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Little Birds: Thirteen Feminist Erotic Short Stories that Inspired the Series by Anaïs Nin
Evocative and superbly erotic, Little Birds is a powerful journey into the mysterious world of sex and sensuality. From the beach towns of Normandy to the streets of New Orleans, these thirteen vignettes introduce us to a covetous French painter, a sleepless wanderer of the night, a guitar-playing gypsy, and a host of others who yearn for and dive into the turbulent depths of romantic experience.
148 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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About the author
Anaïs Nin
355 books8,947 followersWriter and diarist, born in Paris to a Catalan father and a Danish mother, Anaïs Nin spent many of her early years with Cuban relatives. Later a naturalized American citizen, she lived and worked in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. Author of avant-garde novels in the French surrealistic style and collections of erotica, she is best known for her life and times in The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volumes I-VII (1966-1980).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana%C3%...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana%C3%...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,157 reviews
March 15, 2008
this is how I learned about sex. Thanks mom and dad for owning it! Also, I stole it from you.
March 31, 2015
This is bad erotica. In 13 stories only one focuses on two people screwing because they like it. I read the whole thing and here are the stories (spoilers aplenty):
1. Open with pedophilia
2. Magic mystery sex with a stranger who romantically recounts being raped in a crowd while watching a hanging.
3. Main character Lina just needs a bit of rape to get her to like sex.
4. Adorable tales of boys molesting their little sisters, and how it leads to a vigorous incestuous sex life.
5. This one is just boring and racist. A woman finally gets back at her cheating husband by -gasp!- sleeping with another man!
6. The hot prude's husband begins to make secret paintings of his naked wife against her will. Then she catches him shtupping the paintings. So she tears her clothes off and just becomes Even Sexier.
7. A virgin naif is introduced to sex by Scoundrel Artists. Bizarre stories of raping jungle women. Minor lesbian tryst due to horseback injury.
8. This one I described only as "Whores, amirite?"
9. How to shame a woman into submission and have her be grateful.
10. Fantasies of beastiality rewarded by rape.
11. How to get your husband to stop screwing "colored women"--just smell like one and it will "break the spell"!
12. Two women enjoy a bit of sex and anal play. A little lesbian fondling. This is the best story and it is still rather dull.
13. Two men take in a runaway girl and keep her for sex.
The stories all reinforce sex as vile, enjoyed only by delinquent women, and necessitating trickery. The writing is very dry, which works against supposedly hot sex. The whole thing reads like a tame French translation of 50 shades.
1. Open with pedophilia
2. Magic mystery sex with a stranger who romantically recounts being raped in a crowd while watching a hanging.
3. Main character Lina just needs a bit of rape to get her to like sex.
4. Adorable tales of boys molesting their little sisters, and how it leads to a vigorous incestuous sex life.
5. This one is just boring and racist. A woman finally gets back at her cheating husband by -gasp!- sleeping with another man!
6. The hot prude's husband begins to make secret paintings of his naked wife against her will. Then she catches him shtupping the paintings. So she tears her clothes off and just becomes Even Sexier.
7. A virgin naif is introduced to sex by Scoundrel Artists. Bizarre stories of raping jungle women. Minor lesbian tryst due to horseback injury.
8. This one I described only as "Whores, amirite?"
9. How to shame a woman into submission and have her be grateful.
10. Fantasies of beastiality rewarded by rape.
11. How to get your husband to stop screwing "colored women"--just smell like one and it will "break the spell"!
12. Two women enjoy a bit of sex and anal play. A little lesbian fondling. This is the best story and it is still rather dull.
13. Two men take in a runaway girl and keep her for sex.
The stories all reinforce sex as vile, enjoyed only by delinquent women, and necessitating trickery. The writing is very dry, which works against supposedly hot sex. The whole thing reads like a tame French translation of 50 shades.
August 12, 2016
PEOPLE ARE WASTING THEIR TIME NOWADAYS WITH AN OVERLOAD OF TOTALLY INSIGNIFICANT, SHALLOW EROTICA-BOOKS ! ANAIS NIN IS A GODDESS OF MASTERFULLY WRITTEN, DARK EROTICA - HER CHARMING VULNERABILITY AND PERSONAL HONESTY IS PART OF HER POETRY ! SOME OF THE THINGS SHE HAS WRITTEN ABOUT HAVE THE POWER TO BE SOMETIMES DISTURBING BUT THEY ARE ALSO A UNIQUE TESTIMONY ABOUT ANAIS NIN AS A PERSON, THE WOMAN SHE BECAME, THE WOMAN SHE WAS ! ALL THAT IS MEANINGFUL AND PROFOUNDLY MOVING ! (L.prytikin)
December 1, 2020
I banished Nin's life story from my mind, banished what I've read of the diaries and everything else but the material in hand(s). There's a beauty to the writing in these stories. Some deal with subjects that are uncomfortable for some people and taboo for others; I went in sweeping all that aside.
There was a man in Paris who had a private collection of erotic stories. He paid Anais Nin and great writers hanging around Paris with more talent than money a dollar a page for them. I found myself wondering whether he had certain preferences and yearning to read his collection. That's my fantasy, since his identity is lost to time and his collection. We have Nin's and Miller's, which he may or may not have even written, but the entirety...commissioned by the one man. Like a painting or photographs. Did he collect those too? I want to know. Or was the written word his greatest aphrodisiac? Stop fantasizing, Lori, and write about this book of stories.
Slight movements, some as delicate as the little birds of the title story, recur. Particular urges, artists and models, young girls (at that time of legal age). The focus of most of the stories is on getting to sex. She plays with that line where getting to sex is itself part of sex. It's not generally physical foreplay; it's something like choreography.
As with all short story collections (and lovers) the quality varies. They're not capital L literature but they're literary. I like them. And I love one:
The Maja. I'm not sure what someone unfamiliar with Goya would think but worst case they would think okay, this is somewhat like the rest. For those who know Goya...no spoilers. You may not find it so: To me The Maja is lovely. Languorous. Sensuous.
