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The Sleeping Beauty Quartet

''Beauty's Punishment'': 26 March 1984 ''Beauty's Release'': 3 June 1985 ''Beauty's Kingdom'': 21 April 2015"},"media_type":{"wt":"Print, audiobook"},"pages":{"wt":"''The Claimi...

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The Sleeping Beauty Quartet is a series of four novels written by American author Anne Rice under the pseudonym of A. N. Roquelaure. The quartet comprises The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, Beauty's Release, and Beauty's Kingdom, first published individually in 1983, 1984, 1985, and 2015, respectively, in the United States. They are eroticBDSM novels set in a medieval fantasy world, loosely based on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. The novels describe explicit sexual adventures of the female protagonist Beauty and the male characters Alexi, Tristan, and Laurent, featuring both maledom and femdom scenarios amid vivid imageries of bisexuality, homosexuality, ephebophilia, and pony play.[1]

In 1994, the abridged audio versions of the first three books were published in cassette form. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty was read by actress Amy Brenneman. Beauty's Punishment was read by Elizabeth Montgomery (known for her role in the ABCsituation comedyBewitched) as Beauty with Michael Diamond as Tristan, and Beauty's Release was read by Montgomery with actor Christian Keiber reading as Laurent.[2] A compact disc version of the audiobooks was read by Genviere Bevier and Winthrop Eliot.[3]

Background

After the success of Interview with the Vampire (1976), Anne Rice wrote two extensively researched historical novels, The Feast of All Saints (1979) and Cry to Heaven (1982). Neither of them gave her the critical acclaim or the commercial success of her first novel; the main complaints about The Feast of All Saints were that it was too heavy and dense to read easily,[4] and most of the reviews for Cry to Heaven were so savagely negative that Rice felt devastated.[5] She had been thinking about a story set during the time of Oscar Wilde for the next novel, but decided to abandon it and go back to the erotic writing she had explored in the 1960s.[6] Her idea was "to create a book where you didn't have to mark the hot pages" and "to take away everything extraneous, as much as could be done in a narrative".[6] To gain a creative freedom for the new work, Rice adopted the pen name A.N. Roquelaure from the French word roquelaure, referring to a cloak worn by men in the 18th-century Europe.[6][7] Rice only finally came out as the author of the trilogy during the later 1990s.

The trilogy was written in the 1980s when many feminists denounced pornography as violation of women's rights, but Rice firmly believed that women should have the freedom to read and write whatever they pleased, and considered the trilogy her political statement.[8]

A fourth book in the series, Beauty's Kingdom, was published in April 2015.[9]

Plot

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

En el primer capítulo de la historia, Bella despierta de su sueño centenario gracias al Príncipe, no con un beso, sino mediante la cópula, iniciándola en un mundo de aventuras sexuales al estilo del Satiricón . Tras desnudarla, la lleva a su reino, gobernado por su madre, la Reina Leonor, donde Bella es entrenada como esclava y juguete. El resto de los esclavos desnudos, docenas de ellos, en el castillo de la Reina son príncipes y princesas enviados por sus padres reales desde los reinos vecinos como tributos . En este castillo pasan varios años aprendiendo a ser obedientes y sumisos, aceptando ser azotados y obligados a tener relaciones sexuales con nobles y esclavos de ambos sexos, siendo exhibidos y humillados públicamente, y arrastrándose a gatas como animales hasta que regresan a sus tierras "aumentados en sabiduría".

En el castillo, Bella conoce a otro esclavo, el príncipe Alexi, con quien copula apasionadamente. Después, él le cuenta el largo y duro viaje que tuvo que hacer hasta llegar al castillo. Alexi había sido un príncipe testarudo que se resistía a todos los intentos de doblegarlo, hasta que la reina lo envió a la cocina para que los rudos sirvientes lo torturaran. Allí, Alexi recibió un castigo tan salvaje y despiadado que empezó a perder la razón y, tras un entrenamiento particularmente humillante a manos de un mozo de cuadra, se convirtió en un esclavo totalmente sumiso, participando en diversos juegos sexuales a las órdenes de la reina.

