NEW YORK — Plume Publishing has repackaged and re-released "The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy," an erotic re-telling of the classic "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale from "Vampire Chronicles" author Anne Rice, writing under the pseudonym A.N. Roquelaure.
The first book in the series, "The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" was released in 1983 and introduced Beauty as a princess awaken by a Prince from a 100-year sleep, not with a kiss, but by his forceful taking of her virginity.
Once awake, the Prince claims Beauty as his property and takes her to live as a slave in his mother's castle, where she is sexually humiliated and forced to participate in sex games with other slaves and noble tributes sent from other kingdoms.
Beauty's ordeal continues in the sequels "Beauty's Punishment" and "Beauty's Release." Rice wrote the series under the A.N. Roquelaure penname to ease her publisher's concern that fans would balk at the book's sexually graphic content if they knew she wrote it.
Today, with the overwhelming success of the E.L. James trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey," about a young billionaire’s sexual ownership over an inexperienced college coed, those fears have all but disappeared.
Looking to capitalize on the "Fifty Shades" craze, Plume Publishing — a Penguin Books imprint — has reissued "The Beauty Series" with new, attractive book covers depicting a white sheet with a black background.
The book covers are also tagged with the promise "If You like '50 Shades of Grey,' you’ll love the 'Sleeping Beauty Trilogy.'"
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