Fear of Flying

The modern classic that changed the way we thought about sex

This succès de scandale from 1973 remains funny, clever and perceptive.

An intelligent, expressive examination of a woman’s mind, and of her gradual understanding of what feminism means… Erica Jong was a pioneer…she was, and still is, honest, brazen, bold and funny… If you want an insight into what life was really like for clever, sexy women 40 or 50 years ago, and how far we’ve come, you could do a lot worse than pick up Fear of Flying.

Extraordinary… At once wildly funny and very wise

Brilliantly articulate-the wit is dazzling

Erica Jong is a poet, novelist and essayist whose works have been influential all over the world. Her first novel Fear of Flying has sold over 27 million copies from the US and Europe to China. Fear of Flying has just celebrated its 40th Anniversary with new editions in many languages. She is the author of seven widely honoured volumes of poetry, eight novels and seven non-fiction books. Her forthcoming novel is Fear of Dying, due for release in September 2015. Among other awards she has been honoured with the Fernanda Pivano Award for Literature in Italy, the Sigmund Freud award in Italy, the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature and Poetry Magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize. 
www.ericajong.com

The modern classic that changed the way we thought about sex 
 
‘Bigamy is having one husband too many. Monogamy is the same’ - Anonymous (a woman) 
 
Compulsive daydreamer Isadora Wing has come to a crossroads. Five years of marriage have made her itchy – itchy for men, and itchy for solitude. 
 
Ditching her second husband during a work conference in Vienna she decides to cut and run, criss-crossing her way across Europe in search of the perfect no-strings-attached tryst – and she won’t let a little thing like a fear of flying get in her way. 
 
Witty, fearless and exuberant, Fear of Flying remains as sensational today as when it was first published.

Erica Jong

Julianna Jennings

Max Bennett

Kevin Shen

Full Cast

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

The radio premiere of Erica Jong's uninhibited feminist classic about female sexuality. 
 
Isadora Wing has been married to psycho-analyst Bennett for five years. But she has become restless and yearns for men, for solitude, and for the perfect, guiltless, ‘zipless f**k’. 
 
Having overcome her fear of flying to travel to a conference in Vienna with Bennett, she meets a charming Englishman called Adrian Goodlove. Can he offer the sexual liberation and fulfilment she's always fantasised about? 
 
First published in 1973, this bold and bawdy novel about a young woman's quest for sexual liberation was a controversial best-seller. 
 
Warning: Contains strong language from the start. 
 
Cast: 
Isadora Wing.....Julianna Jennings 
Bennett Wing.....Kevin Shen 
Adrian Goodlove.....Max Bennett 
Isadora's mother.....Adie Allen 
Marty.....Nick Underwood 
Judy.....Nicola Ferguson 
Dr Reuben.....Sargon Yelda 
Dr Happe.....Brian Protheroe 
 
Dramatised by Annie Caulfield 
Directed by Emma Harding

Erica Jong

Books by Erica Jong

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter