Top Ten Erotic Novels

by Mathilde Madden

Often, while writing this list, I found myself questioning whether a certain book was erotica or not. That is always the case with trying to define a genre, but with erotica in particular, people have quite specific expectations. Do books need to be about more than sex to be erotica? Must the sex be integral? Do the books need to have sexual arousal as an explicit intention? But you can tie yourself up in knots with such questions. In the end, this became a list of really good books that have some kind of sexual theme. They were not all written with the intent to sexually arouse the reader, but some of them were.

One problem with making value judgements of erotica is that books can transcend failings of plot and character if they push your own particular hot buttons. My own bedside bookshelf contains a number of volumes that are more like guilty pleasures than books I'd recommend. They are not good books, but there are reasons why they work for me.

In light of this, I've tried to keep the influence of my own preferences to a minimum. Mostly. And I like to think that there is plenty of variety here - that the chosen books are so brilliantly written that they will bring you reading enjoyment, even if the themes aren’t always your personal toy bag.

10. The Cutting Room, by Louise Welsh

First, here's a book that is a perfect example of a book that makes this list and yet isn't an erotica book. Sometimes the most erotic books aren’t erotica. This is a crime novel. A brilliant, brilliant crime novel, with a plot about disturbing pornographic photographs and a gay antique dealer hero who has the hottest, seediest sex imaginable. The book also meets a major requirement for a great crime book with a devastatingly brilliant ending.

9. Try, by Dennis Cooper

Disturbing. Dark. Sordid. Maybe a bit like Burroughs, maybe not. Sexual, maybe, more than sexy, and spanning every kind of sexuality imaginable, most of which are pretty repulsive. Inflicting sexual damage with no kind of remorse. This doesn’t really sound much like an erotic book, does it? That's probably true - I can't imagine many people read Dennis Cooper one-handed. But I can't imagine this list without him, either.

8. Crash, by J.G. Ballard

There are lots of books about specific fetishes. And with most of these books you know from the title whether they'll do it for you or not. But great erotica takes you out of your comfort zone; taking something you would have thought could be eroticized, and showing you differently.

Do you think there is nothing sexy about car crashes, engine oil and mutilation? Try this book.

7. Lord Wraxall's Fancy, by Anna Leif Saxby

Sometimes you don’t just want an erotic novel, you want a campy, hoary load of sexy historical nonsense set in the 18th century tropics. Great writing, gripping plot, and a titular strutting, lacy-cuffed, bad-boy anti-hero who is an expert in holding the poor tormented heroine right…on…the…edge…of…orgasm, until she promises him her world. Camp as Christmas and twice as fun - I also happen to know that some of the finest erotic fiction writers in the world today regularly get together for tea and swap fantasies about what they'd like Lord Wraxall to do to them. This is the kind of book about which one can use the phrase "rip roaring," and for that alone we should be truly thankful.

6. My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up, by Stephen Elliott

If you do not find femdom/malesub dynamics erotic (I say this because such people apparently do exist), then you might not find this book particularly erotic. You will, however, still find it profoundly beautiful - disturbing and heartbreaking and real. It's a book of linked stories, probably memoir, of a boy who lives a life full of pain who becomes a man who lives a life full of pain and (somehow, mostly, eventually) finds a way to make that pain work for him on his own terms. Prose so brittle it should be unable to hold stuff this strong, but it does - it flies on a bumble bee's impossible wings.

5. Cherry, by Charlotte Cooper

Charlotte Cooper is a brilliant writer and activist. Her only novel is a story of a young woman's sexual awakening and journey into London's lesbian underground. Funny how that could be a description of many a bad, bad porn book, but it's also a description of this very good one. Cooper's wondrous tale of an urban baby-dyke's sexual adventures is notorious for being seized by Canadian customs - but that is one of the least notable things about it, really.

This is a very good, very hot book in which gay women have real sex and are real people. A difficult, almost impossible feat, here achieved with aplomb.