There was a man in Paris who had a private collection of erotic stories. He paid Anais Nin and great writers hanging around Paris with more talent than money a dollar a page for them. I found myself wondering whether he had certain preferences and yearning to read his collection. That's my fantasy, since his identity is lost to time and his collection. We have Nin's and Miller's, which he may or may not have even written, but the entirety...commissioned by the one man. Like a painting or photographs. Did he collect those too? I want to know. Or was the written word his greatest aphrodisiac? Stop fantasizing, Lori, and write about this book of stories.
Slight movements, some as delicate as the little birds of the title story, recur. Particular urges, artists and models, young girls (at that time of legal age). The focus of most of the stories is on getting to sex. She plays with that line where getting to sex is itself part of sex. It's not generally physical foreplay; it's something like choreography.
As with all short story collections (and lovers) the quality varies. They're not capital L literature but they're literary. I like them. And I love one:
The Maja. I'm not sure what someone unfamiliar with Goya would think but worst case they would think okay, this is somewhat like the rest. For those who know Goya...no spoilers. You may not find it so: To me The Maja is lovely. Languorous. Sensuous.
October 7, 2025
So… I totally stole my first copy of this book from my mother. I learnt more about sex, sensuality and pleasure from Anais Nin than from anything else I had ever read on the subject until much later in life, and for that, I would like to thank her.
Weird confessions aside, this is a beautifully written collection of short stories, that explore not just heterosexual intercourse, but all kinds of other interesting sexual escapades, some quite out of the norm – but bear in mind that this was a very different age, with different standards and taboos. For those concerned with such things, there is no violence in these short stories but some stories do blur the consent line a bit. It is also nice to see a wide range of pleasures for both the male and female characters of these stories. We are very far from cheap American porn here, ladies and gents!
I cannot imagine why people would read “50 Shades of Grey” when there is such beautiful erotic prose such as Nin’s writing out there, but to each their own! Her other collection, “Delta of Venus”, which technically precedes this one, is also well worth the read.
Weird confessions aside, this is a beautifully written collection of short stories, that explore not just heterosexual intercourse, but all kinds of other interesting sexual escapades, some quite out of the norm – but bear in mind that this was a very different age, with different standards and taboos. For those concerned with such things, there is no violence in these short stories but some stories do blur the consent line a bit. It is also nice to see a wide range of pleasures for both the male and female characters of these stories. We are very far from cheap American porn here, ladies and gents!
I cannot imagine why people would read “50 Shades of Grey” when there is such beautiful erotic prose such as Nin’s writing out there, but to each their own! Her other collection, “Delta of Venus”, which technically precedes this one, is also well worth the read.
December 24, 2023
this feels like the fucked up fantasies of some old creepy man : from misogyny, to rape, to incest, to pedophila. really not worth the read, i thought i would get some tasteful stories by a woman but honestly every single chapter made me feel at best icky and at worst frankly disgusted.
March 26, 2009
I give Little Birds four stars in comparison to Delta of Venus' two, though as a stand alone, it would probably only get 2 or 3. There are almost no disgusting and despicable sex scenes in Little Birds, and for this, I am grateful. (As it turns out, I'm a bit prudish after all...)
Little Birds is set in various places around the world, but quite often set in New York and New Orleans. It feels more modern than Delta of Venus. It feels more aware, more present. And this, my second dip into a collection of Anais Nin's short stories, I finally understand why she is a noteworthy FEMALE writer. She is finally writing about women. Silly, stupid women. And most of it's pretty sexy.
Little Birds is set in various places around the world, but quite often set in New York and New Orleans. It feels more modern than Delta of Venus. It feels more aware, more present. And this, my second dip into a collection of Anais Nin's short stories, I finally understand why she is a noteworthy FEMALE writer. She is finally writing about women. Silly, stupid women. And most of it's pretty sexy.
July 8, 2019
The stories here, which I found to be more finely crafted and deeper than Delta of Venus, were clever, entertaining, and of course, sexy. In my opinion, Nin set the bar higher than anyone else when it comes to erotic literature. This is literary erotica for intellectuals, and her beautiful style of writing which is easy to connect with covers a range of sexual and sensual indulgences, and reveals insights into the mysteries of women and their sexuality. Most are based on her adventurous experiences and on those of her friends, exploring different cultures and sexual habits. I find her work far more effective than the sleaze of Henry Miller.
May 27, 2023
It probably isn't a surprise that Anaïs Nin is one of my favourite authors. I discovered her by surprise some years ago when I read her short story collection 'Delta of Venus', and despite not loving the collection like I expected to, her style opened my mind and lit a flame of curiousness, if you will, the curiousity to definitely seek out more from this wonderful writer.
Nin captured my heart with Henry and June. It captured the beauty of sexual intimacy without the need to become vulgar, and I could feel the emotion seeping through the pages. This book wasn't as beautiful, but it still contained some exquisitely written sex, and that was what i came for.
I enjoyed that Nin describes the build-up to sex in each story, what it is that drives these wild desires and for people to trust one another in that level of intimacy? I think if the stories were just snippets of sex without any background, these stories wouldn't have been as enjoyable. For me, it is all about that magnificently tantalising build-up.
Nin does take a step into areas where I'm dancing on the edge of feeling uncomfortable, dealing with themes such as incest, but as it was only contained in one story, it wasn't enough to ruin my overall enjoyment of the collection.
Nin was a master at writing brazenly about sex in all of it's glory, and I think she has taught a lot of women through her writing that sexual intimacy is meant for women to enjoy, not just lay back and endure.
Nin captured my heart with Henry and June. It captured the beauty of sexual intimacy without the need to become vulgar, and I could feel the emotion seeping through the pages. This book wasn't as beautiful, but it still contained some exquisitely written sex, and that was what i came for.
