Cordelia Speedicut's Bedtime Stories

Further Amusing Links (to July 2011):

Alt Sex Stories Text Repository - The adult story website, free and user-supported. You probably already know about this site, since they are hosting this one – thank you, folks - but if not, go there and check them out. And then, it the mood takes you, give them some money. Hey – why not?

Other free ASSTR hosted sites:

• The Kristen Archives - an extensive collection of erotica.

• The Erotic Mind-Control Archive - Simon bar Sinister's self-explanatory story site. The vulcanized-girl thing in my ‘Club Latex’ comes from a story on EMCSA called ‘Latex Clad Lovelies’, by Robotunit8. I took the liberty of borrowing her fetish club locale & threw in fragments of imagery drawn from some of Tang’s tales on the same site. There’s also a nod to S.S. Crompton’s Demi character. That last link shows the original Demi entangled in some tentacle porn – perhaps there are elements of that in the whole over-the-top trouser-snake thing.

Various related sites:

• The Lab – a mad doctor/transformation site. Okay – probably the only m-d/tf site. The material is variable in its appeal (and who am I to talk?), but the stories are well labelled.

* Update: Fine then - how about 'nearly the only m-d/tf site'? Google the terms and you'll bring up over 6000 hits. Not many are directly relevant, of course - many are references to the good Doctors Frankenstein, Jekyll, and Moreau (and also to the titular doc from the Disney short 'The Mad Doctor'). And then there is Doctor Faustus. Not the Doctor Faustus (probably); this one hosts a blog called EroticMadScientist.com. He provides discussion about and links to his EMS colleagues, such as Dr. Phibes, Rotwang (from Metropolis), and the obscure Dr. Humpp. Oh, and Faustian screenplays.

• Another fine source of free stories is Literotica.

• In the spirit of Keeping It Silly, check out Hoot Island - Host Chris Bridge is a self-described 'silly erotica writer'. Although his site is now reduced to something more of an islet, it links onward to Chris's stories: new ones at his MySpace page, and archived ones on a no-longer-live journal. 

• Firstly, a literally classical tf collection - Ovid's Metamorphoses. Ovid (Publius Ovidius Navo, born 43 BC) was big in his day - his lines turn up as graffiti on the walls of Pompeii. This work consists of retellings of the tales of the gods, wherein a great deal of effort was made to get laid. Jupiter becomes a swan, a bull and a golden shower (?!) to get the girls. Contrariwise, there were occasional transformations to avoid celestial rape - such as when Daphne’s father turns her permanently into a laurel tree to dodge being heroically boinked by Apollo. Thanks a lot, Dad. A thoughtful summary of the stories may be found here. 

• Fanny Hill : Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland. England, first published in 1748. Supposedly the original pornographic novel - hardly because rude stories were new, but by virtue of the fact that the word pornography was forged at the time (from Greek roots) specifically to condemn 'writing about prostitutes'. Also available free in a variety of e-book formats from the Olympia Press.
   
• Gamiani, or deux nuits d'exces (Two Nights of Excess) by Alfred de Musset. France, 1833. Said to be a 'portrait of  Musset's lover, Mademoiselle George Sand; includes various other players, human and otherwise. Ooh LaLa. One of the many excellent illustrators of this tale was Suzanne Ballivet.  (Fresh link)  Warning - it all ends badly for our heroine.

• The Pearl : A Journal of Facetiae and Voluptuous Reading. Authors unknown. England, published 1879 to 1881. Contains a half dozen serialized novellas plus miscellaneous short stories, poems and bawdy ballads. Find an annotated version here, with a historical review. (Note - the speciality of this site is spanking.) 

There are many 20th Century classics as well, including:

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Although I have yet to read it, I understand it also ends badly.

• Candy by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenburg. (Very loosely based on Candide, although Candide was a boy; but then Voltaire was French, so there you go.)

• The six Alba books by Delecourt (who was also French). Alba's Magic Man tells her she must properly anticipate getting formally laid - so she does, spending a good deal of time fantasizing about it in commendable detail – as does most every character who lays eyes on her. (One of these stories, Diva, was made into a decent movie.) 

