The Book of the Penis - Hardcover

Maggie Paley; Sergio Ruzzier (Illustrator)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802116485 ISBN 13: 9780802116482

Publisher: Grove Pr, 1999

Synopsis

Describe the structure and functioning of the penis, looks at its role in myth, art, and fashion, and discusses castration, circumcision, masturbation, pornographic films, and male prostitutes

About this title

About the Author

Maggie Paley is the author of a novel, Bad Manners; a play about Edith Wharton, In One Door; a chapbook of sestinas, Elephant; and numerous magazine articles and book reviews. She has worked as an editor for The Paris Review and Life, as a contributing editor for Vogue and Elle, and as a contributing writer for Mirabella. She lives and works in New York City.

From the Back Cover

The almighty penis (a.k.a. dick, schlong, pecker, rod, tool, Johnson, etc.) has long been a major object of adoration, revulsion, ridicule, amazement, joy, pride, and even frustration. But does anyone fully understand the penis? Novelist, playwright, and journalist Maggie Paley immersed herself in the obsessive world of this most forthright of organs, looking for answers high and low. She pored over scholarly volumes, anthropology texts, and sex-shop glossies; interviewed sex workers, transsexuals, and phallus connoisseurs of all stripes; attended male strip shows and a Hindu lingam ceremony; visited web sites where men share masturbation techniques; and even searched out the current location of Napoleon's penis. And, yes, she objectively addresses the big question: "Does size matter?" Along the way, we encounter deliciously entertaining and highly informative chapters on penis worship, fellatio, and men who are famous for their dicks, as well as the penis in art, fashion, literature, films, and much more.

This handsomely designed bedside companion, delightfully illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier, virtually erupts with facts, fallacies, fantasies, and amazing adventures, and is the perfect gift for women and men, straight and gay. It's certain to develop classic stature.

Reviews

Penis. Penis, penis, penis. Say the word penis often enough and not only will you no longer choke on it, but you may even be able to write a report about the male member that gets straight to the point. Novelist Paley (Bad Manners, 1985) is right: Once the subject becomes the male sexual organ, every phrase, every word, is a double entendre. Nevertheless, she plunges ahead (there it is again) with a book that explores physiology (size matters, at least as evidenced by the ruler and the fig leaf on the coverdesigned to lift and reveal Michelangelo's vision of David's penis), history, penis worship, and penises in art, literature, movies, and fashion. There are also stomach-churning reports on what men in various cultures (including our own) do or allow to be done to their genitals, ranging from circumcision and castration to piercings, inserts, and tattoos. A section called ``The Secret Life of Men'' reports on masturbation, entertainment, products (including, of course, Viagra), and an epilogue lists men famous for their size and/or skill, including presidents, movie and sports stars, and Gregor Rasputin. A series of ``Penis Interviews'' offers intimate and sometimes thoughtful observations from transsexuals, a porn star, and a male hustler. There are wonderful bits of esoteric erotica, including a description of the fashionable Japanese penis package, the ``Nippon Slip-on,'' and activist Eldridge Cleaver's failed effort to reintroduce the codpiece to American fashion. The author is often shadowed by a male friend, Enrique, who serves as a valuable truth versus baloney meter in evaluating the information she collects. Creative black-and-white illustrations serve as chapter headings. Spirited, filled with fact and some fancy, emphasizing the penis's power to drive male behavior but designed to make both women and men more comfortable with the dreaded wordand perhaps even the actualitypenis. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802116485
• ISBN 13: 9780802116482
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 242