22 of the best erotic novels of all time

Are you ever curious about the form that erotic fantasies can take? Interested in hearing more about what other sexual scenarios get people going?

Well... look no further! Want: Sexual Fantasies is a collection of (duh!) sexual fantasies from women around the world, curated by the Gillian Anderson.

There’s a huge range of different scenarios, from multiple sexual partners, to soft and tender love-making, to fetishes that you probably didn’t know existed.

We’re assuming you’ve already read this one — and if you haven’t, where have you actually been? Everyone seems to have either already picked up the paperback or watched the seriously steamy BBC adaptation during lockdown (hello, Connell’s chain).

The sex scenes in this one really do jump off the page and the themes of longing, belonging, and heartbreak wrought by miscommunication will leave you devastated, in the best possible way.

This anthology of sex stories are written by 27 different well-respected authors, takes a more ~high brow~ approach to the genre. But there’s an interesting twist: no names are attached to any of the stories.

It’s a totally anonymous anthology that gives steamy confessays, allowing you to really project your own fantasies and desires onto each of the scenarios and characters. Not a novel, but well worth dipping into when the mood takes you.

This isn’t technically a novel, but Mary Gaitskill’s short story collection features a titillating array of tales of affairs, S&M, desire, and dislocation set in ’80s New York. The ideal read for fans of love, obsession, and, of course, sex.

Read: “Her sense of the world, though she presented it aggressively, could be, he sensed, snatched out from under her with little or no trouble. She said, ‘I hope you are a savage’.” Oof.

Having sold over a million copies worldwide, Laura Esquivel’s Like Water For Chocolate is a modern classic combining sexuality, surrealism, and traditional Mexican recipes for a multi-sensory experience.

The story revolves around the simmering sexual tension between two star-crossed lovers, and is generally agreed to be one of the sexiest books ever written.

The Amazon description for this literally reads, “TikTok made me buy it!”, so if you spend much time on BookTok, you’ll have probs already seen this pop up on your FYP. But if social media isn’t your thing, here’s the DL...

Chloe Brown wants to start living life to the full, so she moves out of her family’s mansion and quickly meets a tattooed, motorbike-riding boy who can help her do just that. Hot!

The BookTok recs don’t stop!

Not in Love is written by Ali Hazelwood, the maestro of geeky-horny romance novels about women in STEM. However, there’s a crucial difference here in comparison to her other works: this one is kinda kinky!

Centring on yet another duo of hot scientists engaged in some confusing will-they-won’t-they action, Not in Love has the wonderful addition of an orgasm denial kink. The sex scenes are numerous, varied, and smutty enough to make you blush.

Written for a private collector throughout the 1940s, the scandalous short stories in Anaïs Nin’s Delta of Venus were published after her death three decades later, serving as a vibrant depiction of sexuality through the perspective of female language, pleasure, and experience.

Now we’ve made our school English teacher proud, let us *also* tell you that these stories are H-O-T. Anaïs Nin remains an icon where Tumblr quote graphics are concerned, and this book is the source.

This gem, from lesbian writer Jeanette Winterson, is written from the perspective of an unnamed bisexual narrator whose gender (hero? shero? non-binary icon?) is never revealed as they grapple with their love for a married woman.

One thing’s for sure though, those sex scenes are hot. The novel is filled with hopelessly romantic lines like: “This hole in my heart is in the shape of you and no-one else can fit it. Why would I want them to?” Swoon.

You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty follows our protagonist on her trip of a lifetime: a dream island holiday. The ideal sexy summer read, this book serves poolside cocktails, beach sunsets, and all the trappings of paradise.

But it’s also a story of forbidden love, loss, and healing that goes hard on the erotic and plays with the conventional romance novel in the most refreshing way. Oh, and did we mention the forbidden romance is between the protagonist and her boyfriend’s hot, older, celebrity chef dad?

Yes, Armie Hammer ruined the movie, but André Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name remains an utterly enchanting novel filled with the mores of of summer love, queer coming of age, and... peaches.

It’s a stunning look at identity, belonging, and, yes, there’s eroticism in spades. Well worth a read, especially if LGBTQ+ sex and romance is your thing.

Subject to an obscenity trial in the 1960s for its explicit depictions of sex, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is (ofc!) a classic. Naturally, it’s a bit dated by today’s standards, but it’s a good bet for any horny literary buffs.

An absolute classic of the erotic genre and a nuanced read that explores class, desire, and primal pleasure, this book sees Constance, an aristocrat, explore her sexuality to the fullest with Oliver Mellors, the hot AF groundkeeper.

It’s a fave with the ENM community too, with themes of gatekeeping, compersion, and communication cleverly woven through the dialogue.

We stan Ali Smith, obviously, and this book is another gem by the author. Loosely based on Ovid’s myth of Iphis and Ianthe, Smith’s genderfluid novel tells the love story of Anthea, who works for a bottled water company, and Robin, a genderqueer environmental activist, and it’s as steamy as it is inventive.

A fresh approach to the love on either side of the tracks trope, Girl Meets Boy is a modern story of a sexy union against the odds.

Best known as the book that inspired The Shape of Water, this 1982 classic by Rachel Ingalls charts a love story between a lonely housewife and a monster escaped from the Institute for Oceanographic Research.

Yes it’s wild; yes it’s surprisingly sexy; and yes, it will leave you wanting more. Fans of The Pisces (see above!) and The Little Mermaid will obviously love this one.

If period dramas are your thing and Bridgerton fantasies abound, you’ll enjoy Sarah Waters’ first novel. It’s a sapphic classic that takes place in late 19th century England.

A young oyster seller falls for music hall phenomenon and famed male impersonator Kitty Butler, and follows her to London. Prepare yourself for cunnilingus euphemisms aplenty. It’s sublime.

Not for the squeamish or faint of heart, Wetlands lays the young, horny narrator bare. Wetlands opens in a hospital room after an intimate shaving accident, and charts messy masturbation, desire, avocados, and anal sex.

Originally published in German, this book has since been translated into English so that we, too, can enjoy the most visceral and toe-curling descriptions of the body that Roche so expertly shares.

A young woman moves from the countryside to the city. Inexplicably, inexorably, and immediately, she falls in love with another woman for the first time in her life.

Finn is 19 years older than her, wears men’s clothes, has a cocky smirk of a smile — and a long-term girlfriend. With precision, wit, and tenderness, Women charts the frenzy and the fallout of love.

Brooklynite Eva Mercy is a single mother and bestselling erotica writer who is feeling pressed from all sides. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas but the eyebrows of New York’s Black literati.

What no one knows is that 20 years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can’t deny their chemistry.