It seems like my mind is always in the gutter. So, taking advantage of this--and in honor of Banned Books Week--here are my picks for the five sexiest classics from the ALA's list. Remember, it's not smut--it's literature.
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence. There's no way to avoid the languid sensuality of Lawrence's writing: "Rippling, rippling, rippling, like a flapping overlapping of soft flames, soft as feathers, running to points of brilliance, exquisite, exquisite and melting her all molten inside."
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Sure, the protagonist can't really have traditional intercourse...but the sense of dampened desire permeates this classic: a slow-burn.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov pulls off the ultimate tour de force, arousing his readers enough to make them wonder if they, too, are perverts like Humbert Humbert.
Ulysses by James Joyce. Molly Bloom's soliloquy is famous for a reason. Here's a taste: "I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."
What do you think? Am I crazy? Kinky? Worse--did I miss an unmissably sexy classic?
