Author | Emmanuelle Arsan |
---|---|
Translator | Lowell Bair |
Language | French |
Genre | Erotica |
Publisher | Grove Press |
Publication date | 1967 |
Publication place | France |
Media type | |
Pages | 224 |
ISBN | 978-0-8021-0053-5 |
Followed by | Emmanuelle L'Anti-vierge |
Emmanuelle (Emmanuelle: The Joys of a Woman) is an erotic novel by Emmanuelle Arsan originally written in French and published in France in 1967. It was translated into and published in English in 1971 by Mayflower Books. It is a series of explicit erotic fantasies of the author in which she has sex with several—often anonymous—men and women, as well as her husband. It is written in the first person and the reader sees events entirely through the eyes of the sexually adventurous heroine. The book sold widely and later went on to be adapted into a film. The book had two print sequels, and the film launched an extended series.
Emmanuelle, the 19-year-old wife of a French engineer, is flying out to join her husband in Bangkok. While on the plane, she has anonymous sexual encounters with two men, the first time she has cheated on her husband since they were married.
She arrives in Bangkok and becomes part of a hedonistic community of western expats. She makes two new friends - Ariane de Saynes, a 30-year-old French countess, and Marie-Anne, a younger girl. Both friendships have a strong homoerotic flavor. Emmanuelle and Marie-Anne begin a series of sexual games in which they take turns masturbating while the other watches. Meanwhile, Ariane makes a series of attempts to seduce Emmanuelle, culminating in a sexual encounter between the two women on a squash court which verges on rape. Afterwards Ariane tries to persuade Emmanuelle to return home with her. Emmanuelle rejects her advances, but immediately regrets doing so.
At a tea party hosted by Marie-Anne's mother, Emmanuelle meets Bee, the sister of a naval attaché at the American Embassy. Emmanuelle is immediately attracted to the slender, red-headed Bee, and when the two women meet later by chance on the streets of Bangkok she takes the opportunity to invite Bee home with her. Emmanuelle seduces her and the two women make love, first in the shower and then in Emmanuelle's bed. Afterwards Emmanuelle professes her love for Bee, who is taken aback, having never been with another woman before. They agree to meet again, but Bee does not come and Emmanuelle realizes she has no way of contacting her. She is heartbroken and is comforted by her husband.
Marie-Anne, meanwhile, believes that Emmanuelle needs to be cured of her need to associate sex with love. She offers to introduce Emmanuelle to a friend, Mario, an Italian nobleman, who can do this. The two meet for the first time at an embassy cocktail party and Emmanuelle agrees to join him for dinner the following night. Emmanuelle thinks that Mario will become her lover, but Ariane dismisses this idea, telling Emmanuelle that Mario is gay.
The following evening, Emmanuelle and Mario have dinner at Mario's house, joined by an Englishman called Quentin. Over dinner, Mario expounds his philosophy of eroticism, which is that true freedom comes only when eroticism is divorced from love. He offers to take Emmanuelle on a trip that will demonstrate this. The three plunge into the back streets of Bangkok. They visit an opium den and then a temple, where Emmanuelle makes two votive offerings; first by masturbating Mario and then by performing oral sex on a boy. Later, having parted company with Quentin, the two return to Mario's house in a rickshaw pulled by a Thai driver (or sam-lo). During the ride, Emmanuelle demonstrates her new-found freedom by removing her top and then fellating Mario in public. They arrive back at Mario's house and he tells her that he is going to take her "through" the body of the sam-lo. The three make love, the sam-lo penetrating Emmanuelle while Mario penetrates him. As the three reach orgasm together, Emmanuelle screams out, "I'm in love! I'm in love!"
Bangkok is portrayed as a hedonistic city which has a sybaritic effect on its western expat population. [1] Emmanuelle has erotic encounters in settings that represent stereotypes for the exoticism of the East (a massage parlor, [2] opium den, [3] and temple [4] ).
The underlying theme of the novel is the conflict between Emmanuelle's need for love (as typified by her relationships with Jean and Bee) and her innate eroticism (as shown by her anonymous sexual encounters on the plane and her games with Marie-Anne). Mario seeks to address this philosophically in Chapter V of the novel ("The Law"), arguing that surrendering to eroticism will liberate her. The last chapter of the story shows the beginning of this process, which is continued in the 1976 sequel to the novel.
Three of the major characters in the novel - Emmanuelle, Ariane, and Mario - are bisexual in orientation. Although married and despite having sexual encounters with two other men, Emmanuelle describes herself to Mario as a lesbian. [5] She has a passionate sexual relationship with one woman (Bee), sexual encounters with two more (Ariane and Marie-Anne), and expresses attraction to various others (e.g. a flight attendant). It is also hinted that she has had sexual relationships with women prior to arriving in Thailand. [6] Mario is described by Ariane as being gay. [7] He is primarily attracted to men and has sex with the sam-lo, but also allows himself to be fellated and masturbated by Emmanuelle. Ariane is married and has had numerous male lovers, [8] but is strongly attracted to Emmanuelle and makes several attempts to seduce her, including one quasi-rape.
Although the formal date of publication is usually given as 1967, the novel was actually first published and distributed clandestinely in France, without an author's name, in 1959. [9] Successive editions later bore the nom-de-plume Emmanuelle Arsan, who was subsequently revealed to be Marayat Rollet-Andriane. Though the novel was sometimes hinted to be a quasi-autobiography, it was later revealed that the actual author was her husband Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane. [10] but this false attribution has been widely rejected.
The best known adaptation of Emmanuelle is the 1974 film of the same name, directed by Just Jaeckin, and starring Sylvia Kristel. The screenplay was written by Jean-Louis Richard and more-or-less follows the plot of the novel. The film was highly successful in France and around the world. It spawned several sequels and influenced many similar films.
