Friday, July 15, 2011

Paperback 438: The Anatomy of Adultery / Gary Gordon (Monarch 448)

Paperback 438: Monarch 448 (PBO, 1964)

Title: The Anatomy of Adultery
Author: Gary Gordon
Cover artist: photo cover

Yours for: $9

Mon448.AnatAdult

Best things about this cover:
  • Mmm, sexy. Sexy sexy pen set.
  • "Searching probe"
  • Nothing says "illicit sex" like faux-wood veneer.
  • When a dirty ashtray is, by far, the most interesting thing on your cover, then your cover is not good.

Mon448bc.AnatAdult

Best things about this back cover:
  • The title is "Anatomy of Adultery," and yet the covers feature neither anatomy nor adultery. Rip-off!
  • First paragraph is confusing. Why are people committing adultery with vagrants?
  • "Up to and including murder" = "including murder"; what's this "up to" stuff? Was copywriter on a strict word count?
Page 123~

[Britain's] history, from murderous Queen Elfreda of the Saxons, through Henry VIII, Pepys, Frank Harris, and W.T. Stead's sensational Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, gives solid evidence that this supposedly reserved nation better deserves the title "world's sexiest race" than do the French.
I'm not sure this is convincing, though, to be fair, murderousness and beheadings *are* pretty sexy ...

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

5 comments:

Tulse said...

The title blurb confuses me -- what exactly are the "residual" aspects of adultery? The wet spot on the hotel sheets?

Deb said...

Ahhhh, nothing says "adultery" like idly passing the afternoon away at the Bide-a-Wee motel out on Highway 17 (after signing the register as husband and wife) surrounded by the luxurious decor of faux-wood particle-board furniture and the intoxicating aroma of stale cigarettes. But where's the bottle of cheap hootch, purchased from the local moonshiner? That would be de rigueur for the occasion.

Doug Brunell said...

Love that ashtray. "Motel." Classic.

Mo said...

World's sexiest race -- that's us Brits all right. Or possibly the Iron Naked Man triathlon.

borky said...

Deb: 'Ahhhh, nothing says "adultery" like idly passing the afternoon away at the Bide-a-Wee motel out on Highway 17'.

Ooh, a place that specialises in water sports, eh? Where'd you say it was again?

Tulse: 'what exactly are the "residual" aspects of adultery? The wet spot on the hotel sheets?'

Good spot!

Rex: "First paragraph is confusing. Why are people committing adultery with vagrants?"

There was a case in the UK tabloids a few months back about a vagrant who had an ASBO served on him because he kept somehow getting women waiting at bus stops to have sex with him!

"Spare some change for some metal polish to drink? No? How about a shag?"