This sequel to The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, the first of Anne Rice's elegantly written volumes of erotica, continues her explicit, teasing exploration of the psychology of human desire. Beauty, having indulged in a secret and forbidden infatuation with the rebellious slave Prince Tristan, is sent away from the Satyricon-like world of the castle. Once again Rice's fabulous tale of pleasure and pain dares to explore the most primal and well-hidden desires of the human heart.
REVIEW
The Prince in this medieval version wakes Beauty from her 100-year sleep not with a kiss, but by making her a sexual initiate. This act coupled with the mores and power structures of the land force Beauty off to the Prince's distant castle where she will undergo all manner of S&M and bondage. Despite becoming a castle favorite amongst the nobles, the Prince, and the Queen herself, Beauty's spirit and 'soul' is not broken by these acts and she willfully disobeys. She is sentenced to slavery in the neighboring village, and that is where this book takes up. Beauty and her final castle paramour Tristan are sold at auction in the village square, Beauty goes to an inn while Tristan is snapped up by one of the villagers richest men, the Queen's chronicler. What follows for the two are a series of spankings, public punishments, being dressed up like a pony [complete with, er, tail accoutrements] to pull carts, and being 'forced' to pleasure a wide variety of lodgers, and other slaves. It should also be mentioned that the castle slaves who are sent to the village for punishment must run around bereft of clothes, and never speak unless told to. It is here that the story flags, the punishments and humiliations mount, but we are only vaguely aware of both protagonists' feelings and thoughts as this continues. Beauty gives in to it all and comes to appreciate her place, but she does not give over the love of her soul. The numerous, and I do mean numerous, spankings become banal after awhile as the reader desensitizes.
I found things becoming more interesting psychologically about 5/6 of the way through when Nicolas [Tristan's master] plumbs his depths about why a slave behaves as they do, what they think of the abasement, and whether love could come from this non-egalitarian relationship. Tristan provides no shocking revelations really, and the age-old struggle for dominance and power is left as the answer.
This was a rather difficult read, I can't say I particularly enjoyed it, but it was interesting.
