The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, and Beauty's Release are erotic novels by Anne Rice writing under the pseudonym of A. N. Roquelaure.
This trilogy was my first introduction into the world of BDSM. While most of it made my body tingle, I must admit some of it scared the hell out of me!
Wonderful reads that make a lasting impression! If you haven't read them yet, you should!
Plot summary (The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty)
Beauty is awakened from her hundred-year sleep by the Prince, not with a simple kiss, but with a deflowering, initiating her into a Satyricon-like world of sexual adventures. After stripping her naked he takes her to his kingdom, ruled by his mother, the Queen, where Beauty is trained as a slave and a plaything. The rest of the naked slaves, dozens of them, in the Queen's palace are princes and princesses sent by their royal parents from the surrounding kingdoms as tributes. In this palace they spend several years learning to become obedient and submissive sexual property, accepting being spanked, being publicly displayed, crawling around on their hands and knees, servicing their masters and mistresses, until they return to their own lands "being enhanced in wisdom."
In the palace Beauty meets another slave, Prince Alexi, with whom she copulates passionately. After that he tells her the long adventurous journey he had in the palace. Alexi previously had been a stubborn prince who fought back all the attempts to break him, until the Queen sent him to the kitchen to get him tortured by crude kitchen servants. The punishment Alexi received there was so savage and merciless he began to lose his senses and, after some particularly humiliating training at the hands of a strong stable boy, Alexi became a totally surrendered slave, playing various sexual games at the Queen's commands.