The Literary Companion to Sex

With selections ranging from Aristophanes, Sappho and Catullus to Jonathan Swift, William Wycherley, Samuel Butler, Anais Nin and Joe Orton, this juicy, eclectic anthology of erotica celebrates the mysteries, pleasures, shortcomings and humor of sex. Benjamin Franklin's advice on taking a mistress, Alexandre Kuprin's expose of prostitution in pre-revolutionary Russia, Lisa Alther's hilarious tale of love gone awry under an automobile and Molly Parkin's oedipally charged poem about a mother raising a teenage son with raging hormones are among the serendipitous finds that share space in this collection with more familiar works from Philip Roth, Henry Miller, Andrew Marvell and Frank Harris. Pitt-Kethley, who writes a column for the British Guardian on sex in the arts, has chosen appetizing tidbits from the likes of Petronius's Satyr i con , Casanova's Memoirs and Erica Jong's Fear of Flying , but she also includes curious lore and sexy passages from Milton, Shakespeare, Defoe and other authors less immediately associated with erotic facets of human endeavor. (Feb.)