole to clear out some of the wood shavings, upon which a shard flew into my eye.

This is how I feel about reading this book. I got what I deserved for being a voyeur and reading erotica on the sly. Just when you get lulled in by the good prose style of Anais Nin she stabs you in the eye.

If erotica is supposed to give you the jollies, here is where I cringed:

1. Incest (with both sexes)
2. Pedophilia
3. Female genital mutilation

All of these were involuntary acts of sex where a clearly stronger aggressor victimizes a weaker party, and sometimes a combination of these, and I'd only gotten through the first three stories!

The worst part is I read before I sleep and I had a dream about a homosexual pedophile shortly after reading that story. I thought this would be a fun read but I kind of feel like the old Europe feel isn't all that sexy to me: Hungarians, Parisians in old Lima, that sort of thing. But Anais Nin writes well, so this review doesn't get 1 star.

The great work of Anais Nin's life was her diary, and everything else she wrote, no matter how much energy and passion she invested in it, seemed distracted and a bit colorless. This erotica is no exception, and it also has the distinction of being composed to the tune of a tightrope act; Nin was required to deliver hardcore sex, but she could not help adding her own poetry to it. The conditions of composition are here important to whether or not you'll enjoy this semi-hardcore, semi-erotica writing.

If you're a Nin fan, however, this is a must-have.

Other reviewers have used "poetic" several times, so that sort of leaves that one out for me. This is though, some of the best writing, erotic and non-erotic, you will find. The writer approaches the subject with great passion, and there is no way you cannot appreciate her use of words. I enjoyed and think quite highly of the author's Little Birds, but I do feel she probably does even a better job with this one. If you buy one of the works, you might as well go for both of them as each belongs in your collection. Recommend this one highly.

Anais and Henry Miller belonged to a group of writers who were under contract to produce erotic stories, paid by the page. This is a collection of some of those stories.

She gets right to the point - little story and character development, but sensual and erotic writing.

I loved reading this! I felt like I was reading something I shouldn't be. I also hesitated taking it in public to read for fear people would think I'm a pervert, but you know what? I think the average Joe has no idea who Anais Nin is. And, if someone DID know, they would probably want to sit and discuss the book with me.
I did have a good time and realized that we all are basically the same. Same wants, desires, needs and hopes.

I like everything abut this book. It isn't very long, it's beautifully written and it's genuinely erotic. After reading a friend's copy I went out and got my own and now recommend it to anyone looking for a good work of erotic fiction. Together with "The Story of O" and Nancy Friday's "My Secret garden" it forms a magnificent trilogy of erotica for different tastes. Nothing in it is crude or heavy handed, you reach the end feeling uplifted and better than when you began,

This is one of the classics of sex and eroticism. As a teen, I stole my mother's copy and it inspired many a fantasy. The writing is wonderful and the sex is, well, just hot. I've ready many similar books since then, like right now I am reading Abby Lee's Diary of a Sex Fiend: Girl with a One Track Mind. Reading about sex is always "stimulating" but this classic has lasted generations.

This collection of erotic short stories by Anais Nin, along with her other collection "Little Birds", is something I remember as one of the most sexually interesting and erotic books I've ever read. Nin likes to break taboos in her erotica, which will shock and disquiet a few readers, yet she does it with an originality and sensuality that makes you curious to read on.
David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

This is my first foray into classic erotica and Anais Nin is the best classic eroticist--??--known. I found the work to be very good, though some might say that it is a bit flowery--but then again, it was a different time when she wrote it. I really liked it and would recommend it to others, esp. those new to erotica as this is a good one to start with. I'd also recommend her other, more famous work, Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love" -The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin (1931-1932). (Also watch the movie starring Uma Thurman--it's fantastic!!)

Delta of Venus is a shameless piece of erotica, not to say pornography. The characters are driven by their carnal appeites the way crack users seek a fix. There's little likeable about any of them in this strange circus of personalities.

