The Mammoth Book of International Erotica

INTRODUCTION

Ever since the collapse of the Tower of Babel, sex has been the common language uniting men and women (as well as other fascinating combinations all reflected by the all-inclusive and indulgent field of erotic writing) throughout the world, so following the success of The Mammoth Book of Erotica, we put together an International version in 1996, of which this is now a reissue, with a couple of handfuls of the original stories consigned to the depths of the past and replaced by another ten previously uncollected tales to refresh the volume.

Initially, it was my intention to demonstrate how wide the spectrum of writing on sex, love and sensuality could be. And how the art of the erotic tale actually thrived in contemporary writing. Little did I know that over ten years later, the series would reach over 15 volumes which have since included Historical Erotica, Short Erotic Novels, five annual best of the year volumes, Gay, Lesbian and Erotic Poetry as well as two volumes I am very proud of, displaying the best of the world’s erotic photography (an ironic state of affairs as I am known to have taken a somewhat limited number of photographs in my whole life, much preferring the art of voyeurism to the act of photography…).

So, mission accomplished and, today, the bookstore shelves are now crowded by a plethora of competing, thematic and otherwise anthologies from colleagues in the UK and America, and I would hazard a higher standard of sensuous, provocative writing than was the case when this series began.

Another fact that brings a satisfied smile to my face is the fact that since the initial volume of The Mammoth Book of International Erotica, two of the authors who willingly accepted to be part of the project have been rewarded most gratifyingly: Elfriede Jelinek of course has won the Nobel Prize for Literature and Stella Duffy made the shortlist for the Orange Prize for fiction. A random demonstration that not all occasional erotic scribes are just hacks…

And there has been resounding acclaim for a whole slew of novels and books from foreign shores singing the flesh and the erotic: viz the commercial success of books in translation by Alina Reyes, Almudena Grandes, Régine Deforges, Vanessa Duriès, Cathy Millet, Marthe Blau, Tobsha Learner, Florence Dugas, Melissa P. and countless others.

So, erotic prose is not just an Anglo-Saxon phenomenon but a universal one and this revised edition of this influential volume still only skims the surface of what is being written in France and Italy for instance, both countries so fertile right now that they could provide their own bumper Mammoth volumes of erotica and still neglect dozens of worthy writers such is the depth of talent currently active there. And I deplore my own lack of fluency in other languages like Spanish and German where, browsing through publishers’ catalogues reveals possible treasures…

But I am confident there is enough here to satisfy your curiosity and tease your senses most delightfully.

So I will end by repeating what I said in the introduction to the first edition: welcome again to a realm of bizarre and fascinating beauty as imaginations run galore in an empire of the senses that literally spans the globe. By ready for everything as anything literally goes, leave your clothes and your blinkers at the door, allow your emotions to control you, sit yourselves down and relax and follow the words of all these true artists of the flesh, the erotic writers who can blend emotion and sex into a dizzy, seductive maelstrom that will often have you catching your breath in sheer excitement.

Let the great worldwide carnival begin!

Maxim Jakubowski