I enjoyed that Nin describes the build-up to sex in each story, what it is that drives these wild desires and for people to trust one another in that level of intimacy? I think if the stories were just snippets of sex without any background, these stories wouldn't have been as enjoyable. For me, it is all about that magnificently tantalising build-up.
Nin does take a step into areas where I'm dancing on the edge of feeling uncomfortable, dealing with themes such as incest, but as it was only contained in one story, it wasn't enough to ruin my overall enjoyment of the collection.
Nin was a master at writing brazenly about sex in all of it's glory, and I think she has taught a lot of women through her writing that sexual intimacy is meant for women to enjoy, not just lay back and endure.
August 18, 2015
In Full Flight
The titular birds feature in polar opposite contexts in this collection of erotica.
In the first story, Marcel rents an attic with a terrace. He feeds the birds, so as to attract the attention of schoolgirls across the road. Having won their trust, he exposes himself to the girls, after which they take fright and run away, like little birds.
In the last story, a runaway 16 year old girl, Jeanette, finds physical shelter with Jean and Pierre. She wants to have a few men to herself. "One is not enough?" asks Jean. "I don't know yet. I will have to see."
Both men treat her sensitively as they initiate her into the sensual world. Pierre even withholds his penis from the immediate satisfaction she is seeking:
"It was as if he held a palpitating bird in his hand, a captive bird that tried to leap at her but that Pierre kept for his own pleasure...He continued to massage it...as if to say, 'I don't need you.'"
In response, Jeanette is emptied of all but her own "desire to be taken and satisfied":
"She bloomed under his caresses, no longer the girl but the woman already being born."
Here, the bird helps Jeanette to take flight.
Italian cover featuring "La Belle Rafaela" by Tamara de Lempicka (1927)
The Most Delicious Vise
I initially felt this posthumous collection was inferior to its immediate predecessor, "Delta of Venus".
However, gradually, it's thematic content cohered and became more apparent.
This is very much about the transition from 13 year old innocence and naivety to 16 year old experience and worldliness. As she grows, the notional girl awakens from flight to the embrace of birds, not to mention the "little silver foxes" of other women (who "moan like pigeons...beneath the satin and the fur") and "the most delicious vise of silky, salty flesh".
The life of this fiction is filled with perfumes, jewelry, curtains and caresses.
This is the feminine flipside of the masculine rites of passage explored in the fiction of Haruki Murakami, except it's both more focussed on and better attuned to a woman's sexual perspective.
SOUNDTRACK:
Little Birdy - "Beautiful To Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMcFm...
Readings of "The Woman On The Dunes"
https://vimeo.com/9633397
https://soundcloud.com/viciousminutes...
The titular birds feature in polar opposite contexts in this collection of erotica.
In the first story, Marcel rents an attic with a terrace. He feeds the birds, so as to attract the attention of schoolgirls across the road. Having won their trust, he exposes himself to the girls, after which they take fright and run away, like little birds.
In the last story, a runaway 16 year old girl, Jeanette, finds physical shelter with Jean and Pierre. She wants to have a few men to herself. "One is not enough?" asks Jean. "I don't know yet. I will have to see."
Both men treat her sensitively as they initiate her into the sensual world. Pierre even withholds his penis from the immediate satisfaction she is seeking:
"It was as if he held a palpitating bird in his hand, a captive bird that tried to leap at her but that Pierre kept for his own pleasure...He continued to massage it...as if to say, 'I don't need you.'"
In response, Jeanette is emptied of all but her own "desire to be taken and satisfied":
"She bloomed under his caresses, no longer the girl but the woman already being born."
Here, the bird helps Jeanette to take flight.
Italian cover featuring "La Belle Rafaela" by Tamara de Lempicka (1927)
The Most Delicious Vise
I initially felt this posthumous collection was inferior to its immediate predecessor, "Delta of Venus".
However, gradually, it's thematic content cohered and became more apparent.
This is very much about the transition from 13 year old innocence and naivety to 16 year old experience and worldliness. As she grows, the notional girl awakens from flight to the embrace of birds, not to mention the "little silver foxes" of other women (who "moan like pigeons...beneath the satin and the fur") and "the most delicious vise of silky, salty flesh".
The life of this fiction is filled with perfumes, jewelry, curtains and caresses.
This is the feminine flipside of the masculine rites of passage explored in the fiction of Haruki Murakami, except it's both more focussed on and better attuned to a woman's sexual perspective.
SOUNDTRACK:
Little Birdy - "Beautiful To Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMcFm...
Readings of "The Woman On The Dunes"
https://vimeo.com/9633397
https://soundcloud.com/viciousminutes...
March 14, 2010
This little book of short stories is by far some of the finest erotica ever written. Nin is a true master of love, lust, and the body’s betrayal of our innermost desires. Nin writes with a simple elegance. Never overdoing the imagery, we get just what we need to feel the work without a crass microscopic examination. Nin plunges deeply into the psyche of her characters, and we get more than an up-close and personal intimate glimpse of their inner turmoil as they struggle to break free of their self-imposed sexual limitations. Her characters awaken, blossom like flowers covered in the morning dew, and perfume the pages before our very eyes.
Nin is not merely writing about sex or sexual taboos in these stories; she is writing essays on humanity’s constant battle to reconcile our inner longings and emotional conflicts concerning sex and death. She definitely pushes the boundaries, but she does it with such nuance and such poetry and such innocence that the disturbing subject matter feels tempered in order for us to achieve a greater understanding of themes presented.
This is a wonderful introduction to Nin’s work. I highly recommend that all authors read her work, specifically authors who are interested in exploring sexuality in their own material. Her approach is genuine: voyeuristic without being intrusive. Those who are already familiar with the great erotic enchantress know this. This book is a must have for the collection. It is a book to return to with a blush and a smile over and over again. However, if you are looking for graphic depictions of sex, you will not find it here, for this is true erotica, and it takes a deeply subliminal approach, not plot laden poke and jab.