But.... but.... it's really well written! Anais Nin is a talented writer and brings all her talent into this book -- which is dreamlike and surreal, a completely courageous examination of lust in technicolor. There's no real love in the book. No romance except in the adventure-sense of the word. Delta of Venus is a book that celebrates the exietcne of lust in all its variety and it's tough not to respect it for that. Some of it is disturbing, like The Hungarian Adventurer with its depiction of an addiction gone hopelessly out of control. When I finished the book I felt like I had passed through a circus of sexuality.

Its a captivating read but nothing for puritans.

Anais Nin is the greatest erotica writer I've ever read. She blends sex with life. When I read her novel, I was young, just a teen like a few of the characters within the novel. Far better than my sexual education classes, I learned of the softer more passionate sides to sex, I gained a true understanding of why sex is not merely something done to perpetuate the species, that there is nothing in it unless some feeling coincides.

This book is quite special. THe stories are sublte and poetic and not hard to take at all. I liked this volume of erotica better than the next. Nin got paid a dollar a word for these stories, she should have gotten more. Also read, Story of O, Vox by Baker and Lip Service by Rose

This book was so exciting. Parts of this book were however very sadistic. I think to truly enjoy this book the reader has to be open to the ideas Anais Nin portrays in her book. Two stories were especially provocative. The story of a female body being pulled from a river and being sexually manipulated by a young man was the first. The second was a story of a man being aroused by two very young girls, and how the three of them play together. Otherwise I thought that most of the stories could be anyone's fantasies.

I own a copy of a second/third edition of this book...I inherited it from my mother years ago and it is a well written, stunning book of stories covering a wide range of eroticism. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and rereading this book over the years. I have even read it to some of my guy friends and they are just amazed at the writing that this book contains. They have all gone out and purchased their own copy. Nothing in this book offended me as it is made to convey synopsis in time and what rivets us as human "beings"...we all think things but this book tells of it.

Granted Anais Nin is a great author of erotic lit but the author writes to a specific kind of reader.
I found the writing to be rather disjointed and if you love digging for truffles, or reading Jane Austen's 'Pride and Predjudice' type of books, you'll probably like this one ...
For me, like celery, I can take it or leave it, in this case Ill leave it thank you.

Picked this up at a library book sale thinking it was going to be erotic ADULT oriented stories with class and sex appeal. Wow, was I wrong. Sex stories involving children is just plain SICK! I didn't read the whole book, just started reading one of the stories and wanted to throw up! I took it right out to the burn barrel and set it ablaze. Had I known what it was before I bought it, I would have informed the library staff. Even more disturbing is that this piece of junk is getting high reviews on here! I don't care how "talented" the writer was supposed to have been. This isn't ok for any era. It forces you to give it a star on here which I didn't want to do, but if I don't, my review warning others will not be seen, that's the only reason for the one star..... Absolutely GROSS.....

Anais has got a gift. she knows how to capture your attention, and arouse all of your senses. All of her works are great, but Delta is the one that got me started reading anais' work. this is a great book to read to your lover when you cannot be right there with them, or even when you are right there with them. *wink, wink* Fearless. Bold. Daring. Intrepid. Plucky. all these words are a perfect description of Anais. if you have never read any of Anais' works, i suggest you start with this, or Henrey and June.

I bought this book out of curiosity; I heard of Anais Nin, and her celebrity, so here was this book on the shelf. It was a waste of time: incest, rape, mutilation, and pedophilia are the themes. What junk, what a waste of my time and money. There are certainly better books ? to read. I don't understand Nin's celebrity, and least of all, this.

Although it is true that Ms. Nin's gift for writing lush, expressive, sensual words makes this book successful as erotica, its dark presentation of the human psyche depressed me too much for me to enjoy the experience. Still, these stories enthrall me every time I read them.
The New Yorker once published a parody of these stories entitled "The Delts of Venus." Read it if you can find it! It's published in the "Fierce Pajamas" collection of humor writing.

At the time this erotica was written, it must have been TRULY original, because I do not know of anything like this existing before it, or after. These stories are told so passionately, and I found interest in even the smallest details. These stories stand on their own in many areas, and not just as something to get the reader off. I only wish Anais Nin was still alive! The only modern erotica I've found that I like has been Rescue Me by Megan Clark and The Arch of Desire by Vicente Puelles).

