Kamasutra (Oxford World's Classics)
"A radically different view of the famous sex manual."--The New York Times"A fresh translation of the Kamasutra, gloriously rendered by Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakar. Put Doniger, one of the University of Chicago's top historians of religion, and Kakar, India's leading psychoanalyst of sex, together and you've got the kind of moxie and revisionist energy that lead some to try 'splitting the bamboo.' In a highly entertaining and learned 57-page introduction packed with crisp insights and droll asides, they put the Kamasutra in historical context, outline its numerological conceits, and clarify its gender ambiguities. Thanks to two nervy scholars, we now have a Kamasutra in which everyone's on top."--Philadelphia Inquirer"A new look at the ancient Indian textbook of erotic love has fleshed out--and in some cases corrected--the original translation from Sanskrit into English, done in 1883 by explorer and writer Sir Richard Burton."--Chicago Tribune"The Kamasutra is one of those rare publishing gems, an ancient Hindu treatise on sex and romance that has engaged generations of serious scholars as well as lesser minds like Homer Simpson. Far from being an ancient dime-store manual, the Kamasutra comes off as a potent social commentary. Nonetheless, it is also a terribly sexy book."--Religion News Service"If you're a serious student of sex, or of India, or if you and your honey want to read each other a different kind of pillow book, the new translation is fascinating, thought-provoking and occasionally even amusing."--Michael Castleman,salon.com