To me, there is a huge difference between erotica and pornography. Erotic doesn’t even necessarily have to be about sex, and as a reader and a writer, I don’t need it to be. I find that erotica tends to titillate at a deeper more emotional level, and ambiguity can be used to great effect. Well-written erotica affects the reader beyond the physical, and often times that affectation is so powerful that the physical can be left out entirely. As for my own work, I do write a fair amount of sex, and it’s never comfortable no matter how many times you do it. Each scene feels just like the first time you did it yourself. It’s awkward and fumbling and downright un-poetic, but just like the rest of the story, sex scenes evolve during the re-writes. Sex for your characters can be a well-spring of self-discovery, and if done well, they can deepen the experience for the reader and move the story beyond the plot-line. Sexual motivation is deeply rooted, and exploring your character’s Id can be quite fulfilling, if not a bit frightening. Just watch your language, erotica can turn into cheap porn with just a few puerile words … it doesn’t take much, and not every story needs sexual exploration. You are the author: you know the story and the characters … you will know if the story needs it or not depending on your overall Thesis. The trial and error part comes in deciding how deeply to explore. Don’t justify the need: be sure it’s worthwhile for your characters to go there; otherwise it will just read like a bad segue.
Of course, I am speaking of literary erotica here. If you are writing erotica for sexual titillation, meaning that you are writing pornography for the sole purpose of arousing the reader, then have at it: But you had better make it good. Clichés only leave my head throbbing and me longing for an aspirin. Spare me the twenty-inch manhood and the weeping multi-orgasmic vulvas paleeease.
Nin is not merely writing about sex or sexual taboos in these stories; she is writing essays on humanity’s constant battle to reconcile our inner longings and emotional conflicts concerning sex and death. She definitely pushes the boundaries, but she does it with such nuance and such poetry and such innocence that the disturbing subject matter feels tempered in order for us to achieve a greater understanding of themes presented.
This is a wonderful introduction to Nin’s work. I highly recommend that all authors read her work, specifically authors who are interested in exploring sexuality in their own material. Her approach is genuine: voyeuristic without being intrusive. Those who are already familiar with the great erotic enchantress know this. This book is a must have for the collection. It is a book to return to with a blush and a smile over and over again. However, if you are looking for graphic depictions of sex, you will not find it here, for this is true erotica, and it takes a deeply subliminal approach, not plot laden poke and jab.
To me, there is a huge difference between erotica and pornography. Erotic doesn’t even necessarily have to be about sex, and as a reader and a writer, I don’t need it to be. I find that erotica tends to titillate at a deeper more emotional level, and ambiguity can be used to great effect. Well-written erotica affects the reader beyond the physical, and often times that affectation is so powerful that the physical can be left out entirely. As for my own work, I do write a fair amount of sex, and it’s never comfortable no matter how many times you do it. Each scene feels just like the first time you did it yourself. It’s awkward and fumbling and downright un-poetic, but just like the rest of the story, sex scenes evolve during the re-writes. Sex for your characters can be a well-spring of self-discovery, and if done well, they can deepen the experience for the reader and move the story beyond the plot-line. Sexual motivation is deeply rooted, and exploring your character’s Id can be quite fulfilling, if not a bit frightening. Just watch your language, erotica can turn into cheap porn with just a few puerile words … it doesn’t take much, and not every story needs sexual exploration. You are the author: you know the story and the characters … you will know if the story needs it or not depending on your overall Thesis. The trial and error part comes in deciding how deeply to explore. Don’t justify the need: be sure it’s worthwhile for your characters to go there; otherwise it will just read like a bad segue.
Of course, I am speaking of literary erotica here. If you are writing erotica for sexual titillation, meaning that you are writing pornography for the sole purpose of arousing the reader, then have at it: But you had better make it good. Clichés only leave my head throbbing and me longing for an aspirin. Spare me the twenty-inch manhood and the weeping multi-orgasmic vulvas paleeease.
December 2, 2007
This book, along with it's companion book (they run together in my mind and am talking about both here), Delta of Venus, are wonderfully evocotive erotic stories. They are never the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am stuff of porn magazines. Sometimes magical, sometimes freaky, with a European sensibility, these stories are softly spellbinding. I can't help but get caught up in them whenever I pick up these books. Elena, Pierre, Leila, the Basque and Bijou, what a cool group of characters! And there are so many more. The sexual encounters depend on the development of the characters and there's more to them than you find in pretty much any other such stories. Very enjoyable!
May 7, 2023
First of all, I am an absolute sucker for erotic literature- but this? No.
1 1/2 stars only because I enjoyed the writing, but the rest was absolutely bad. Pedophilia?! A lesbian woman being „a man“? Necrophilia of some sort? Rape?! Incest?!?
Like what the hell is happening here? There wasn‘t one story without something hella concerning being mentioned.
Miss Nin, please let me have one erotical short story without feeling absolutely disgusted by the end.
1 1/2 stars only because I enjoyed the writing, but the rest was absolutely bad. Pedophilia?! A lesbian woman being „a man“? Necrophilia of some sort? Rape?! Incest?!?
Like what the hell is happening here? There wasn‘t one story without something hella concerning being mentioned.
Miss Nin, please let me have one erotical short story without feeling absolutely disgusted by the end.
May 3, 2014
I think Anais Nin was very courageous in her writing.
February 9, 2010
I found this book long after discovering "Delta of Venus" as a boy on someone's book shelf. I read "Little Birds" as an adult and I believe it should be taken in tandem with the former rather than separately.
What I can say is that thanks to encountering Anias Nin as a boy, I grew up viewing sexuality and sexual attraction as something that takes place mostly in the mind and it is that tension that she describes, between desire and fear/exhileration, and the surrender that her characters often go through that has made for a very healthy sense of the sexual in my life. I view this as a stark contrast to most of my other male friends who only view sexuality through the somewhat crude lens of pornography. I would recommend Nin's books to them, but I am almost certain they would hate them.
So Nin had a positive effect on my life, and contributed to my understanding of the way the female mind views sexuality. I can't think of a higher compliment to give her.
