In the coming weeks, the tens of millions of women swept up in the literary phenomenon that is ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ will have finished the trilogy. Those same tens of millions of women will probably go back to the start and reread them, and perhaps once again, but what happens when it’s time to move on to other printed pursuits of passion?
To avoid widespread panic among the women of the world looking for their next fit of erotic lit – when you’ve exhausted our own supply of short erotic fiction – we canvassed the offices here at LELO to come up with suggestions of the books you can pick up after you’ve put down ‘Fifty Shades’.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
by D.H. Lawrence
D.H. Lawrence’s widely-acclaimed (and for years after its release, widely-banned) 1923 novel contains everything we look for in a good book; a protagonist in turmoil, a grizzled antihero, class strife, and hot, steamy sex scenes.
The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy
by Anne Rice (writing as A.N. Roquelaure)
After two critical and commercial missteps following ‘Interview with the Vampire’, Anne Rice decided to take on the pen name A.N. Roquelaure and release a sprawling 3-book erotic trilogy loosely (and sexily) based on the well-known fairytale. As overheard in the LELO offices, The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy is ”wall-to-wall HOT”.
The Story of O
by Anne Desclos (writing as Pauline Réage)
The Story of O’ is a classic in the erotic literary canon. It tells the story of O (no spoilers there), a fashion photographer in Paris who gives herself over to the man she loves via a deepening education in dominance and submission. Sound familiar? It’s a direct inspiration for the ‘Fifty Shades’ series.