The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
by Anne Rice
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Book Summary Information
Author: Anne RicePseudonym: A. N. Roquelaure
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-05-01
ISBN: 0452281423
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Plume
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780452281424
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
Book Review: A powerful, dynamic, erotic book
Summary: 5 Stars
This powerful book will shake the complacency of everyone who reads it.If read as an allegory, it is a marvelous story about the subservient role all of us accept to function in society. We face it every day in traffic; we sometimes have bosses who are overbearing; we deal with people who are a pain in the neck but to whom we must be polite. Our whole lives consist of suppressing our natural urges and instincts out of respect for the rights of others; in that sense, the human is never free, we are always a slave to the opinion and respect of others.
From the beginning, Rice's story sounds like an allegory to military training in which the goal is to destroy the individual's sense of personal identity and replace it with loyalty to the group. In the military, such dominance is enforced. In private life, companies sometimes spend inordinate amounts of money to develop similar loyalty -- consider the pressures to be a "team player" in most organizations.
One of the key statements is on page 62: "She must please him, must make him loving again, and then any pain at all would not be too much." Some women long to be dominated, they will do anything in an effort to please others. It's very sad, really. That is the story of this Sleeping Beauty.
It's why I have long been horrified by zoos; the thought of animals deprived of their freedom breaks my heart. Modern zoos are changing, one of the sad facts is that zoos have become necessary to save various animals that would be exterminated if left in the wild. It's better, sometimes, to be "in protective custody" than extinct; that may also apply to loveless marriages.
If so, Rice's story is a portrayal of the hell some women go through to please a husband. Any woman who's been in that situation, any woman who's broken free of it, will understand and sympathize. It will be exciting and erotic for them, because those feelings were part of their original love. It may even be something to try again, but it will not be something they can live with for long.
Various books are written as allegories. Frank Baum wrote "The Wizard of Oz" as a pro-capitalist story to counter the socialism that was prevalent at the turn of the century; Jack London wrote "Call of the Wild" to justify socialism. Both are still popular, with "Call of the Wild" regularly assigned in school. It's no longer regarded as "socialist" literature -- now, it's simply a good story.
Rice may have intended a similar allegory for this book. The popular image of marriage is of love and tenderness; her book says some marriages are an indoctrination into strict and absolute obedience.
This fight for dominance is by no means unusual. Look at the continual battle among even pre-school brothers and sisters for dominance. It's just not the older ones, the younger will continually challenge. The result is a continuing battle.
Rice tapped into a universal theme, that of dominance and the yearning to please. Some people demand unquestioning obedience, and I've worked for employers like that. A popular term is "control freaks." Rice was clever enough to apply it to some very personal themes among people; because it is very personal, it makes the story very frightening despite its intense eroticism.
I'm reminded of "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Alexander Solzhentsyn, and "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. Solzhentsyn tells of the petty humiliations forced on prisoners to make them compliant; Golding writes about an degenerating battle for dominance, and the need to inflict humiliation on the weaker. Prison life is a good example of such behaviour, where daily life is a close example of some of the humiliations inflicted upon "Sleeping Beauty."
Even the name is demeaning. She may have been the "Sleeping beauty," but her real name is never used. That is as demeaning as always referring to a person by a number instead of their name -- a common habit in prison; or the "Hey, you" or worse by a domineering spouse.
Rice taps into some of our deepest emotions and builds a scary story based on those feelings. It's a powerful combination. The sex will infuriate some readers, but it is an essential element; the dominance theme will infuriate everyone who treasures individual freedom. But, if you read it at anything above a fairy tale level, it will make you think. And perhaps even cry. And that is good.
Summary of The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
"Something very special . . . at once so light and yet so haunting." ?The Advocate
In the traditional folktale of "Sleeping Beauty," the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. It is an ancient story, one that originally emerged from and still deeply disturbs the mind's unconscious. Now Anne Rice's retelling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire. Here the Prince awakens Beauty, not with a kiss, but with sexual initiation. His reward for ending the hundred years of enchantment is Beauty's complete and total enslavement to him . . . as Anne Rice explores the world of erotic yearning and fantasy in a classic that becomes, with her skillful pen, a compelling experience.
"Articulate, baroque, and fashionably pornographic." ?Playboy
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