I would also just add that its healthy for a mind to sometimes entertain thoughts for which you wouldn't morally approve. This is the very nature of the illicit, and why we are attracted to it in the first place.
What I can say is that thanks to encountering Anias Nin as a boy, I grew up viewing sexuality and sexual attraction as something that takes place mostly in the mind and it is that tension that she describes, between desire and fear/exhileration, and the surrender that her characters often go through that has made for a very healthy sense of the sexual in my life. I view this as a stark contrast to most of my other male friends who only view sexuality through the somewhat crude lens of pornography. I would recommend Nin's books to them, but I am almost certain they would hate them.
So Nin had a positive effect on my life, and contributed to my understanding of the way the female mind views sexuality. I can't think of a higher compliment to give her.
I would also just add that its healthy for a mind to sometimes entertain thoughts for which you wouldn't morally approve. This is the very nature of the illicit, and why we are attracted to it in the first place.
August 15, 2024
i never know whether to be in awe of nin's mind or concerned
October 23, 2020
Anaïs Nin’s posthumous pornography collection put me in mind of that trite old cliché according to which if women directed porn the films would be more story oriented.
There’s some very explicit sex going on in here, but Nin seems a lot more interested in the build-up towards the sex, the serpentine circumstances that lead two (or more) people to feel the urge to put different parts of their bodies in each other’s holes. These titillating tales of tongues and titties were commissioned to arouse, and Nin understood that it is knowing how these people came to have sex with each other that makes the sex all the more satisfying. Partaking in the build-up helps put the reader in the protagonist’s skin. It is a fantasy that slips on like a gown.
Having said that, most of the stories read like character studies and I sometimes felt that the intellectual/ psychological aspects overstayed their welcome and got in the way of the sexy stuff (boy do I ever feel low writing that, but this is an erotica review after all).
Nin took this dollar-a-page job terribly seriously. She explores the subject of sex with the hand of a surgeon and the eye of a stage director. She is not afraid to take the stories to dark places when necessary, dangling you over the edge of the abyss where passion spills into violence and life into death... but only taking you far enough that you can contemplate the pain and the fear without falling prey to them. It's kind of like literary erotic asphyxiation.
I found the introduction particularly noteworthy, where Nin muses on the strong hint of prostitution inherent to writing erotica. I also find it quite interesting that there are so many reviews written by women who say this book taught them about sex. I’d never thought of it having an educational angle, but there you go. That has to be a plus.
There’s some very explicit sex going on in here, but Nin seems a lot more interested in the build-up towards the sex, the serpentine circumstances that lead two (or more) people to feel the urge to put different parts of their bodies in each other’s holes. These titillating tales of tongues and titties were commissioned to arouse, and Nin understood that it is knowing how these people came to have sex with each other that makes the sex all the more satisfying. Partaking in the build-up helps put the reader in the protagonist’s skin. It is a fantasy that slips on like a gown.
Having said that, most of the stories read like character studies and I sometimes felt that the intellectual/ psychological aspects overstayed their welcome and got in the way of the sexy stuff (boy do I ever feel low writing that, but this is an erotica review after all).
Nin took this dollar-a-page job terribly seriously. She explores the subject of sex with the hand of a surgeon and the eye of a stage director. She is not afraid to take the stories to dark places when necessary, dangling you over the edge of the abyss where passion spills into violence and life into death... but only taking you far enough that you can contemplate the pain and the fear without falling prey to them. It's kind of like literary erotic asphyxiation.
I found the introduction particularly noteworthy, where Nin muses on the strong hint of prostitution inherent to writing erotica. I also find it quite interesting that there are so many reviews written by women who say this book taught them about sex. I’d never thought of it having an educational angle, but there you go. That has to be a plus.
December 17, 2010
This book would be a great read for someone too conservatively raised to appreciate visual pornography for its valuable lessons in learning how to be comfortable with yourself or your partner. It would be a valuable read for someone who did not know how to caress his or her partner to get them aroused for sex.
If someone's fifteen-year-old son asked their mom or dad what sex was all about, first it would be wise to tell them about reproduction, how to avoid it until ready, venereal diseases, and so on; and then tell them about Little Birds, how it's available at the library, and how reading it would educate them in a way which is hard to explain by anyone but experienced confidants.
The stories are written by a sensualist, it's bohemian erotica, tales of being taken, taking; the articulation of women who want what they want, when they want it, without shame: living in the dark ages as we do, stories like these are still considered taboo. The mention of puckered nipples, the clitoris, bulging cocks excreting, and so on; it's all so racy, isn't it?
Little Birds is saturated with it, by way of models and muses being seduced by artists, mostly painters, sometimes American writers, and other times random men on the street. Whether it's sex in the sand with a stranger, or being shared by two men in a well-furnished apartment in New York through a fur coat, the reader is guaranteed to become aroused, and educated in a reality we should embrace, rather than ignore, while fumbling in the dark.
If someone's fifteen-year-old son asked their mom or dad what sex was all about, first it would be wise to tell them about reproduction, how to avoid it until ready, venereal diseases, and so on; and then tell them about Little Birds, how it's available at the library, and how reading it would educate them in a way which is hard to explain by anyone but experienced confidants.
The stories are written by a sensualist, it's bohemian erotica, tales of being taken, taking; the articulation of women who want what they want, when they want it, without shame: living in the dark ages as we do, stories like these are still considered taboo. The mention of puckered nipples, the clitoris, bulging cocks excreting, and so on; it's all so racy, isn't it?
Little Birds is saturated with it, by way of models and muses being seduced by artists, mostly painters, sometimes American writers, and other times random men on the street. Whether it's sex in the sand with a stranger, or being shared by two men in a well-furnished apartment in New York through a fur coat, the reader is guaranteed to become aroused, and educated in a reality we should embrace, rather than ignore, while fumbling in the dark.
