Hidden Lusts
Mitzi Szereto
Publisher: Cleis Press; 1 edition (July 5, 2011)
Somehow I have gotten into Mash-ups lately. As you may know I mostly review books that have some thing paranormal in them. But, once a week or so I get into anything else. This week I decided to look at a classic fave mashed-up into a full length erotica. This was recommended so I decided to pop for the fairly high price of $8.77 to buy it.
I have read Pride and Prejudice several times and watched both the mini-series and recent film with Kiera Knightly several times. Mitzi's book has the same characters as the classic and outside the sex, the story is almost entirely similar (except for an incident with Mr. Collin's teeth). But, by no means am I a scholar of the period, especially in Britain.
At the beginning it is Jane's P & P interspersed with the perversities Ms. Szereto has assigned to each character. If her imagination were correct, Austen's world would have been filled with nymphomaniacs, dypsomaniacs, fetishes, oral rapists, and women who masturbate almost anywhere. There would have been plenty to write about but the writer herself would have been too busy getting off to write about it.
The whole thing would be fine if it didn't mostly read like: Austen Austen Austen, insert strange sexual activity, Austen Austen Austen, insert bizarre sexual activity. I think we all know the basic story of Pride and Prejudice so I won't bother to summarize. Eventually, the story is caught up into Darcy's and Elizabeth's convoluted courtship and the sexually aberrant behavior becomes less distracting.
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| Image at the beginning of Chapter 34. Darcy proposing to Elizabeth. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: George Allen, 1894. |
Remember this is Regency not Victorian and the Regency was fairly wild by even our standards, but to imagine nearly the entire gentility being as perverse as Ms. Szereto would have them is too much. And, then to pretend that something like Lydia's nymphomania (serious, heavy duty, real nymphomania possibly with a dash of sociopath or psychopath) was just innocent fun is somewhat ridiculous.
I was actually beginning to enjoy the story around Elizabeth and Maria's visit to Rosings Park's vicarage. Lady Catherine De Bourgh administers highly unusual, BDSM justice among the people of her estate and surrounds, and then Darcy comes to her to most offensively propose and he pulls his penis out and begins to pull at it. There are no circumstances under which I could suspend my disbelief enough for this to be possible.
I was actually beginning to enjoy the story around Elizabeth and Maria's visit to Rosings Park's vicarage. Lady Catherine De Bourgh administers highly unusual, BDSM justice among the people of her estate and surrounds, and then Darcy comes to her to most offensively propose and he pulls his penis out and begins to pull at it. There are no circumstances under which I could suspend my disbelief enough for this to be possible.
Neither can I see Colonel Fitzwilliam attacking and dry-humping Lizzy on her walks around the Rosings Park area. Nor Mr. Bennet being a period porn addict.
I can't even imagine the likelihood of the scene where Lizzy is traveling with the Gardiner's and staying in Lambton, when she learns about Lydia's elopement that Darcy again pulls out his penis and she gives him a blow job. A moment before he is so worried that she is too ill to find her uncle and then he is stuffing her penis down his throat.
There's enhancement and then there is just silly. Imagining Bingley as a closeted homosexual in love with his best friend, no problem, sympathetic even. Imagining Charlotte Lucas as a lesbian, sure. Imagining Collins as a sodomizing clergyman, hell, that's ripped from the headlines of today!
Certainly there was more licentious behavior in the period than we may be lead to believe. We do look at history through the lens of the Victorian period. A woman of the gentry might be ruined if her indiscreet behavior were discovered. And, homosexuality was still considered a crime, although I am certain it existed as much then as now. People were and have always been, I am sure, subject to the same variety of sexual inclination or gender preference.
What I see with this book is the application of gratuitous sexuality to the story set forth by Jane Austen. Only Lydia's, Bingley's, Caroline Bingley's Dominatrix thing, Charlotte Lucas' preference for her own sex are believable for the characters. Lizzy and Mary discover their sexuality but with Lizzy the behaviors go a bit beyond what Austen's character would allow. Mary just continues an unattractive, creepy, pious girl.
Lizzy was restricted by both her character and her social position to behave properly. She would not have permitted impropriety in herself. Nor would a woman who thought herself ruined by her younger sister's elopement consider that same sister's constant masturbation on the legs of the officers "innocent." Since the sexuality is tied to characters who are tied to the original tale then I think a certain amount of congruence is required.
Lizzy was restricted by both her character and her social position to behave properly. She would not have permitted impropriety in herself. Nor would a woman who thought herself ruined by her younger sister's elopement consider that same sister's constant masturbation on the legs of the officers "innocent." Since the sexuality is tied to characters who are tied to the original tale then I think a certain amount of congruence is required.
I do think that Szereto's period-language continuity is very good. It feels like Austen's writing and so blends well. And I think she is exploring an interesting idea about the sexuality of the period. I do have an issue with using a pipe to masturbate, but I am unsure whether pipe in Regency England were the same as our soft fired clay pipes of revolutionary America. If so, she took many risks since the moisture would make them soggy and they would be cut (often bit) shorter and shorter. How woud she have explained having her host's broken pipe-end stuck up her behind?
But, I think if you are going to go period you have to go all the way. Darcy wouldn't defile a woman, to have him do so would be like having a telephone ring at Longbourne.
But, I think if you are going to go period you have to go all the way. Darcy wouldn't defile a woman, to have him do so would be like having a telephone ring at Longbourne.
Now I enjoy erotica and love Jane Austen so I really wish I could give this a good grade but it's more like the unbelieving expression of "Good Gravy!"
