By Anushka Mehta
There are so many examples of literary smut all around us – but when you read it, you will understand how much of it is actually worth it. Tune in to some erotic literature for a while, you will witness an adrenaline rush of hormones in your body. However, if you do want to find some ‘good stuff, don’t look in those stuffy erotic novels, when you can find them easily in any novels on your bookshelf. That’s right! Hidden in the pages of many of the popular novels are some of the steamiest erotic scenes I’ve ever come across – those would definitely make your toes curl!
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy:
When it comes to forbidden love, the ‘forbidden’ part is more exciting than the ‘love’ part. The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy’s debut novel, finds the protagonists and fraternal twins, Estha and Rahel, engaging in incestuous sex. On the other hand, their mother Ammu gives in to her feelings for a low-caste carpenter, Velutha. Even if the book is drenched in disturbing themes, no reader can deny the sensual power of the writing.
The line of down that led from her navel to her dark triangle, told him where she wanted him to go. The inside of her legs, where her skin was softest. Then carpenter’s hands lifted her hips and an untouchable tongue touched the innermost part of her. Drank long and deep from the bowl of her.
A House Like a Lotus – Madeleine L’Engle:
A House Like a Lotus is a 1984 novel by Madeleine L’Engle, where Polly O’Keefe travels to Greece and Cyprus to escape the recent events she experienced. These events are revealed in flashbacks and one of them is Polly having sex for the first time. The scene is an intricate one to write – but L’Engle makes it flow on the pages like water, smooth, supple, and beautiful.
His strong and gentle hands began to stroke me, his hands, his lips, his tongue. Gentle. Not frightening. Knowing what he was doing. I felt my nipples rise, and it startled me. ‘Shhh,’ Renny whispered. ‘Shhh, it’s all right, don’t worry, just relax and listen to your body.’
Wild – Cheryl Strayed:
Anything – literally anything can lead someone to have a sexual encounter, in the unlikeliest of places. Cheryl Strayed’s Wild sees her getting sexually intimate in a journey she undertook to get over her grief. The memoir, which is primarily about Strayed’s hike on the Pacific Crest Trail to discover herself, is honest, raw, and free. And by free, the author unabashedly describes everything, including this –
I watched his face while he did this. It seemed more intimate than kissing him had. By the time he’d finished outlining the whole thing, he’d barely touched me, and yet I was so wet I could hardly stand up.
Brokeback Mountain – Annie Proulx:
In Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx brings in a love story between two men, in a different but beautiful way. It is not a long read –between a long short story and a novella–which is what makes the readers stick around even more. Cowboys Ennis and Jack are hired to look after sheep as a summer job. Their emotional attachment develops into a sexual one, which continues even over the next twenty years. Their encounters are something to look forward to!
… still, they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other’s toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and his daughters, little darling.
Fingersmith – Sarah Waters:
Fingersmith is a literal work of art, peppered with fascinating boldness all over the narrative. Even the title – that directly means a pickpocket or thief – is a rather clever allusion to female masturbation. Set in Victorian-era, it follows Sue Trinder, an orphan, who plans to deceive Maud Lilly, her mistress, on the order of the ‘Gentleman’ – but the women fall in love. There are many factors at play in this novel, but the arousing chemistry between them is simply undeniable. A little excerpt from the novel is enough to give you a glimpse of that chemistry –
She began to shake. I supposed she was still afraid. Then I began to shake, too. I forgot to think of Gentleman, after that. I thought only of her. When her face grew wet with tears, I kissed them away.
Atonement – Ian McEwan:
Ian McEwan’s Atonement is far from whatever story you’d be thinking about right now – it will definitely make you gasp in horror or resignedly shake your head. Thirteen-year-old protagonist Briony Tallis sees her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant having sex in their mansion’s library. A misconception of this scene is what prompts the later events of the novel – but the scene in itself is as easy to imagine as it is stimulating!
They had been motionless for perhaps as long as half a minute. Longer would have required the mastery of some formidable tantric art. They began to make love against the library shelves which creaked with their movement.
Lady Chatterley’s lover – D. H. Lawrence:
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is one of D. H. Lawrence’s most popular novels – and an example of how tantalizing his writing can become! This novel finds the former Constance Reid, i.e. Lady Chatterley, trying to find physical and emotional satisfaction somewhere else, as her husband, is paralyzed from the waist down and is emotionally unavailable. She finds her solace in Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper and their relationship blooms beautifully –
Then as he began to move, in the sudden helpless orgasm, there awoke in her new strange thrills rippling inside her. Rippling, rippling, rippling, like a flapping overlapping of soft flames, soft as feathers, running to points of brilliance, exquisite and melting her all molten inside… She lay unconscious of the wild little cries she uttered at the last.
Do your library homes these books? Little might you have realized that these regular novels have hidden erotica in them. These novels mentioned have some of the best erotic scenes an eager and erotica lover could ever come across – if these don’t get you in the mood, I don’t know what will.
