image of person or book cover 6214357935428076689.jpg
y separately published work icon The Bride Stripped Bare single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2003... 2003 The Bride Stripped Bare
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A woman disappears, leaving behind an incendiary diary chronicling a journey of sexual awakening. To all who knew her, she was the Good Wife: happy, devoted, content. But the diary reveals a secret self, one who's discovered that her new marriage contains mysteries of its own. Inspired by a manuscript written by an anonymous Elizabethan woman who dared to speak of what women truly desire, she tastes for the first time the intoxicating power of knowing what she wants and how to get it. The question is, How long can she sustain a perilous double life?" "In writing The Bride Stripped Bare, the author decided to remain anonymous so she would feel absolutely free to explore a woman's inner world. As she writes in her afterword, "That doesn't mean this book is a memoir; it's many things to me, fiction and nonfiction, fantasy and fact, a quilt pieced together not only from my stories but those of my friends. (Source: Trove)

Notes

  • Originally published anonymously.
  • Bestselling Australian book from April 2003-March 2004 (Australian Publishers Association survey.)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Fourth Estate ,
      2003 .
      Extent: 373p.
      ISBN: 0007163533
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Fourth Estate ,
      2003 .
      image of person or book cover 6214357935428076689.jpg
      Extent: 374p.
      Note/s:
      • Includes note from author outlining her reasons for publishing this work anonymously.
      ISBN: 0007170866
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Harper Perennial ,
      2004 .
      image of person or book cover 4266354452296503706.jpg
      Extent: 376p.
      Note/s:
      • Dedication: For my husband. For every husband.
      • Epigraph: 'I have a feeling that inside you somewhere, there's somebody nobody knows about.' Alfred Hitchcock and Thornton Wilder, Shadow of a Doubt.
      ISBN: 0007163541
    • Sydney South, South Sydney area, Sydney Southern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: HarperCollins Australia , 2014 .
      image of person or book cover 3973467934527241946.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 400p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 January 2014
      Series: y separately published work icon Modern Australian Classics A & R Modern Australian Classics Sydney South : HarperCollins Australia , 2014- 7434666 2014 series - publisher
Alternative title: Hadaka ni sareta hanayome
Alternative title: 裸にされた花嫁
Language: Japanese
    • Tokyo, Honshu,
      c
      Japan,
      c
      East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
      :
      Bungei Shunju ,
      2005 .
      Extent: 366p.
      ISBN: 4163240608

Works about this Work

Let's Write About Sex Jessica Leo , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 29 June 2013; (p. 6)
Drawing Room : Amal Awad and Nikki Gemmel Waleed Aly (interviewer), 2012 single work interview
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , May 2012;
What do women want, in a literary sense and is it any different from what men want in a book? Simple questions with very complicated answers and to help solve the quandary, two female writers who appeared at the 2012 Sydney Writers' Festival are interviewed by Aly Waleed. [From the ABC webpage, with slight modification]
Looking at Love in All Its Guises Karen Hardy , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: Sunday Canberra Times , 9 October 2011; (p. 4-5)
Pleasure of the Next Text Chris Beck , 2006 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 10 December 2006; (p. 45)
I'll Tell You All - Except My Name Kate Holden , 2006 single work essay
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 18-19 November 2006; (p. 28-29)

Kate Holden explores her curiosity at the use of pseudonyms by women writers of erotic literature. She concludes 'Playfulness, coyness, mystique and titillation are part of the erotic. In the age of bold women and admirable authors, though, it seems a shame to be so shy. It may be that "Anonymous" has the allure of teasing seduction, but a tease can go on only so long before it starts to look like apprehension.'

Behind the Sex There's a Heart at Work Jennifer Byrne , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 13 July 2003; (p. 10)

— Review of The Bride Stripped Bare Nikki Gemmell , 2003 single work novel
A Web of Lies and Sexual Betrayal Sarah Marinos , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 26 July 2003; (p. 5a)

— Review of The Bride Stripped Bare Nikki Gemmell , 2003 single work novel
Going Private in Public Mary Rose Liverani , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26-27 July 2003; (p. 3) Creme de la Phlegm : Unforgettable Australian Reviews 2006; (p. 386-388)

— Review of The Bride Stripped Bare Nikki Gemmell , 2003 single work novel
One Book a Week 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2-3 August 2003; (p. 10)

— Review of The Bride Stripped Bare Nikki Gemmell , 2003 single work novel
Bride Wears Emperor's New Clothes Nick Bray , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 2 August 2003; (p. 6)

— Review of The Bride Stripped Bare Nikki Gemmell , 2003 single work novel
The Author Stripped Bare Stephanie Bunbury , 2003 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 28 June 2003; (p. 3) The Sydney Morning Herald , 28-29 June 2003; (p. 3)
Sex and the Frustrated Housewife Chrissey Iley , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 12 July 2003; (p. 4-5)
The Best is in Your Mind Erica Wagner , 2003 single work essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26-27 July 2003; (p. 2, 6)
Too Much Information Emma-Kate Symons , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2-3 August 2003; (p. 25)
Symons canvasses some recent 'confessional' writing and examines issues of literary merit. She also discusses the phenomenon of 'over-sharing' and its propensity for making the private universal.
Sex with the Hubby - Just Think of a Fat Cabbie Catherine Keenan , 2003 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29-30 November 2003; (p. 1, 11)
Last amended 3 Jun 2014 09:24:49
X