Lilly is a sometimes terrifying novel of pain, degradation and rampant sensuality. Lilly, the heroine of this exciting novel, is the very ideal of a college professor's wife. She is highly intelligent, very beautiful and, like many intelligent and beautiful people, curious. Her curiosity, of course, leads to a story of sexual degradation--and fulfillment. Like so many classics, the story of Lilly holds well to its single theme. In this case, the real "letting-go” of what must run through a million women's minds, the idea of sexual bondage, helplessness and total dependency, is what happens to the heroine. Lilly gives readers a chance to look into the secret soul of a woman, although by extension it could be almost any secret soul of any woman on earth. In short, there are two overweening elements in this startling book, pain and pleasure--humiliation on the one side and a hedonistic element of a woman letting herself go all the way.