4. Carrie's Story, by Molly Weatherfield

(Not the continuing adventures of Carrie Bradshaw, as one hapless Amazon reviewer claims to have imagined.)

My tolerance level for novels about submissive women having their secret desires unveiled by a demanding and charismatic man (usually with unlimited financial resources) is very low indeed. Which is a great shame as I like reading erotica, and this dull, derivative rubbish is about what 90% of erotic fiction seems to be about. And the authors of most of those books have clearly not read this one or they would throw down their pens in shame.

If you want to read a book about a woman submitting to male authority and all its trappings, without any of the irritating flim-flam about this in some ways being some kind of natural order of things, or the notion that all women want this, then get this one. It is also the best one. If you were thinking of reading The Story of O or anything with the word "Gor" in the title, don't. Read this.

3. Bad Behavior, by Mary Gaitskill

The shorthand way to explain Gaitskill to you would be to say that she wrote the short story on which the movie Secretary was based. But really, that would be like me explaining garlic to you by saying it was the flavour on which garlic bread was based.

This is a book of short stories, mostly about women who seek out abusive men, and men who don't really understand what is being asked of them but take advantage of the situation anyway. The sex is usually twisted and often incidental, or planned but never executed. Yet the book still bowls you over with an erotic punch that is sometimes hard to understand. And this is why I like this book. This book is like a lover who is way smarter than you are: inspiring, dizzying, intimidating, and hard to do justice to in a book review.

2. Mr. Benson, by John Preston

Least. Erotic. Title. Ever. And forgiven on page one.

It is hard to put this book at number two, even though I know my number one choice is correct and perfect, but this book, oh, this book. It just hurts to see it at number two. This book should never be number two. This book is my imaginary paper boyfriend. And when they legalise civil partnerships between humans and books I'm going up the aisle with Mr. Benson.

Ingénue twink, Jamie, goes to leather bar to find a master - and finds the greatest master in the world, Mr Benson, who takes him in hand and shows him the world. Jamie explains that this is a love story. It even has a happy ending. A classic, a trailblazer, a book of books. You want to talk about classics of erotica? Philosophy in the Boudoir is not in the list, and Mr. Benson is.

1. Macho Sluts, by Pat Califia

Most. Erotic. Title. Ever. And lived up to on page one.

This book was controversial on its release, because at the time it seemed unbelievable that lesbianism and hardcore gay leathersex should nestle between the same pages. Califia at the time of the book's publication was a butch dyke (now he's a transman) and it was simply unthinkable that a lesbian should be writing extremely hot porn about men with men - among other things.

Nowadays, being a woman and identifying as queer and enjoying male/male erotica seems pretty unremarkable. But here's the book that bucked a trend and made everything possible - and is also incredibly, beautifully hot.

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Honorable mentions:

I decided to only include one Black Lace book (they are my own publishers, after all) but I could have filled a whole list with them. Favourites include: Asking for Trouble, by Kristina Lloyd; Circus Excite, by Nikki Magennis; A Gentleman's Wager, by Madelynne Ellis; and - I shouldn’t, but yes, books by me.

Also, your time will not be wasted by:

Exposed: The Erotic Fiction of Alison Tyler, by Alison Tyler

The Monk, by Matthew Lewis

The Story of O, by Pauline Reague

Exquisite Corpse, by Poppy Z Brite

The Almond: The Sexual Awakening of a Muslim Woman, by Nedjma

Vampire Vow, by Michael Schiefelbein

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabakov

100 Strokes of the Brush Before Bed, by Melissa P.

Nine and a Half Weeks: A Memoir of a Love Affair, by Elizabeth McNeil

The Magic Toyshop, by Angela Carter.

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©Mathilde Madden

Mathilde Madden is an author, a journalist, and a lover of genre fiction. Her latest novel is Equal Opportunities, from Black Lace/Virgin Books. To read more of her work on-line, visit www.mathildemadden.co.uk, or read her past contributions to Reflection's Edge here.