If you enjoy slow sweet soft sexuality then this is the book for you. I enjoyed the style of narration used in the third person. Women and Men will find this collection of short stories to be arousing in many ways. The sexual descriptions are bold but not what modern readers would call hard core pornography. A new or used copy of this book will make a welcome addition to your erotic bookshelf. Enjoy.
Master Jeaux

I grew up with this book when I found it among some old books I inherited. It has informed my understanding of sexuality and has kept me sane. I have re-read it several times as I've grown older and each time I understand a bit more about myself. Highly recommended.

Apparently, Nin wrote this for a client who didn't want it to be written in a sensual ,poetic form. I thought this book was going to be sexy and steamy like the title. I was so far from it. The first story talks about a father who rapes his two daughters then rapes his son in his sleep. A girl is made to have oral sex from a dog by her husband. A gay couple, a man gets raped not enjoying the sex from his partner. A man finds a dead woman by the water and has sex with it. An exotic man makes a woman not take a shower for several days and then keeps her underwear and smells it. There was just so much bizarre situations. This book did not get better. I was so disturbed. It was so dry. I gave this horrid book away. It's so creepy.

Just stop. It's so just- no.

i had no idea that t this book would describe a adult man having sexual relationships with children and his own daughters in the first chapter. perhaps the store should include that in the descripton of the book, that it includes pedophilia pornography. repulsive

there is a lot of interesting prose in this book but it's not the erotica I was expecting. she's got interesting things to say and discuss but if you're looking for something to turn you on, this might not be it.

I had to find out what all the hype was about over this particular writer of erotic literature. And I must say, I found her writing to beautifully constructed. But I found many of the stories to be so twisted that it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I was a little worried when the first story featured a pedophile, but the rest of the stories were hot. I guess what turned people on back then can still turn them on now. I liked the lives of the French painters and the women who loved them.

Hmm - why is this book such a bore? Surely the appeal of erotica is in reading about things that cannot normally be discussed; ideas that would not normally be thinkable, behaviour that would not normally be permissable. So what does it say when none of the sad packs appearing in these short stories manage to bring forth any concepts which are novel, surprising or confronting? Incest, necrophilia, exhibitionism all get a look in, but in a way which is unappealing - the book seems to assume an audience with the traditional Western attributes of repressed sexuality, a belief that sex in sinful, and hatred of the human body. To answer my own question, the implicit assumptions that pleasure is evil, sexuality is sinful and that people are ugly, is what makes it a bore.

I found a beautiful red hardcover copy of DELTA OF VENUS in a Red Cross Op-Shop.I paid 50 cents for it.It is now my favourite book.Seriously beautiful, poetic, intellectualised erotica.Overflowing with rich and sensuous imagery.It takes you away to another time and place.

This book is full of amazing short erotica stories. Anais writes with her heart & soul. Once you pick up the book you don't want to put it down. It makes you want to be the characters she's writing about.

Brilliant, beautiful prose and an effortless ability to seemingly turn every action into an erotic act by the magic of her pen makes this collection of short stories not only great erotica but also great literature. Beautiful.

This book was intense, graphic, sensual, moving, deliriously engaging. It was the second book I'd read by Nin (Little Birds was the first) and I especially enjoyed the second half. Her stories offer a three-dimensional perspective on sex, love, lust--I loved it!

Overwhelming, this work incited literary jealousy in me. I had long avoided her works based on the snobbish assumption that her's was mere lustful, romantic slough. Assumptions are the root of ignorance. She is the poet of flesh.

I thought "Delta of Venus" was a decent book, but as far as being erotic, it hardly sparked my interest. I would only recommmend this book for one that likes their reading material intense, or is just plain sick.

I only got through 3 of the short stories here, but they we all sex crimes...I was looking for erotica and instead I got some disgusting stories about sexual abuse...I couldn't continue, so maybe the other stories changed, but I wasn't willing to read anymore to find out. If I was looking for this kind of content, I'd just watch law and order special victims unit. Lame.

