My Secret Garden » (Reissue)

Nancy Friday is the author of seven books: My Secret Garden, Forbidden Flowers, Jealousy, Men in Love, My Mother/My Self, Women on Top, and The Power of Beauty. She lives in Key West, Florida, and in Connecticut.

Welcome to Nancy Friday's secret garden, a hidden place where ordinary women are free to express the sexual dreams they have never dared to confide before. Safe behind the walls of anonymity, hundreds of real women responded to Nancy Friday's call for details of their own most private fantasies. My Secret Garden is the daring compilation of those fantasies. When it first appeared, it created a storm of outrage in the media...and an equal sense of exhilaration for those women who finally were able to share their sisters' most intimate thoughts. Even now, in a new millennium, over then thousand women each year buy a new copy of this astounding classic of feminist literature. Join them in their exploration of the meaning of desire. Dare to read, dare to dream, and dare to discover the beautiful blossoms, the winding paths, and the hidden nooks of female sexuality.

Library Journal

Published in 1973 during the sexual revolution, this volume brought women's hardcore sexual fantasies out of the realm of pornography and into the mainstream. Though it no doubt raised many an eyebrow at the time, it doesn't really contain anything that you won't find in an average issue of today's women's magazines. This 25th-anniversary edition contains a new introduction by the author and a few new fantasies. Though tame by 1990s standards, this will still "undoubtedly prove enjoyable to many readers" (LJ 6/1/73).

Contents

Introduction
Twenty-five Years in the Garden
1. "Tell Me What You Are Thinking About," He Said.
2. "Why Fantasize When You Have Me?"
FRUSTRATION: Madge, Dot
INSUFICIENCY: Louella, Irene, Annette, Maria
SEX ENHANCEMENT: Patricia, Suzanne
FOREPLAY: Bertha, Bellinda
APPROVAL: Sally, Vicki, Francesca, Sondra
EXPLORATION: Karen, Abbie, Hilda, Heather, Kitty
SEXUAL INITIATIVE: Carol, Faye
INSATIABILITY: Clarissa, Annabel, Iris, Nora
DAYDREAMS: Corinne, Molly, Alicia, Lily, Eliza, Esther, Shirley, Lillian, Viola
MASTURBATION: Patsy, Norma, Adair, Mary Beth, Elizabeth, Mary Jane, Amelia, Alix
THE LESBIANS: Marion, Jeanne, Lisa, Zizi, Kate, Anna, Susan, Melanie
3. The House of Fantasy
ROOM NUMBER ONE: Anonymity, or, "Taken by the Faceless Stranger" Linda, Pamela, Marie
ROOM NUMBER TWO: The Audience Caroline, Elspeth, Mary Jo, Melanie, Celeste
ROOM NUMBER THREE: Rape, or, "Don't Just Stand There, Force Me!" Julietta, Gail, Dinah, Sadie
ROOM NUMBER FOUR: Pain and Masochism, or, "Ouch, Don't Stop!" Barbara, Edith, Rose Ann, Amanda
ROOM NUMBER FIVE: Domination, or "How Humiliating! Thank You." Nathalie, Poppy, Heather, Ingrid
ROOM NUMBER SIX: The Sexuality of Terror, or, "Help! I'm Out of Control, Thank God!" Johanna, Anne
ROOM NUMBER SEVEN: The Thrill of the Forbidden, or, "No, You Must Not!...Here, Let Me Help You." Emma, Donna
ROOM NUMBER EIGHT: TheTransformation Room, or, "Life Can Be Beautiful." Monica, Betty, Phyllis
ROOM NUMBER NINE: The Earth Mother Room Vivian, Marina
ROOM NUMBER TEN: Incest Bella, Dominique, Lola
ROOM NUMBER ELEVEN: The Zoo Jo, Rosie, Dawn, Wanda
ROOM NUMBER TWELVE: Big Black Men Margie, Raquel, Lydia
ROOM NUMBER THIRTEEN: Young Boys Evelyn, Victoria
ROOM NUMBER FOURTEEN: The Fetishists Faith
ROOM NUMBER FIFTEEN: Other Women Christine, Dolly, Bee, Venice, Lilly, Rita, Mary Beth, Viv, Lee, Willa, Dana, Cara, Celia, Theresa, Tania, Michelle, Sandra, Patty, Stella, Claire, Gwen, Rebecca
ROOM NUMBER SIXTEEN: Prostitution, or, "Sadie Thompson Doesn't Live Here Anymore."
4. "Where Did a Nice Girl Like You Get an Idea Like That? CHILDHOD: Theda, Lindsay, Fiona, Felicia, Sonia, Phyllis, Marlene, Kay, Trudy, Mona, Stella
SOUNDS: June, Nina, Meg, Holly, Evie
WOMEN DO LOOK: Fay, Sukie, Constance, Deana, Anna, Vera, Una, Lois, Liz, Winona, Ruby, Gale, Imogene, Francine, April, Myrna, Laurie, Jeanie
SEEING AND READING: Mary Jane, Miranda, Margaret, Alexandra, Stephanie
RANDOM ASOCIATIONS: Susie, Adrienne, Doris, Lulu, Daisy, Kit, Flossie, Josie, Brett, Sarah, Maud, Gelda
5. Guilt and Fantasy, or, "Why the Fig Leaf?" WOMEN'S GUILT: Christiana, Hope, Lil, Alison, Clare, Penelope
MEN'S ANXIETY: Tina's husband
6. Fantasy Accepted "OF COURSE I FANTASIZE, DOESN'T EVERYONE?" Gloria, Hannah, Sophie, Bobbie, Paula
FANTASIES THAT SHOULD BE REALITY: Martha
ACTING OUT FANTASIES, PROS AND CONS: Sylvia, Babs, Elizabeth, Winnie, Loretta, Sheila, Claudine, Jocelyn
SHARING FANTASIES: Lynn, Jacqueline, Doris, Bonnie, Jessie, Esther, Posie, Mara, Joan, Adele's husband
7. Quickies AFTERWORD "IN DEFENSE OF NANCY FRIDAY" by Martin Shepard, M.D., psychiatrist