Abstract
In the tradition of erotic confession (with a catch), as delicately written as the tales of Ana's Nin or Pauline Reage, Smith's pornographic novel explores female desire. The unnamed narrator - gorgeous, sophisticated, bored, underemployed - embarks on a series of intense urban encounters in an unnamed city. Her desire is limitless: passionate, playful, intense, humorous and without reserve. Part Jean Genet, part Molly Bloom, part Penthouse Letters, Diana is a literary experiment, a modernist tale told in deft prose, whose goal is to arouse and to paint a sexual portrait of a city. Diana: A Diary in the Second Person is a novel about seduction and desire, a pornographic tale by one of our most celebrated and talented novelists.