Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It became the first installment in the Fifty Shades novel series that follows the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a young business magnate, Christian Grey. It contains explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism (BDSM).
Originally self-published as an ebook and print-on-demand in June 2011, the publishing rights to Fifty Shades of Grey were acquired by Vintage Books in March 2012, topping best-seller lists around the world. It has been translated into 52 languages and set a record as the fastest-selling paperback of all time in the United Kingdom. Critical reception of the book, however, has tended towards the negative, with the quality of its prose generally seen as poor, while its portrayal of BDSM has been a target for criticism from a variety of perspectives. Universal Pictures and Focus Features produced an American film adaptation, which was released on 13 February 2015.
The second and third volumes of the original trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, were published in 2012. The trilogy had sold over 150 million copies worldwide by October 2017. A version of the novel from Christian's point of view, Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian, was published in June 2015 as the fourth book, followed by Darker: Fifty Shades Darker as Told by Christian in November 2017 and Freed: Fifty Shades Freed as Told by Christian in June 2021.
Plot 21-year-old Anastasia "Ana" Steele is an English literature major at the Washington State University's branch campus in Vancouver, Washington. Her best friend, Katherine "Kate" Kavanagh, writes for the college newspaper. Due to an illness, Kate cannot interview Christian Grey, a wealthy Seattle entrepreneur. Taking Kate's place, Ana finds the 27-year-old Christian both attractive and intimidating. She stumbles through the interview and believes it went poorly. Ana, not expecting to meet Christian again, is surprised when he appears at the hardware store where she works and purchases various items. When Ana mentions that Kate would like a photo for her article, Christian offers to arrange a photo session.
The next day Ana, along with Kate and their photographer friend, José Rodriguez, arrive at Christian's hotel for the photo shoot. Later, Christian asks Ana out for coffee. When he asks if she is dating someone, Ana replies that she is single. After claiming he is not romantic, Christian abruptly ends the date, leaving Ana to believe she is not attractive enough for him. Later, Christian sends Ana a first edition copy of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. That night, Ana goes out with her friends and ends up drunk dialing Christian, who becomes very concerned. When Ana goes outside for some fresh air, José attempts to kiss her but he is stopped by Christian's arrival. Ana leaves with Christian, but not before she discovers that Kate has been flirting with Christian's brother, Elliot. Ana awakens to find herself in Christian's hotel room. He assures her nothing happened but scolds her for her careless behavior. Christian is interested in a sexual relationship with Ana, but states that he first needs her to sign a contract. He later reneges, kissing her in the elevator.
Christian flies Ana to Seattle in his helicopter. At his penthouse, Christian makes Ana sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) regarding their time together. He also mentions other paperwork, but first takes her to his playroom, which is filled with BDSM equipment. Christian informs her that the second contract will be about dominance and submission, and there will be no romantic relationship, only a sexual one. The contract even forbids Ana from touching Christian or making eye contact with him. At this point, Christian learns that Ana is a virgin. Not wanting her first sexual experience to be a BDSM experience, he has conventional sex with her, then sleeps in her bed. The following morning, Christian's adoptive mother, Grace, enters his home unannounced. She is pleasantly surprised to meet Ana, having never seen her son with a woman. Christian has only had BDSM relationships. His first sexual encounter, at age 15, was with one of his mother's friends, Elena Lincoln. His subsequent relationships failed due to incompatibility. With Elena, he was the submissive. Christian and Ana plan to meet again, and he takes Ana home, where she discovers several job offers.