A pesar de la moraleja de la historia de Alexi, Bella desobedece deliberadamente, y el libro termina con su condena a una brutal esclavitud en el pueblo vecino mientras su amo llora.

El castigo de la belleza

El segundo libro comienza cuando Bella y otro esclavo desnudo del castillo, el príncipe Tristán, son vendidos en una subasta en la plaza del pueblo. Bella es comprada por la posadera, la señora Lockley, mientras que Tristán es adquirido por Nicolás, el cronista de la reina. En la posada de Lockley, Bella conoce al capitán de la guardia, quien la obliga a complacerlo y luego la lleva a una orgía con sus soldados. Tristán es atado y enjaulado como un poni con una cola metida en el trasero, y obligado a tirar del carro de Nicolás mientras es azotado. Cuando el carro llega a un huerto, se le ordena recoger manzanas con la boca y se le entrena para "satisfacer" a otros ponis humanos en el establo. Después, Nicolás hace que Tristán sea azotado en el Tobogán Público, lo que devasta al príncipe, y luego lo obliga a copular en la cama.

The next day, after having made Tristan march through the crowded streets, which included a short but intense meeting with the Captain of the Guard, Nicholas asks Tristan a series of questions as to what makes a strong, highborn prince obey with such a complete submission. Tristan answers, after some hesitation, that he loves anyone who punishes him no matter how crude or lowly they are and desires the loss of his self amid all the punishments, eventually "becoming" the punishments himself. Nicholas is moved by the answer and, after a frantic intercourse, confesses to him that he is in love with Tristan.

Beauty witnesses the harsh punishment of a runaway slave, Prince Laurent, as he is bound to a wooden cross and the Captain whips him all over his muscular body, and later sees Tristan pulling a cart carrying Laurent in a penitential procession. Tristan begs Nicholas to be allowed to meet Beauty and they reunite in Nicholas' house. Beauty and Tristan copulate as Nicholas watches behind a one-way mirror. Suddenly, Arab soldiers raid the village and several naked slaves, including Beauty, Tristan, and Laurent, are kidnapped. The book closes as they are sent across the sea to serve in the palace of the Sultan.

Beauty's Release

The third book begins with the captured slaves' journey on the ship to the Sultan's realm. While being imprisoned in a cage, Laurent contemplates the recent punishments he received as a runaway on a wooden cross, recalling its pain, degradation and undeniable pleasure. After their arrival at the exotic land of the Sultan, the captured slaves are groomed by a group of young boys and examined by Lexius, the Sultan's steward. Beauty is taken to the harem and is mounted on the phallus of a bronze statue. She is then greeted by Inanna, one of the Sultan's wives, with whom she copulates and is shocked to discover that Inanna's clitoris has been surgically removed.

Laurent and Tristan are taken to an all-male sadomasochistic orgy, being mounted on a cross and whipped. However, in private, Laurent overpowers Lexius and rapes him. Afterward Laurent and Tristan are taken to the Sultan, made to perform a mutual fellatio on each other in his presence, and then the Sultan anally copulates with Laurent. Laurent and Tristan retire from the Sultan's bedroom and when they are beginning to train Lexius as their secret slave, a rescue team led by the Captain of the Guard arrives and Laurent takes Lexius with him to their ship along with Beauty and Tristan. During the last leg of the voyage, the Captain tells Beauty that she is to be released from her servitude because of her parents' demands and, to her great dismay, sent back home to get married: she hysterically protests, but to no avail.

