Erogenous Zones: An Anthology of Sex Abroad

by Lucretia Stewart (Editor)

Travel, like sex, is the search for the unknown. What, after all, could be more unknown than a sexual experience in a strange land, or with a stranger? This question, or preoccupation, informs much of the most insightful and eloquent travel writing we have. Major writers--from Byron to Casanova, from Gustave Flaubert to Graham Greene, Henry Miller to André Gide, and from Christopher Isherwood to Isabelle Eberhardt--experimented sexually when traveling, often finding themselves willing and able to surrender to the moment in a way they could not at home. In the pursuit of pleasure or adventure, or simply another kind of experience, these writers expanded their knowledge of the countries and societies in which they found themselves. Sometimes they fell in love, sometimes not, but their erotic encounters irrevocably colored their perceptions of abroad forever.

This rich material, arranged by region, makes for exhilarating reading. The travel writer, novelist, and critic Lucretia Stewart has gathered the best writing in the field, from travel literature, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, and letters. The landscape is remarkably from Hemingway's Paris in the 1920s to Paul Theroux's extraordinarily visceral depiction of an African leper village to Paul Gauguin's quiet sojourn in an undeveloped Tahiti to Geoff Dyer's wistful contemplation of a hippie beach in Mexico. All the while, we are caught up in the moment, mesmerized by the articulate, penetrating, and arresting glimpses of the world that these writers have shown us. This is a witty, incisive, erotic, and totally original collection.

Lucretia Stewart has written an Introduction for this volume.

Genres: Travel

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Rupert Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considering some of the fine literary crafts-people in this anthology the overall effect is somewhat mediocre. With such authors as Miller, Hemingway, Mansfield, Boswell, Byron, Gide, Theroux, Brooke, Flaubert just to name but a few, I was expecting to dip into something enlightening and elicit - however I found most of the selected edits to be a bit on the ordinary side of par standard. I know that many of these authors, the ones I am familiar with, have tastier ribald stories that could be shared, but don't let this turn you off from delving into this anthology, you may just discover some fresh talent you weren't aware of and embark on whole new journeys with writers whom have tickled your fancy.

Many of the stories reveal sides to writers not commonly communicated by their followers and certainly not oft quoted as part of their oeuvre, so some interesting scenarios and infatuations prop up through-out the anthology. Erogenous Zones is extremely well written because it's contributors know their penmanship so you won't be let down by the writing itself. Some of the stories leave memorable traces in the mind like Aime Crocker's 'And I'd Do It Again', Paul Theroux's 'My Other Life', Geoff Dyer's 'Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H.Lawrence, Hugo Williams 'No Particular Place to Go', and so on. These are excerpts from novels so it is also reasonable to keep in mind that they are isolated and some may lose effect as stand alone pieces. Sometimes a single sentence in a book arouses the imagination over entire chapters, so I am forgiving of the disparate nature of them.

Erogenous Zones is a good edition to anyone's shelf of pleasure books, so not to be dismissed entirely.