Bestselling British so-called 'mummy porn' novel 50 Shades of Grey has attracted scorn in France where a translation of it went on sale this week, reports The Scotsman.
The French have branded the best-seller as ‘crass pseudo-porn’ that reads like a Mills and Boon novel. One high-brow reviewer wrote scathingly: “It’s as close to literature as Whiskas cat food is to gastronomy.”
The torrent of abuse came from the country’s critics as the book’s French translation went on sale in France this week.
Daily newspaper Le Figaro wrote: “It has no intellectual construction. It is Fifty Shades of Boredom.” The paper compared the book by E L James to French classic erotic writing by the Marquis de Sade and Anais Nin’s The Story of O. It added: “Alongside them, this is sadomasochism ‘lite’, full of insignificant, consensual and clichéd content.”
Les Inrocks music magazine said: “It is exposes the cultural gulf between the Anglo-Saxon hypocrisy and the old authentic sadomasochism of the French.”
News magazine L’Express wrote: "This crass, pseudo porn might prove to be a massive boost to the sex toy industry, but it’s got nothing to do with good writing. This may be what pleases the British public, who can identify with the character Ana’s conflict between her ‘conscience’ and her ‘inner goddess’.
“But it remains to be seen if the French will regard the book with anything more than curiosity. Some couples may say it has helped their sex lives by reading it, but it’s as close to literature as Whiskas cat food is to gastronomy.”
And the 20 Minutes news website added: “It’s a load of Mills and Boon style rubbish.”
Read more of this report from The Scotsman.