The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

Infobox Book |
name = The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty


image_caption = Penguin Trade paperback cover
author = Anne Rice
country =
language = English
series = Sleeping Beauty Trilogy
genre = Erotic novel
publisher = E. P. Dutton/Plume, New York, NY, U.S.A.
release_date = 1 March 1983
media_type = Print
pages = 253 pp
isbn = ISBN 0452266564 (1983 hardcover and trade paper editions)
followed_by = Beauty's Punishment

"The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" (1983), "Beauty's Punishment" (1984), and"Beauty's Release" (1985) are erotic novels by Anne Rice writing under the pseudonym of A. N. Roquelaure. The trilogy was a bestseller, outearning "Interview with the Vampire". [cite book | title = Conversations with Anne Rice: An Intimate, Enlightening Portrait of Her Life and Work | first = Michael | last = Riley | publisher = Ballantine | year = 1996 | isbn = 0345396367 | pages = pp. 74-82]

They are lengthy BDSM novels, reminiscent of "Story of O", set in a medieval fantasy world based very loosely on the legend of Sleeping Beauty. The novels contain both maledom and femdom scenarios, as well as vivid imageries of bisexuality, ephebophilia and bestiality.

In 1994, the abridged versions of the books were originally sold in cassette form. "Claiming" was read by Amy Brenneman, "Punishment" was read by Elizabeth Montgomery and Michael Diamond, and "Release" was read by Elizabeth Montgomery with Christian Keiber.

An abridged version of the books were read as an audio recording (compact disc) by Genviere Bevier and Winthrop Eliot. [cite web |url=http://www.audiobooksonline.com/067188655X.html |title=Anne Rice's Erotic Adventures of Sleeping Beauty : Book 1 : The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty] [cite web |url=http://www.audioeditions.com/showbook.cfm?pcode=M3H798 |title=Beauty's Release Audio Book]

Plot summary

Beauty is awakened from her hundred-year sleep by the Prince, not with a simple kiss, but with a deflowering, initiating her into a Satyricon-like world of sexual adventures. After stripping her naked he takes her to his kingdom, ruled by his mother, the Queen, where Beauty is trained as a slave and a plaything. The rest of the naked slaves, dozens of them, in the Queen's palace are princes and princesses sent by their royal parents from the surrounding kingdoms as tributes. In this palace they spend several years learning to become obedient and submissive sexual property, accepting being spanked, being publicly displayed, crawling around on their hands and knees, servicing their masters and mistresses, until they return to their own lands "being enhanced in wisdom".

In the palace Beauty meets another slave, Prince Alexi, with whom she copulates passionately. After that he tells her the long adventurous journey he had in the palace. Alexi previously had been a stubborn prince who fought back all the attempts to break him, until the Queen sent him to the kitchen to get him tortured by crude kitchen servants. The punishment Alexi received there was so savage and merciless he began to lose his senses and, after some particularly humiliating training at the hands of a strong stable boy, Alexi became a totally surrendered slave, playing various sexual games at the Queen's commands.

The moral of Alexi's story notwithstanding, Beauty fails to become an obedient plaything, and the book closes with her being sentenced to brutal slavery in the neighboring village along with other failed slaves.

See also

* List of BDSM fiction

References