Back at the castle, the Queen takes Lexius as her slave and sends him to the merciless kitchen servants who trained Prince Alexi earlier in the first book. She then sentences both Laurent and Tristan to the village stable for Laurent's rebelliousness and Tristan's failure to become a good slave. They are made to live and work as ponies, pulling all sorts of carts and drawing plows in the fields during the daytime, and having homosexual orgies with other human ponies at night. Tristan, as a pony, reunites with his former owner Nicholas on a temporary basis. However, Laurent's father unexpectedly dies and he is summoned back to his own kingdom against his wish, to become the new ruler. The book ends as Laurent marries Beauty, saying that they shall live happily ever after, or perhaps "a good deal happier" than anyone else could ever guess— thus hinting that they will continue the pleasure of dominance and submission with each other.

Beauty's Kingdom

Twenty years after the events of Beauty's Release, Beauty and Laurent take over the throne following the death of Queen Eleanor and strive to continue the sensual surrender legacy of the kingdom, albeit now in a state of voluntary servitude.

Themes

Sleeping Beauty by Edward Frederick Brewtnall

El cuento de hadas de La Bella Durmiente ha sido analizado por folcloristas y otros estudiosos de diversos tipos, y muchos de ellos han notado elementos eróticos prominentes en la historia. Algunas versiones del cuento muestran a Bella siendo violada y embarazada mientras duerme, y despertando solo después del parto. [ 10 ] El psicólogo infantil Bruno Bettelheim comentó que el cuento "abunda en simbolismo freudiano " [ 11 ] y que los príncipes que intentan llegar a La Bella Durmiente antes del momento apropiado solo para perecer en las espinas que rodean su castillo sirve como advertencia de que los encuentros sexuales prematuros son destructivos. [ 12 ] Las teóricas feministas se han centrado en la extrema pasividad de La Bella Durmiente y la naturaleza sexual de su despertar en el cuento de hadas. Anne Rice literalizó estos elementos sexuales simbólicos —particularmente, el despertar sexual pasivo o la violación de Bella que ha sido denunciado por las feministas— en la historia al reescribirla en un erotismo sadomasoquista explícito. Sin embargo, la identificación de Rice con los personajes masculinos sumisos y receptivos de la trilogía —Alexi , Tristan y Laurent— , que trascendían la equiparación entre el género femenino y el masoquismo , le permitió, a través de sus interacciones homoeróticas con los personajes masculinos dominantes, explotar el potencial erótico del poder fálico, al tiempo que iba más allá de sus límites y lo volvía contra sí mismo. [ 13 ]

Another foremost difference in Rice's rewriting is that the story takes Beauty to a series of far harsher trials after her period of extreme passivity in a coma-like sleep.[14] In the beginning of the first book, the Prince takes Beauty with her parents' consent, having persuaded them that, after completing the sexual servitude in his castle, the slaves emerge with "wisdom, patience, and self-discipline", as well as a full acceptance of their innermost desires and an understanding of the suffering of humankind.[14] Her royal parents, although saddened by the absence of their daughter, are promised that she will return "greatly enhanced in wisdom and beauty". However, this unconventional education in sexual hardship and liberation ends in a monogamous, patriarchal marriage between Beauty and Laurent. In the 1994 issue of Feminist Review, Professor Amalia Ziv of Ben-Gurion University described the trilogy as "definitely more of a comedy" when compared to darker BDSM novels such as Story of O, and commented that "like all comedies, it ends in marriage".[13]

Reception

The trilogy was a commercial success and gained a significant cult following. Rice was able to secure the publishing contract for her next erotic novel Exit to Eden (1985) with an advance of $35,000 (equivalent to $108,000in 2025) from Arbor House.[15] There were allegations that Rice was a dominatrix in real life since the trilogy deals with the BDSM practice so exclusively, but her husband, Stan Rice, replied that "she's no more sadomasochistic than she's a vampire".[16] When the director of the Columbus Metropolitan Library declared the trilogy "hardcore pornography" and removed all print and audiocassette copies from the library shelves in 1996,[17] Rice objected, arguing that the trilogy was "elegantly sensual" and harmless to readers.[17] The trilogy is included in the American Library Association's list of "100 most frequently challenged books" of the 1990s, with the term "challenge" defined in American literature as "an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group".[18]

