The Eroticism of Emmanuelle in Her Various Formations

Emmanuelle Arsan

No other book title in the world of erotica, or beyond, denotes so much sexuality that to say it calls for a sensual elongation of its vowels and liquid consonants as “Emmanuelle.” Originally published in 1967, with “anonymous” written where the author’s name should’ve been proudly flaunted, it wasn’t till later editions released following the novel’s success that a woman stepped forward and claimed the novel to be her work — her autobiography, to be exact — wherein the protagonist of the novel “Emmanuelle,” Emmanuelle, served as a surrogate for the author, Emmanuelle Arsan — a name revealed to be the nom de plume of Thai-French model Marayat Rollet-Andriane (born Marayat Bididh). Marayat’s legitimacy as the author of the books is widely contested, as general suspicion falls on Marayat’s husband, Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane, an avid writer of erotica and a French diplomat who supposedly loved anonymity — and may have required it given the risque nature of his preferred literary subjects, which did not pair well with his government job. It is safest to assume that the Emmanuelle Arsan persona behind the novels was a synthesis between Louis-Jacques and Marayat; the books could not have existed had one or the other not held up their half of the whole (whatever that may have entailed).

Marayat Bididh

Marayat Bididh was born in 1932, in Bangkok, Siam, to a Siamese Royal Family — six years later the country would be renamed to Thailand; 24 years later she would be renamed to Rollet-Andriane, and then, 11 years after that, to Emmanuelle Arsan. Because of the wealth in which she was born, Marayat had the rare privilege of being educated abroad: she studied in Switzerland, where she met Louis-Jacques. Besides writing the books (allegedly), Marayat worked as an actress and model, starring in glitzy Hollywood pictures and less glitzy, literal still- pictures — of a pornographic bend. Marayet, A.K.A, Emmanuelle, died in 2005, of system scleroderma. Her husband died in 2010 of natural causes. Before his death, he published a book titled “Book of Emmanuelle’s Ashes,” which was a collection of poems, written by Louis-Jacques, commemorating his late wife. This collection was the first of Louis-Jacques’s works to have indeed been sold as a Louis-Jacques-work; the name Emmanuelle was for the first time only that of the title, not also the author. This one might take as a sign to believe that, following the death of Marayat, Emmanuelle Arsan, whoever she may have been or whatever she may have been composed of, had died alongside her.

Fig. 1 (Marayat)

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Emmanuelle, Books

A plot summary of “Emmanuelle” would be rather repetitive; the only variety of story comes in its premise: a woman, Emmanuelle, the wife of a French engineer, flies out to meet him in Bangkok, where she has a book’s worth of sexual encounters. Those who've read the Marquis de Sade’s Justine or Juliette will find a similar formula in the scene-to-scene progression of Emmanuelle’s “Emmanuelle,” i.e., 1. set up to sexual event (“Emmanuelle’s knees were bare in the golden sunlight shining down from overhead, and the man was staring at them”); 2. sexual event and climax (“Then he forced her thighs to spread further apart. His hand closed over her swollen sex, caressing it as if to soothe it, without haste, following the furrow of its lips, dipping in lightly between them, passing over her erect clitoris”); 3. philosophical oration on sex coming from Emmanuelle’s sexual partner, while she nods along with whatever is said — Emmanuelle, like most protagonists of de Sade canon, plays the role of naive prude due for a proper sexual education by some libertine’s hand — (“ ‘ the art of this age can no longer be an art of cold stone, bronze, or paint. It can only be an art of living bodies.’ ”); 4. repeat (“That night, when Jean had taken his shower and come into the bedroom, he found Emmanuelle kneeling on the edge of the big, low bed”). 

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• the difference between erotica written by men and erotica written by woman
• the visual appeal of photo pornography
• an analysis of the first film adaptation of "Emmanuelle” (1975), starring Sylvia Kristel as the titular character
• Laura Gemser's "Emmanuelle”
• the 2024 reboot of the original "Emmanuelle”
• 37 additional images from the many other "Emmanuelle” adaptations
• and much more...

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