Over the next few days, Ana receives lavish gifts from Christian, including first-class air fare, a car, and a house call by a computer technician, to service her laptop. At Christian's insistence, she learns about BDSM and reviews the contract, which they discuss. Ana is shocked and made unhappy by what she learns about BDSM and by his insistence on keeping the relationship non-romantic. Ana leaves. She next encounters Christian at her college graduation, where he is the keynote speaker. She and Christian meet to negotiate the contract's terms. Christian spanks Ana for the first time - for rolling her eyes at him during conversation - and the experience leaves her confused. He punishment spanks her 18 times, such that she has to take Advil to get through the night until the soreness goes away on the following morning. This confusion is exacerbated by Christian's lavish gifts, and the fact that he brings her to meet his family. The two continue with the arrangement without Ana having yet signed the contract. After landing a job with Seattle Independent Publishing (SIP), Ana further bristles under the NDA's restrictions and her complex relationship with Christian. The tension between Ana and Christian comes to a head after Ana, frustrated by Christian's refusal to articulate his emotional problems, asks him to punish her, in hope that if she accepts punishment Christian will tell her why he will not let her touch him. Christian does punish her, beating her with a belt. He beats her 6 times and makes her count from one to six, shouting out each number directly after each belt strike. The beating is extremely painful, leaving her sore and in tears. Realizing they are incompatible, a devastated Ana breaks up with Christian and returns to the apartment she shares with Kate.
Background and publication
The Fifty Shades trilogy was developed from a Twilight fan fiction series originally titled Master of the Universe and published by James episodically on fan fiction websites under the pen name "Snowqueens Icedragon" [sic]. The piece featured the two main characters of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. After comments concerning the sexual nature of the material, James removed the story and published it on her own website, FiftyShades.com. Later she rewrote Master of the Universe as an original piece, with the principal characters renamed Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, and removed it from her website before publication. Meyer commented on the series, saying "that's really not my genre, not my thing... Good on her – she's doing well. That's great!"
The reworked and extended version of Master of the Universe was split into three parts. The first, titled Fifty Shades of Grey, was released as an e-book and a print on demand paperback in May 2011 by The Writers' Coffee Shop, a virtual publisher based in Australia.'50 Shades of Grey,' a Self-Published E-Book, Is the Future of Publishing . Lizzie Shurnick. The Daily Beast. 17 March 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2014.Bestseller Success Stories that Started Out as Self-Published Books. Ronald H. Balsom. 8 October 2013. The second volume, Fifty Shades Darker, was released in September 2011; and the third, Fifty Shades Freed, followed in January 2012. The Writers' Coffee Shop had a restricted marketing budget and relied largely on book blogs for early publicity, but sales of the novel were boosted by word-of-mouth recommendation. The book's erotic nature and perceived demographic of its fan base as being composed largely of married women over thirty led to the book being dubbed "Mommy Porn" by some news agencies. The book has also reportedly been popular among teenage girls and college women. By the release of the final volume in January 2012, news networks in the United States had begun to report on the Fifty Shades trilogy as an example of viral marketing and of the rise in popularity of female erotica, attributing its success to the discreet nature of e-reading devices. Due to the heightened interest in the series, the license to the Fifty Shades trilogy was picked up by Vintage Books for re-release in a new and revised edition in April 2012.Julie Bosman. Fifty Shades of Gray Hits a Sales Milestone. The New York Times. 27 February 2014. page C3."Fifty Shades of Grey" Sales Hit 100 Million . Andy Lewis. The Hollywood Reporter. 16 February 2014. The attention that the series has garnered has also helped to spark a renewed interest in erotic literature. Many other erotic works quickly became best-sellers following Fifty Shades success, while other popular works, such as Anne Rice's The Sleeping Beauty trilogy, have been reissued (this time without pseudonyms) to meet the higher demand.
On 1 August 2012, Amazon UK announced that it had sold more copies of Fifty Shades of Grey than it had any individual book in the Harry Potter series, although worldwide, at that time, the Harry Potter series had sold more than 450 million copies, compared with Fifty Shades of Grey's sales of 60 million copies.
Reception Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world, including those of the United Kingdom and the United States. The series had sold over 125 million copies worldwide by June 2015, while by October 2017 it had sold more than 150 million copies worldwide. The series has been translated into 52 languages, and set a record in the United Kingdom as the fastest-selling paperback of all time.
Critical response It has received mixed to negative reviews, as most critics noted the poor literary qualities of the work. Salman Rushdie said about the book: "I've never read anything so badly written that got published. It made Twilight look like War and Peace." Maureen Dowd described the book in The New York Times as being written "like a Brontë devoid of talent", and said it was "dull and poorly written". Jesse Kornbluth of The Huffington Post said: "As a reading experience, Fifty Shades ... is a sad joke, puny of plot".