February 21, 2012
Again, minor work by a major talent, her work-for-hire erotic fiction--it's a nice intro to the work of Nin, get your feet wet (so to speak.) Then move on to the major fiction--the unique early short works, Under a Glass Bell and Winter of Artifice, and the novels that comprise Cities of the Interior: Spy in the House of Love, Ladders to Fire, Children of the Albatross... then onto the Diaries, starting in 1931, go forward, then back to the early diaries Linotte. Then subscribe to Cafe in Space, the Anais journal, and you'll be as big an addict as I am.
September 29, 2016
This book ruined my innocence.
October 19, 2018
I found this less subversive than her more famous collection, Delta of Venus. That book I compared to "a kitty who rolls on her back for you and you reach out to rub her stomach and she shreds your hand with no warning." This one is a little more, like, you want sexy stuff, here's the sexy stuff.
I mean, sortof. It's all still pretty weird. Nin leaves no kink unkinked. She deals with power imbalances a lot. She investigates the concept of consent. She is nonjudgmental. If you aren't equally nonjudgmental you'll find some of these disturbing. (Well, either way, probably.) They often take radical turns; they end abruptly, or veer off into different stories altogether. Nin maybe doesn't seem like she's actively trolling you quite as hard as she did in Delta of Venus.
I wrote down brief plot descriptions of some of these. They're in order. They contain spoilers. Here they are.
A guy moves into a garrett so he can expose himself to schoolgirls. He's too aggressive and they run away like little birds.
A guy peeps in a window and then has a sexy rendezvous with a strange woman on the beach. She tells a story about being consensually groped and fucked by a stranger in a crowd while watching a man get hanged.
A brief story about a gay woman who may be transgendered.
A complicated story about sisters. One takes another's lover. The guilt kills her sex drive. She ends up faking an orgasm with him while remembering the orgasms she just had with another man, whom she was imagining was this guy.
During an African dust storm, a woman begins to tell what promises to be the long and weird story of her sex life - but then stops, and doesn't seem to the recognize the listener when she sees him next.
A painter starts to love his paintings of his wife more than his actual wife
A whore's body is painted by an artist. It turns him on and she promises that once the paint dries he can fuck her first; but she doesn't wait, she lets everyone else fuck her.
A woman learns she must fight her passive nature and take sexual control with her passive lover. When she falls for another man, he's turned off by her aggression; he thinks she's acting like a whore.
A nubile teen marries a much older man. Surprise, he can only get it up for their black servants; she remains a virgin until she accidentally makes herself smell like a servant.
"In New York I unfold my wings of vanity and coquetry."
A lesbian gives a woman who's had a lot of sex her first orgasm by sticking a finger in her butt. This story is almost pure sex.
An older man takes in a teen runaway who wants to be sexually awakened; when he tires of her his even older roommate is happy to inherit her. It works out for her too.
I mean, sortof. It's all still pretty weird. Nin leaves no kink unkinked. She deals with power imbalances a lot. She investigates the concept of consent. She is nonjudgmental. If you aren't equally nonjudgmental you'll find some of these disturbing. (Well, either way, probably.) They often take radical turns; they end abruptly, or veer off into different stories altogether. Nin maybe doesn't seem like she's actively trolling you quite as hard as she did in Delta of Venus.
I wrote down brief plot descriptions of some of these. They're in order. They contain spoilers. Here they are.
A guy moves into a garrett so he can expose himself to schoolgirls. He's too aggressive and they run away like little birds.
A guy peeps in a window and then has a sexy rendezvous with a strange woman on the beach. She tells a story about being consensually groped and fucked by a stranger in a crowd while watching a man get hanged.
A brief story about a gay woman who may be transgendered.
A complicated story about sisters. One takes another's lover. The guilt kills her sex drive. She ends up faking an orgasm with him while remembering the orgasms she just had with another man, whom she was imagining was this guy.
During an African dust storm, a woman begins to tell what promises to be the long and weird story of her sex life - but then stops, and doesn't seem to the recognize the listener when she sees him next.
A painter starts to love his paintings of his wife more than his actual wife
A whore's body is painted by an artist. It turns him on and she promises that once the paint dries he can fuck her first; but she doesn't wait, she lets everyone else fuck her.
A woman learns she must fight her passive nature and take sexual control with her passive lover. When she falls for another man, he's turned off by her aggression; he thinks she's acting like a whore.
A nubile teen marries a much older man. Surprise, he can only get it up for their black servants; she remains a virgin until she accidentally makes herself smell like a servant.
"In New York I unfold my wings of vanity and coquetry."
A lesbian gives a woman who's had a lot of sex her first orgasm by sticking a finger in her butt. This story is almost pure sex.
An older man takes in a teen runaway who wants to be sexually awakened; when he tires of her his even older roommate is happy to inherit her. It works out for her too.
February 4, 2019
This is my first time to read erotica, but because I pretty much have a good idea what to expect, I wasn't at all shocked, surprised, nor repulsed. As I figured, the only way to appreciate erotic literature such as this is to keep an open mind.
I would like to report that I did exactly that, in the first stories. Towards the end, however, I could not also help but become cynical and/or sarcastic. After all, how much sex can you read about and let your mind absorb before your head actually, truly aches and you declare you've finally had enough?
Little Birds is a compilation of short stories of erotica. These are stories about varying degrees and classes of sexual deviancy and exhaustive descriptions of all manner of copulation. There's a story about an exhibitionist, a pig-like creature with a snout that finds its way between women's legs, orgies, homosexuality, even incest (the one that I couldn't stomach), and more sex. Sex on the sand, sex in a public place, sex in the forest, sex just about everywhere. Cunnilingus and fellatio are described in clear, vivid detail, such that the author's words leave nothing to the reader's imagination.