In 1978, Italian artist Guido Crepax produced a graphic adaptation of the novel [11] which faithfully mirrors the plot of the original.
In May 2022, director Audrey Diwan announced her film adaption of the novel to feature French actress Léa Seydoux. [12] However, in 2023 it was reported that Seydoux had parted ways with the project and Noémie Merlant announced as the new lead. [13]
Story of O is an erotic novel written by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage, with the original French text published in 1954 by Jean-Jacques Pauvert.
Autofellatio is a form of masturbation involving the oral stimulation of one's own penis. Only a limited number of males are physically capable of performing fellatio on themselves due to the flexibility required.
Marayat Rollet-Andriane, formerly Marayat Krasaesin or her birthname Marayat Bibidh, known by the pen name Emmanuelle Arsan, was a Thai-French novelist, best known for the novel featuring the fictional character Emmanuelle, a woman who sets out on a voyage of sexual self-discovery under varying circumstances. It was later claimed that the real author of the book was her husband, Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane.
Two English Girls, is a 1971 French romantic drama film directed by François Truffaut and adapted from a 1956 novel of the same name by Henri-Pierre Roché. It stars Jean-Pierre Léaud as Claude, Kika Markham as Anne, and Stacey Tendeter as Muriel. Truffaut restored 20 minutes of footage, which fills out the characters, before his death in 1984.
Black Emanuelle is a softcore sexploitation film from 1975 directed by Bitto Albertini. The film was set in Africa and shot mostly in Kenya. The music was composed by Nico Fidenco. Black Emanuelle was followed by a number of sequels, all revolving around the erotic adventures of Mae Jordan, a globe-trotting, hedonistic investigative journalist and photographer known to her readers as "Emanuelle". Her character has been described as "a strong and independent woman, sexually proactive, at the centre of wealthy young and old white men of power, and involved in any sort of depraved set and situation."
Lie with Me is a 2005 Canadian erotic drama film directed by Clement Virgo, based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Tamara Faith Berger. The film stars Lauren Lee Smith and Eric Balfour. Its plot concerns an outgoing, sexually aggressive young woman who meets and begins a torrid affair with an equally aggressive young man, which brings a strain on their personal lives. The film contains graphic, unsimulated sexual content.
Emmanuelle is a 1974 French erotic drama film directed by Just Jaeckin. It is the first installment in a series of French softcore pornography films based on the novel Emmanuelle by Emmanuelle Arsan. It stars Sylvia Kristel in the title role about a woman who takes a trip to Bangkok to enhance her sexual experience.
Emmanuelle 2 is a 1975 French softcore erotica film directed by Francis Giacobetti and starring Sylvia Kristel. The screenplay was written by Bob Elia and Francis Giacobetti. It is a sequel to 1974's Emmanuelle, and the second installment in the film series of the same name. It loosely follows the plot of the original novel's sequel.
Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French erotic films based on the protagonist in the novel of the same name, by Emmanuelle Arsan, written in 1959 and published in 1967.
Tokyo Emmanuelle, released in the UK as Emmanuelle in Tokyo, is a 1975 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's Roman porno series, directed by Akira Katō and starring Kumi Taguchi.
Léa Hélène Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne is a French actress. Prolific in both French cinema and Hollywood, she has received five César Award nominations, two Lumières Awards, a Palme d'Or, a BAFTA Award nomination, and the Trophée Chopard Award. In 2016, Seydoux was honoured with the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2022, the French government made her a Knight of the Legion of Honour.
Guido Crepas, better known by his pen name Guido Crepax, was an Italian comics artist. He is most famous for his character Valentina, created in 1965 and very representative of the spirit of the 1960s. The Valentina series of books and strips became noted for Crepax's sophisticated drawing, and for the psychedelic, dreamlike storylines, generally involving a strong dose of erotism. His work was often politically motivated too, inspired by his Communist convictions. A film based on his work called Baba Yaga, featuring the character Valentina, was made in 1973.
Olinka Hardiman is a French model and actress. She is best known for her strong resemblance to actress Marilyn Monroe, whom Hardiman has occasionally portrayed in pornographic parodies. She is also known by other pseudonyms such as Marilyn Lamour, Marilyn Mitchell, and Olivia Link.
Emmanuelle is an erotic graphical adventure game from Coktel Vision, originally released in 1989 for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS. The game was developed by Muriel Tramis, and is loosely inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan's Emmanuelle series of novels.
Suzanne Preis Brøgger Zeruneith is a Danish writer, a novelist, poet and journalist. Her first book Fri os fra kærligheden has been translated into c. 20 languages. Since 1997 she has been a member of the Danish Academy.
Noémie Merlant is a French actress and filmmaker. She has been nominated for her performances three times at the César Awards, including a nomination for her breakout role in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and a win for The Innocent (2022).
Jumbo is a 2020 drama film written and directed by Zoé Wittock in her feature directorial debut. An international co-production of France, Belgium and Luxembourg, the film stars Noémie Merlant, Emmanuelle Bercot, Bastien Bouillon and Sam Louwyck.
Audrey Diwan is a French film director of Lebanese origin. Prior to becoming a film director, she worked as a journalist and a screenwriter. In 2021, her film Happening won the Golden Lion at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in a "unanimous decision."
Emmanuelle is a 2024 English-language French erotic drama film directed, co-written and produced by Audrey Diwan. Based on the 1967 novel by Emmanuelle Arsan, it is the eighth theatrical film in the series of the same name, and the fifteenth film overall, and serves as a reboot. It stars Noémie Merlant as the title character, alongside Naomi Watts and Will Sharpe.