Professor Linda Badley of Middle Tennessee State University wrote in her 1996 book Writing Horror and the Body on the trilogy, that rewriting the myth of Sleeping Beauty as sadomasochistic fantasies enabled Anne Rice to explore "liminal areas of experience that could not be articulated in conventional literature, extant pornography, or politically correct discourse".[19]

Television adaptation

It was announced in September 2014 that Televisa U.S.A had obtained the rights to adapt the trilogy into a television series. Rice was to serve as executive producer alongside Rachel Winter, producer of the film Dallas Buyers Club. Winter had previously approached Rice in 2012 regarding such plans that did not materialize at the time.[20]As of 2016, the series was still in early development.

See also

References

  1. ↑Riley, Michael (1996). Conversations with Anne Rice: An Intimate, Enlightening Portrait of Her Life and Work. Ballantine. pp. 74–82. ISBN 0-345-39636-7.
  2. ↑Troise, Laura. "Anne Rice FAQ Part 2/2". Archived from the original on August 2, 2012. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  3. ↑"Anne Rice's Erotic Adventures of Sleeping Beauty : Book 1 : The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty". Archived from the original on May 14, 2010.
  4. ↑Guiley, Rosemary E.; Macabre, J. B. (1994). The Complete Vampire Companion: Legend and Lore of the Living Dead. Macmillan General Reference. p. 86. ISBN 0-671-85024-5.
  5. ↑Smith, Jennifer (1996). Anne Rice: A Critical Companion. Greenwood Press. p. 5. ISBN 0-313-29612-X.
  6. 123Hoppenstand, Gary; Browne, Ray B. (1996). The Gothic World of Anne Rice. Popular Press. p. 22. ISBN 0-87972-708-X.
  7. ↑"Roquelaure". TheFreeDictionary.com. Archived from the original on February 14, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  8. ↑Hoppenstand, Gary; Browne, Ray B. (1996). The Gothic World of Anne Rice. Popular Press. p. 23. ISBN 0-87972-708-X.
  9. ↑"New erotica coming from A.N. Roquelaure, aka Anne Rice". USA Today. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
  10. ↑Haase, Donald (2007). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales: Volume 1: A-F. Greenwood. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-313-33442-9.
  11. ↑Bettelheim, Bruno (2010). The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. Vintage. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-307-73963-6.
  12. ↑Bettelheim, Bruno (2010). The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. Vintage. p. 233. ISBN 978-0-307-73963-6.
  13. 12Ziv, Amalia (Spring 1994). "The Pervert's Progress: An Analysis of Story of O and the Beauty trilogy". Feminist Review (46). Sage Publications, Inc.: 61–75. doi:10.2307/1395419. ISSN 0141-7789. JSTOR 1395419.
  14. 12Ramsland, Katherine M. (1991). Prism of the Night: Biography of Anne Rice. Dutton Adult. pp. 215–216. ISBN 0-525-93370-0.
  15. ↑Ramsland, Katherine M. (1991). Prism of the Night: Biography of Anne Rice. Dutton Adult. p. 357. ISBN 0-525-93370-0.
  16. ↑Ramsland, Katherine M. (1991). Prism of the Night: Biography of Anne Rice. Dutton Adult. p. 243. ISBN 0-525-93370-0.
  17. 12Snodgrass, Mary E. (2006). Encyclopedia Of Feminist Literature. Facts on File. p. 450. ISBN 0-8160-6040-1.
  18. ↑"100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999". American Library Association. Archived from the original on January 12, 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
  19. ↑Badley, Linda (1996). Writing Horror and the Body: The Fiction of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture). Greenwood Press. p. 115. ISBN 0-313-29716-9.
  20. ↑"Televisa USA Acquires Anne Rice's Steamy 'Sleeping Beauty' Novels". September 10, 2014. Archived from the original on November 21, 2019. Retrieved February 19, 2020.