The stories I couldn't forget are those with endings that I found either funny or weird. The first story, entitled Little Birds, was about this man who lures several young girls to his apartment near their school by purchasing and displaying birds on cages in his terrace. The man was an exhibitionist, and something funny (at least, to me it is) happens near the end. :) And the one I found weird was about the husband who couldn't make love to his own wife, preferring to do it with his colored servants instead. Yes, the husband would actually caress and touch and make foreplay with his wife, but he couldn't just seem to be able to do it with her. The wife is heartbroken especially since, every night, she would hear her husband and one of the colored maids getting it on somewhere nearby. Finally, when the wife makes a purchase of this particular herb, the mystery is solved. Oh, had the wife only known...! :)
In Anais Nin's foreword, she narrated that she started writing erotic literature out of necessity, creating the stories from an empty stomach. According to her, she became the "madame" of a certain group of writers who lived and got by through what she termed "literary prostitution". When I read this, I realized that the value of these erotic literature was the fact that it put food on their table, at the time. And if it stirred people's sexual desires, well, that would have been a mere incident now, wouldn't it? :)
I would like to report that I did exactly that, in the first stories. Towards the end, however, I could not also help but become cynical and/or sarcastic. After all, how much sex can you read about and let your mind absorb before your head actually, truly aches and you declare you've finally had enough?
Little Birds is a compilation of short stories of erotica. These are stories about varying degrees and classes of sexual deviancy and exhaustive descriptions of all manner of copulation. There's a story about an exhibitionist, a pig-like creature with a snout that finds its way between women's legs, orgies, homosexuality, even incest (the one that I couldn't stomach), and more sex. Sex on the sand, sex in a public place, sex in the forest, sex just about everywhere. Cunnilingus and fellatio are described in clear, vivid detail, such that the author's words leave nothing to the reader's imagination.
The stories I couldn't forget are those with endings that I found either funny or weird. The first story, entitled Little Birds, was about this man who lures several young girls to his apartment near their school by purchasing and displaying birds on cages in his terrace. The man was an exhibitionist, and something funny (at least, to me it is) happens near the end. :) And the one I found weird was about the husband who couldn't make love to his own wife, preferring to do it with his colored servants instead. Yes, the husband would actually caress and touch and make foreplay with his wife, but he couldn't just seem to be able to do it with her. The wife is heartbroken especially since, every night, she would hear her husband and one of the colored maids getting it on somewhere nearby. Finally, when the wife makes a purchase of this particular herb, the mystery is solved. Oh, had the wife only known...! :)
In Anais Nin's foreword, she narrated that she started writing erotic literature out of necessity, creating the stories from an empty stomach. According to her, she became the "madame" of a certain group of writers who lived and got by through what she termed "literary prostitution". When I read this, I realized that the value of these erotic literature was the fact that it put food on their table, at the time. And if it stirred people's sexual desires, well, that would have been a mere incident now, wouldn't it? :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2011
I found this incredibly boring when compared to the eroticism and sensuality of Delta Of Venus. I was expecting far more from Anais Nin, especially when regarding a field that she had so much expertise in.
The thing is, erotica is one of those things that is so hard to suffer through when it's dull... there's just no pretending otherwise; and these stories were very similar, caresses followed by a very scientific depiction of oral sex. Sorry to say it did nothing for me.
The thing is, erotica is one of those things that is so hard to suffer through when it's dull... there's just no pretending otherwise; and these stories were very similar, caresses followed by a very scientific depiction of oral sex. Sorry to say it did nothing for me.
March 22, 2019
"Little Birds" and it's sister volume, "Delta of Venus" were ubiquitous in suburban homes towards the late 70's and early 80's. The simple reason for this was the prevalence of book clubs during this period of time. It seemed like every house had a set of these books sitting slyly on the shelf somewhere. I know that my mother certainly had a set, which I was carefully forewarned against reading until I was 18 years old. So of course I skimmed through them at every opportunity looking for the naughty bits, until I discovered them to be very......artistic. I guess that 16 year-old hormones just can't grasp the literary distinction between pornography and erotica. So I left these books behind until I came across a pair at a garage sale recently. It was a dollar well spent to get genuine "book club editions" that were exact copies of what my mom had. So it was with a 53 year-old's perspective that I now attempted to read these books, appreciating them for what they are, classic erotica in every sense of the genre.
"Little Birds"is a collection of 13 short stories, most very short in length. All of them have a very erotic sensibility, and the actual sex in some of the stories actually IS reasonably explicit. The beauty of these tales is that the reader gets drawn into the characters and setting very easily. Author Anais Nin draws her protagonists with a wide brush, sometimes verging on caricature. Her men are often good natured scoundrels, her women ciphers for various types of imagined feminine tropes. The settings often have an air of detached aristocracy, very European and bohemian in style and tone.
There are several standout tales...."The Woman on the Dunes"...."Two Sisters"...:Hilda and Rango"...."Mandra." The centerpiece of the collection, though, is clearly the longer tale, "A Model.". This particular story involves a woman of aristocracy who decides to become a model so that she can engage the world on her own terms. It's a beautifully designed piece of work that suffers from too abrupt an ending, as if Nin got bored with story and decided to bring it to a quick and logical ending. It's still well worth the read, of course.
So now at 53 years of age, I can now comprehend this book for what it is. Artistic? Certainly. Erotic? Doubly certain. Classic? Yes. Anais Nin was a wonder with words and style. These are beautifully written tales that bring the reader right into the heart of the story, into the motivations and actions of the characters. And I will say now that many a man should take note of these books and read them, they are not for women alone. Men can glean much insight as to how women view themselves as people and creatures of a sexual nature from these tales.
This is a quick read, though you might find yourself rereading a few of these stories later on, if for nothing more than the beauty of the language. I'll tackle "Delta of Venus" in it's own review on another occasion.
"Little Birds"is a collection of 13 short stories, most very short in length. All of them have a very erotic sensibility, and the actual sex in some of the stories actually IS reasonably explicit. The beauty of these tales is that the reader gets drawn into the characters and setting very easily. Author Anais Nin draws her protagonists with a wide brush, sometimes verging on caricature. Her men are often good natured scoundrels, her women ciphers for various types of imagined feminine tropes. The settings often have an air of detached aristocracy, very European and bohemian in style and tone.
