The Storm and Other Erotica

by Régine Deforges, Rosette Lamont (Translator)

The Storm and Other Erotica introduces to American audiences a controversial work of charged eroticism in the great French literary tradition of The Story of O and The Butcher. The Storm is a baroque, surreal novella that charts a beautiful young widow's fevered attempts to hold on to her adored husband. As she becomes increasingly convinced that her husband will soon reawaken to join her, her fantasies become more intense, until reality and fantasy meld into a long dream of hysterical passion. This controversial and intense novella is joined here with selections from Deforges's Perverse Tales, light erotic vignettes that play with taboo and stereotype with delightful results. In "Old Man's Funeral," an old curmudgeon's funeral in the French countryside turns suddenly charged by the arrival of his seductive niece and her young lover. And "The Truckdriver" follows a lusty young driver of a big rig through an Italy full of women dreaming of wheels. "If you are looking for a book that will keep you up at night, you have found it…. My only regret is that it didn't last longer." -- Elle

Genres: Fiction, Erotica, France

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Born in Montmorillon, Vienne (but currently living in Paris), she is sometimes called the "High Priestess of French erotic literature." Deforges was the first woman to own and operate a publishing house in France. Over the years, she has been censored, prosecuted, and heavily fined for publishing "offensive" literature. She was formerly president of the Société des Gens de Lettres de France and a member of the Prix Femina jury.

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deforges has high cachet among French erotic writers: much vilified and a target for the morality police. That, and the fact that she "was the first woman to own and operate a publishing house in France" (Wikipedia) make her a compelling figure.

This collection of five short erotic stories is very beautifully written, no doubt, but somehow, despite the dirtiness and frequent transgressions across taboo boundaries -- or maybe because of those -- I often found myself not aroused. Almost all of these stories get off to great starts, often imaginative and poetic, and then go off into very crude directions. The first story, "The Storm," is a perfect example. It starts off detailing the strange grief of a young widow who channels her pain into an unreal continuation of her romantic/sexual relationship with her husband -- literally having sex with the tombstone and earth of his grave. This part of the story is quite good, but then it veers off into a grotesque tangent in which she willingly submits to rape by a family of dirty half-breed retards and the family's dog. Many of the stories are beautiful at building atmosphere and evoking a sense of place (the second story, "Made in Hong Kong," also is effective in this way) but, again, the sexual passages seem to hinge on gang rape and humiliation of the central female protagonist. Deforges' preoccupations with defilement and death struck me as mostly morbid and a huge turn-off.

A common theme of most of the stories seem to be the debauchery of a high-class woman at the hands of vile lower class men. The woman enters these previously off-limits realms partly via madness and via her own poor judgment and partly through a compelling inability to stop herself.

In many ways, it is easy to see the influence of George Bataille (Story of the Eye) on her work. I thought Story of the Eye was better.

"Old Man Renaud's Funeral" was possibly the most fun story in the collection, detailing a luxuriant dinner and wild sex party on a farm following the burial of the farm owner. The return of the farm owner's beautiful niece serves as the aphrodisiac that gets the juices of the farmhands and maidens flowing, and the story manages a surprising lesbian twist.

So, despite excellent atmosphere and literary skill, I found this collection ultimately nonessential erotica. Your mileage may vary.

[Emma]

Du cul malsain, allez 20 pages qui sont tristes et touchantes le reste c’est super glauque. Un chien, un chien ! Lisez pas ça donne envie de vomir

[Salamanderinspace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is deeply, deeply weird. Love that.

If you're looking for "healthy" sexuality in your erotica, this is not the place. The author fetishizes... a lot of things, which are incredibly questionable, and which I've never seen fetishized before. It reminds me of Anais Nin, but like, even weirder.

The writing is lush and beautiful, though I couldn't read the last story in the collection due to an utter lack of dialgoue tags.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je suis choquée. Je ne m’attendais tellement pas a cette histoire érotique, le résumé ne mentionne pas cela. A part cela j’ai trouvé que malgré le fait que l’histoire soit profonde, poignante et un peu touchante car cette pauvre femme devient folle, est dans le déni, et bah l’histoire est plutôt perturbante. Et le fait que la plupart des elements soit a la fois détaillé mais aussi flou c’est tres bizarre.

[Ivy]

I'm not freaky enough for this