50 Shades of Grey Fallout: Plume Re-Releasing Anne Rice's Erotic Sleeping Beauty Trilogy

Posted on July 9, 2012

In light of the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey, Plume is re-releasing the erotic Sleeping Beauty trilogy that Anne Rice wrote in the 1980s. The trilogy was written under the pen name A. N. Roquelaure and was a huge underground hit. The first book sold more than Interview With a Vampire in fact.

The books are based on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, with an S&M and some other kinky twists. Beauty is awakened from a deep sleep by a handsome prince that has more than kissing on his mind. The story parts company with the original tale after that first kiss. It gets pretty intense after that.

The New York Times reports that the trilogy has been selling quite well, according to Plume. The publisher will print 350,000 copies of the newly designed trilogy, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Release and Beauty's Punishment. Rice has written a new preface to the books and her name is now displayed prominently on the covers. Some 50 Shades of Grey readers have innocently picked up the books and nearly passed out with shock (just read some of the reviews on Amazon.com). This is no heartwarming romance with a misunderstood hero who just needs the love of a good woman, that's for sure.

In an interview Rice says that things are different now and women are allowed to enjoy erotic novels openly. She said, "Women have just as much right to pornography as men do, and I'm talking about literary porn, erotica. If a woman wants to read about being overwhelmed by a pirate, that's her right." So it is, although when we hear the word pirates we think of a gun-toting thug holding up a cruise ship, not some guy in a poet's shirt with flowing, Fabio hair.