Cover of Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying – Grafton 1976 paperback edition, the edition I own (secondhand) (fair use)

(20) ER0TIC LITERATURE 

Bow-chicka-wow-wow!

Well, you must have seen this one coming (heh), given my fetish for reserving my final or twentieth special mention for a kinky (or kinkier) entry.

And it doesn’t get much kinkier than er0tic literature or fiction, which has a history going back as long as there has been literature or fiction – and which could well be the subject of its own top ten.

For now, I’ll go with Erica Jong’s classic Fear of Flying as representative novel for this entry – “Jong employed psychological and humorous descriptive elements, rich cultural and literary references, frank depictions of and ruminations on s€x.”

Although to be honest, I recall it doing more of the latter – ruminating, that is – than the former frank depictions. Funnily enough, the thing I recall most is her catalogue of literary love duos, such as John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Well, that and the whole zipless thing for which the novel is famed.