This is the second of her books I have read. I will not purchase anymore. I found it rather boring as I did her first book. Unfortunately I purchased both books at the same time. I would not recommend. There are so many more ... books out there that are better.

I read this book when I was 10, and it absolutely horrified and disgusted me. I had nightmares for years about being sexually molested and was often afraid of boys and men. Now in my early twenties, I realize that the detached style of narration does not mean that the author condones these acts or implies that they are normal and healthy (I refer especially to the rape and pedophilia), and that is a unique, even ground-breaking book due to Nin's style and breadth of imagination.

However, I still think no review of this book is complete without this caveat: Some of what is protrayed is not erotic--it is violent and abusive.

Please, keep this book out of the reach of kids and yes, I would say even teenagers who may not be mature enough to comprehend that difference. Leave something lying around that portrays healthy, loving relationships.

I tore this book to shreds after I read it. Though the book is charming at times and intelligent once or twice, it is built on the premise that only the unfamiliar is erotic. Nin has written the same basic story over and over here: woman encounters stranger, has sex with stranger, experiences epiphany. I wanted nothing more than to stop reading, or to discover something truly erotic within the stories -- trust me. It isn't there. DON'T FALL FOR THE HYPE!

I hope more and more people will discover the flame in her writings - and see the frustration and the real pain in this hard living woman. Please keep you heart protected while reading - it's a tuff one.

So, I am not well versed in the world of erotic fiction. Because of the success of a certain Twi-hard bestseller that is several shades of garbage, I have decided to delve into the world of erotica. Well-written erotica that is. So, I have recently been reading the first chapter of some erotic novels to try and find a good one. (The Kindle allows users to read the first chapter of many books for free.) Delta of Venus was on an the store list of "The Top 25 best erotic fiction" so I gave it a go. Two little girls are molested by some Hungarian "Baron" in the first 25 pages. I mean, come on. Please, can someone suggest an erotic novel that is 1.) written by an author with command of the English language and 2.)not full of deviant sex (rape, child molestation, necrophilia etc.) Can't a novel be well written, sexy and graphic without including whips, chains, inscest and violence? I haven't found one yet. Delta of Venus is certainly not one.

I have read this book twice now. Trying to understand why anyone would think it to be wonderful, beautiful, sensual or erotic. It is just the opposite. I don't care what time period it was writing in! I am open minded but there is just some stuff that is JUST PLAIN SICK! She writes beautifully but i don't think genital mutilation, raping kids or necrophilia is OK! Not to mention incest or both sexes. IF YOU ARE A SICK HUMAN BEING THAT LIKES HAVING SEX WITH YOUR OWN FAMILY MEMBERS, CHILDREN OR DEAD BODIES THAN HAVE AT IT!

This book doesn't even deserve a star. I just fell upon it, on a bookshelf with loads of old books in my house. I'm nearly 17 years old, and perhaps this book is the kind that you appreciate as you get older, but honestly, I don't see myself enjoying this book even in 20 years... I've read so many reviews raving about how 'poetic, sensual, wonderful' it is and what a talent the person is...sorry I don't see it!

Anyone can write a bunch of sex stories. I didn't see anything poetic in the writing...it was plain. As for sensual and arousing? Hardly. It was crude, and vulgar. It was sex, sex, sex... and presented harshly, with none of the sensuality, the sweetness, the gentle pleasure one likes to associate with sex... it was boring, repetitive, and I'll admit disturbing.

What was the point of the story where the Hungarian whatever forced himself on his adolescent children? Or the raped little boy? It was just weird. There's just the sex, and no development of any points she may be trying to make. It's kind of just left there...unfinished... unsatisfying. Frankly, it was so distasteful (VULGAR), I was shocked. And I'm not religious, puritan, conservative or any such thing...quite the opposite, I have an open mind. But this book left me cold.

Apparently these pornographic novels was a commissioned work for an unknown book lover in Paris. Anaïs Nin seems to have an inclination towards describing sexual scenes bordering on tabu areas like violence and incest.