''Nine and a Half Weeks: A Memoir of a Love Affair'' is a 1978 memoir by

Ingeborg Day Ingeborg Day (née Seiler; November 6, 1940 – May 18, 2011) was an Austrian–American author who wrote the semi-autobiographical erotic novel ''Nine and a Half Weeks'' which she published under the pseudonym Elizabeth McNeill and which was mad ...

, first published under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Elizabeth McNeill. It details the brief, sexually violent relationship between an art gallery owner and a

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

broker – based on Day's own experiences. The memoir was famously adapted into the 1986 erotic drama ''

9½ Weeks ''9½ Weeks'' is a 1986 American erotic drama film, directed by Adrian Lyne, and starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. Basinger stars as a New York art gallery employee who has a brief yet intense affair with a mysterious Wall Street bro ...

'', starring

Kim Basinger Kimila Ann Basinger ( ; born December 8, 1953) is an American actress. She has garnered acclaim for her work in film, for which she has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a ...

and

Mickey Rourke Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. ( ; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former professional Boxing, boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading actor, leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. In a Mickey Rourke filmogra ...

Synopsis

The memoir is set in New York City. An art gallery owner enters a nine-week affair with a

broker who regularly sexually abuses her in his apartment for amusement and pleasure. Unable to say no and sinking into complicity, the woman finds herself enjoying the beginning of the affair. Eventually, the relationship culminates in him ordering her to rob a man at knifepoint in an elevator; she does so, and he then forces her to have sex with someone else while he watches. He often leaves her tied up, in immense pain, in his opulent apartment for hours at a time. She realizes she will have to make a choice between her life and sanity, or an abusive man who has manipulated her into loving him. The memoir ends with the woman's nervous breakdown when he leaves her at a mental hospital. After undergoing therapy that lasts for months, she is released but never sees him again.

Reception and legacy

The memoir caused a scandal when it was published. In a 2012 ''New Yorker'' article,

Sarah Weinman Sarah Weinman is a journalist, editor, and crime fiction authority. She has most recently written ''The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World'' about the kidnapping and captivity of 11-year-old Flo ...

writes "''Nine and a Half Weeks'' is a potent antidote to what passes for erotica today. Instead of over-the-top fictional fantasy, McNeill's book, presented as memoir, is charged as much by explicitness as it is by absence. The reader is only privy to her perspective, and even then, it's occluded by the use of a pseudonym". While writing the book, Day conceived of it as an "erotic epic poem" and it holds a unique place in erotic literature as it is not an exploration of fantasy, but follows the form of an

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

by offering a lengthy, narrative recounting of the sexual deeds and adventures of a woman.

References

{{reflist 1978 American novels BDSM literature Domestic violence in fiction Novels set in New York City