• Since we’re on a roll ‘Françoise’ - Manuel de Civilite by Pierre-Félix Louÿs deserves a mention. The illustrated pdf edition linked here is from the delightful Cypher Press (motto: beautiful, pointless books) who also provide, gratis, an illustrated collection of Aubrey Beardsley’s writings; also a volume entitled ‘Some Limericks Collected for the use of Students, & ensplendour’d with Introduction, Geographical Index, and with Notes Explanatory and Critical’ – the limericks in question being, as is traditional, all rude. (The also have, incongruously, a lovely edition of Sir Richard Burton’s ‘The Search for the Source of the Nile’). 

Some publishers of classical erotica:  

• The Olympia Press - The current successor to Maurice Girodias's original (and to Obelisk Press, before that) - all the green-covered Travellers Companions and much more, in paper and/or e-book formats .

•  Britain's Erotic Print Society - now known as the Erotic Print Room -  has a deep collection of erotic drawings, prints and illustrations available as quality giclee prints. They also begat the excellent Erotic Review Magazine, which has now evolved to become the on-line only Erotic Review. Another offshoot was Erotic Review Books (now sadly demised), who published some lovely books under their own under imprint, as well as that of the EPS. A publisher search at AbeBooks will bring up lightly used offerings from their wide catalogue.  updated

• Christopher Moore’s books all involve transformation and/or mythology (in a modern setting) – just to get the plot rolling, to paraphrase the author. Very funny, & sexy. They feature recurring characters: such as Kendra, Warrior Babe of the Outland; Jody Stroud (AKA Bloodsucking Fiend) & her sometime goth minion, Abby Normal; and the Emperor of San Francisco. On the other hand, the only two-foot cocks belong to porpoise people. (Did I mention these books are a little different?) Highly recommended.

• Thorne Smith's books likewise involve transformation, in a 1930's setting. You'll likely remember 'Topper'; the book (and its sequel) included a good deal more sexual innuendo and general bad behaviour than the film versions. Of course, the primary transformation in that tale was to being dead, and ghost stories don't usually qualify for this particular genre. Most of his other books did: 'Turnabout', for example, is a classical gender reversal story; another, 'The Glorious Pool' focuses on a couple of senior reprobates and an animated statue of a naiad wanton who guards a fountain of youth. Worth a look.

• George MacDonald Fraser’s books - My 'Dunyazad' has an indirect literary source – I’d been re-reading Flashman. I love his combination of humour and history (with heavy doses of poltroonery, plus some sex). Hence my story’s Victorian theme & a background occasionally based in fact. (For instance, it seems Pope Boniface VIII really was accused by his enemies of keeping a small tame demon in his ring for his depraved amusement - although probably he didn't. And Sir Richard Burton himself wrote of his youthful brothel creeping in Naples – although he was notorious for lying just for the shock value.)  

• 'Cinderella' was already an old story when Charles Perrault added the pumpkin in 1697. (See Andrew Lang’s 1889 translation here.) His version spares the stepsisters – whereas in the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm (here) their eyes are pecked out. Ugg.

• Welcome page: 'La Femme Chauve-Souris' (Bat Woman) by Albert-Joseph Penot (France ~1890)
• Home page top: 'Rolla', by Henri Gervex. (France, again, 1878) This painting, based on a poem by Alfred de Musset (see above), was rejected by the jury of the Salon de Paris for immorality, because the naked lady is a courtesan and the gentleman a regular client. He should have expected it - Manet's 'Olympia' was booted out twenty-odd years previously for the same offence.
• Home page bottom: 'L'indolence' by Pierre Bonnard. The girl is Marthe, Mr. B's longtime model and lover (and later wife). She is described as having been a midinette - a Parisian seamstress (which may or may not have been a euphemism. See also Marthe's reverse - 'Siesta'.
• This page: Woodcut, by Max Kislinger (Austria, early 20th c)

Back home to Cordelia Speedicut's Bedtime Stories