Elizabeth Taylor wrote before the sexual revolution, and as a result her understanding of sexuality is a lot less prim, prudish and mechanistic than ours. Her writing is the polar opposite of crude but she still conveys a whole philosophy of sexuality that is wider, deeper and greater than whatever we ended up with after the 1960s.
There’s a short story in the collection titled mischievously, if a tad blasphemously, “For Thine Is the Power” that explains the whole mechanics of overheated, unloved women making #MeTootie accusations. Obviously, nobody called them that then but the phenomenon always existed. The story appears to be Taylor’s first ever published work, and it’s incredible to see such a mature portrayal of sexual confusion from a beginning writer.
Then there’s a story of another overexcited young woman who imagines that her 7-year-old student is trying to seduce her. There are no crude, physiological descriptions but the story makes it very clear what creates the unhealthy dynamic and where it can lead.
Clarissa's Blog 
I learned about Elizabeth Taylor from Kingsley Amis, who was her biggest champion – as well as an outspoken critic of modern feminism, for which he was labeled a misogynist, fascist, etc. I love Taylor’s novel Angel.
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Angel is the first novel by Taylor I ever read, and I fell in love with this writer immediately. What a great book! And what a talented writer!
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