There are several standout tales...."The Woman on the Dunes"...."Two Sisters"...:Hilda and Rango"...."Mandra." The centerpiece of the collection, though, is clearly the longer tale, "A Model.". This particular story involves a woman of aristocracy who decides to become a model so that she can engage the world on her own terms. It's a beautifully designed piece of work that suffers from too abrupt an ending, as if Nin got bored with story and decided to bring it to a quick and logical ending. It's still well worth the read, of course.
So now at 53 years of age, I can now comprehend this book for what it is. Artistic? Certainly. Erotic? Doubly certain. Classic? Yes. Anais Nin was a wonder with words and style. These are beautifully written tales that bring the reader right into the heart of the story, into the motivations and actions of the characters. And I will say now that many a man should take note of these books and read them, they are not for women alone. Men can glean much insight as to how women view themselves as people and creatures of a sexual nature from these tales.
This is a quick read, though you might find yourself rereading a few of these stories later on, if for nothing more than the beauty of the language. I'll tackle "Delta of Venus" in it's own review on another occasion.
June 1, 2017
With her eyes alone she could give this response, this absolutely erotic response, as if febrile waves were trembling there, pools of madness... something devouring that could lick a man all over like a flame, annihilate him, with a pleasure never known before.
Nin writes about desire and pleasure with imagination and a kind of full-body sensuality. These short stories sometimes feel too abbreviated, stopping abruptly rather than reaching a more natural conclusion. They must have been both shocking and liberating in the 1930s depicting as they do sexual passion for both men and women as separate from marriage or even love.
The most full stories revolve around artists and models, and questions of power are sometimes overturned or reversed. All the same, there's perhaps something deeply patriarchal about the idea of women being ushered into womanhood via men: 'she bloomed under his caresses, no longer the girl but the woman already being born'.
Dreamy, hallucinatory, these are sensual fantasies more akin to DH Lawrence in places than modern erotica.
Nin writes about desire and pleasure with imagination and a kind of full-body sensuality. These short stories sometimes feel too abbreviated, stopping abruptly rather than reaching a more natural conclusion. They must have been both shocking and liberating in the 1930s depicting as they do sexual passion for both men and women as separate from marriage or even love.
The most full stories revolve around artists and models, and questions of power are sometimes overturned or reversed. All the same, there's perhaps something deeply patriarchal about the idea of women being ushered into womanhood via men: 'she bloomed under his caresses, no longer the girl but the woman already being born'.
Dreamy, hallucinatory, these are sensual fantasies more akin to DH Lawrence in places than modern erotica.
March 18, 2011
In the introduction to Little Birds, Anais Nin states in plain terms how difficult it was for writers to make a living, and then goes on to explain that many writers wrote erotic fiction as a means of supporting themselves in those difficult times (as we are all aware, sex sells). I don't know if this admission tainted my reading of the stories, but they all seemed pretty bland and under-developed. Though the stories all involved sex or arousal, I didn't necessarily find them all erotic, or even mildly sexy. Some were sort of disturbing (in particular, the title story). It seemed less an exploration of healthy, unabashed sexuality (which for the time in which it was written would have been revolutionary) and more a dead-pan documentary of perversion (with nothing very shocking at all) - not what I had expected from Anais Nin. Even the format of some of the stories really doesn't make sense, and the prose seems pretty uninspired. Sex should never be this disappointing.
June 22, 2010
Ok first up I bought this knowing that it contained stories that are also in The Delta of Venus and Eros Unbound, so I guess out of 13 stories I've already read 6 most of which I love and adore and would read agian over and over. The remaining 7 left me feeling a little disappointed, the verve seems to have gone, the exquisite delicacy and graceful writing and words, vanished, the languidity replaced by a sense of urgency. Perhapes by the time she wrote these she was bored to tears of writing erotica or perhapes some of these are collaborative work. So for this one it's 3 stars. By the way my favourite story from this is The Woman on the Dunes:)
Read
December 22, 2020Favourite stories: The Woman in the Dunes, The Model and Mandra.
January 15, 2024
many of the stories were very great. a few were questionable
March 31, 2025
The time has finally come for my first 1 star review 🏆 I’m genuinely shocked at how bad this was. I flipped through this little collection of vintage erotica at a Barnes & Noble recently and must have only skimmed the unoffensive bits because when I read it in full later (thankfully I didn’t buy it), I couldn’t see what was pleasant about it anymore.
For starters, the first and titular short story, Little Birds, is about a man who moves himself and his wife into a new apartment solely because it overlooks a yard where young schoolgirls play—so he can ultimately flash them. “They all took fright, like little birds, and ran away.” Unless you’re a total creep, who exactly is this supposed to be hot for?
I’m doubly shocked that this was written by a woman because most of these stories are really icky and problematic in some way. I thought okay, this was 1940’s Paris, times were different, but come on. You’ve got misogyny, pedophilia, incest, descriptions of sexual harassment/rape, and fetishization of “savage” and “colored” women on the list of offenses. I’m no prude, but a story about a 40 year old man taking a 16 year old girl as his wife but struggling to have sex with her because she does not “smell like a colored woman”? Diabolical, and that’s not even the worst of it. ����
For starters, the first and titular short story, Little Birds, is about a man who moves himself and his wife into a new apartment solely because it overlooks a yard where young schoolgirls play—so he can ultimately flash them. “They all took fright, like little birds, and ran away.” Unless you’re a total creep, who exactly is this supposed to be hot for?
I’m doubly shocked that this was written by a woman because most of these stories are really icky and problematic in some way. I thought okay, this was 1940’s Paris, times were different, but come on. You’ve got misogyny, pedophilia, incest, descriptions of sexual harassment/rape, and fetishization of “savage” and “colored” women on the list of offenses. I’m no prude, but a story about a 40 year old man taking a 16 year old girl as his wife but struggling to have sex with her because she does not “smell like a colored woman”? Diabolical, and that’s not even the worst of it. ����
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