The international bestselling author of the erotic classic Emmanuelle continues her “all-out one-woman crusade to liberate mankind from the sexual taboos” (Panorama, Italy).
Emmanuelle II continues the timeless story of an unforgettable woman, a happy sensualist, whose unrestrained erotic experimentation explores the boundless possibilities of sex in a novel of literary and philosophical import.
The beautiful heroine’s initiations into the ecstasies of love are here set against the exotic background of Thailand, where she easily moves from the attentions of a handsome Siamese prince at an elegant soiree to the dark ante-chamber of a Buddhist temple, where the vow of celibacy is cleverly circumvented by a venerable old monk.
A sensual delight, Emmanuelle II succeeds, like few novels before it, in pushing the philosophy of eroticism to the frontiers of myth. Its exploration of fantasy transformed into exquisite fulfillment makes this one of the finest erotic novels ever published, alongside Anne Desclos’ The Story of O and Anaïs Nin’s Delta of Venus.
“This new edition reminds us how this revolutionary epic had an impact on the sexual liberation of women.” —Le Parisien Magazine
“Emmanuelle is not just sex; it is an eroticism that is vintage, oneiric, utopian, and tender, an optimistic and radiant eroticism.” —Le Point
Emmanuelle Arsan is the pseudonym of Marayat and Louis Jacques Rollet-Andriane. Emmanuelle was initially revealed to be written by Marayat, in order to conceal the identity of her husband, a French diplomat stationed in Thailand. Several more novels were published under the Emmanuelle Arsan moniker, including Emmanuelle II.
Anselm Hollo (translator) wrote more than thirty books, including the essay collection Caws & Causeries and Notes on the Possibilities and Attractions of Existence: New and Selected Poems 1965-2000, which received the San Francisco Poetry Center's Book Award for 2001. His translation of Pentii Saarikoski's Trilogy received the 2004 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets. He was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, two grants from The Fund for Poetry, and the Government of Finland's Distinguished Foreign Translator's Award.