The Sexual Life of Catherine M.

This New York Times–bestselling memoir of one woman's erotic escapades is "brilliantly literate, utterly unabashed [and] consistently provocative" ( The Philadelphia Inquirer).   Since it was first published in France, The Sexual Life of Catherine M. has become a global literary phenomenon, hailed as one of the most important books on sexuality to be published in decades.   Catherine Millet, the eminent editor of Art Press, has always led a free and active sexual life—from alfresco encounters in Italy to a gang bang on the edge of the Bois du Boulogne to a high-class orgy at a chichi Parisian restaurant. She has taken pleasure in the indistinct darkness of a peep show booth and under the probing light of a movie camera at an orgy. And in The Sexual Life of Catherine M., she recounts it all, from tender interludes with a lover to situations where her partners were so numerous and simultaneous they became indistinguishable parts of a collective body.   A graphic account of physical gratification and a relentlessly honest look at the consequences—both good and bad—of sex stripped of sentiment, The Sexual Life of Catherine M. is "truly a masterpiece of sexual exploration [that] will be a classic" ( The Hartford Courant).