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Seven New York publishers turned down Camille Paglia’s first book before Yale University Press took it. Sexual Personae came out in 1990, ran to more than 700 pages, traced Western art and literature from the bust of Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, and became a bestseller. It made a 43-year-old teacher at a Philadelphia arts college, born in Endicott, New York, and trained at Yale under Harold Bloom, one of the most argued-about critics in America. She followed it with essay collections, a book on Hitchcock’s The Birds, close readings of poems and paintings, and three decades of attacks on academic theory and on much of mainstream feminism. This guide covers her eight key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 key books · 1990–2018 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Camille Paglia has published eight books. The best known is Sexual Personae (1990), followed by the essay collections Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992) and Vamps & Tramps (1994), the poetry readings of Break, Blow, Burn (2005) and the art book Glittering Images (2012). Start with Glittering Images: 29 short essays on single works of art that show how she reads before you take on the 700 pages of Sexual Personae.
Where to Start with Camille Paglia
If you want a short way in
→ Glittering Images (2012) — 29 brief essays, one image each.
If you want the book that made her name
→ Sexual Personae (1990) — her survey of Western art and literature to 1900.
If you want her on poetry
→ Break, Blow, Burn (2005) — 43 poems read line by line.
If you want her arguments about feminism
→ Free Women, Free Men (2017) — essays on sex, gender and feminism in one volume.
8 Camille Paglia Books, in Order
Sexual Personae
A survey of Western art and literature from antiquity to the end of the 19th century, built on Nietzsche’s opposition of the Apollonian and the Dionysian and on Freud. It follows recurring “sexual personae” such as the femme fatale, the androgyne, the vampire and the beautiful boy, from the bust of Nefertiti through Spenser, Shakespeare, the Romantics and Oscar Wilde to Emily Dickinson. Seven New York publishers rejected it before Yale University Press published it; it became a bestseller, praised by Harold Bloom and Anthony Burgess and attacked by Helen Vendler and many feminist scholars.
Sex, Art, and American Culture
Her first essay collection, published two years after Sexual Personae had made her a public figure. It gathers essays, lectures and journalism on sex, popular culture, feminism and the state of American universities.
Vamps & Tramps
A second collection of essays and journalism, continuing her arguments about sex, feminism, popular culture and academic life from the first.
The Birds
A short study of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds, commissioned by the British Film Institute for its BFI Film Classics series. It is her only book about a single film.
Break, Blow, Burn
Close readings of forty-three poems, from Shakespeare and the canonical poets of the Western tradition to Dickinson and Plath. She also argues for less obvious choices, including Wanda Coleman, Paul Blackburn and Joni Mitchell. The title comes from John Donne’s Holy Sonnet “Batter my heart, three-person’d God”.
Glittering Images
Twenty-nine short essays, each on a single work reproduced as a full-page image, running from a tomb painting of the Egyptian queen Nefertari to George Lucas’s film Revenge of the Sith. Kirkus Reviews called her “a wonderful popularizer of art history and art appreciation” when she sets her polemics aside.
Free Women, Free Men
Previously published essays on sex, gender and feminism, collected by Pantheon around her case for free speech and a feminism based on personal responsibility. Dwight Garner in The New York Times called her at times “a fearless public intellectual” but found the book repetitive.
Provocations
Collected essays on the five subjects in its subtitle, published by Pantheon in 2018. It is the broadest single overview of her shorter writing across her career.
In What Order to Read Camille Paglia
Nothing in Paglia continues from one book to the next, so you can read by subject. The early books are the most argued and the most quoted; the later ones turn to close reading of single poems and images, and to collections of her journalism.
Sexual Personae is the centre of her work, but it is long and dense. Reading Glittering Images or Break, Blow, Burn first shows her method on a small scale; the essay collections show the public arguments that made her famous.
A reading path
1. Glittering Images (2012)
2. Break, Blow, Burn (2005)
3. Sexual Personae (1990)
4. Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992)
5. Provocations (2018)
The years · 1947–2024
Quick facts about Camille Paglia
- Known for
- She is known for Sexual Personae (1990), her argument that pagan, sexual images run through all of Western art, and for her decades of attacks on academic theory and on much of mainstream feminism.
- 1947
- Born in Endicott, New York
- 1974
- PhD from Yale, mentored by Harold Bloom
- 1990
- Sexual Personae
- 2024
- The University of the Arts closes
- Born
- 2 April 1947, Endicott, New York
- Education
- BA, Harpur College (now Binghamton University), 1968; PhD, Yale, 1974
- Mentor
- Harold Bloom, who recommended her for her first teaching job
- Taught
- Bennington College, 1972–1979; University of the Arts, Philadelphia, 1984–2024
- Breakthrough
- Sexual Personae (1990), rejected by seven publishers before Yale took it
- Recognition
- Named among the top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect (2005)
The red mark is 1990: Sexual Personae, the book that made her name.
How Camille Paglia Writes: Pagan Images and Close Reading
The frame for almost everything Paglia writes is set out in Sexual Personae: Nietzsche’s opposition between the ordered, Apollonian side of culture and the chaotic, Dionysian side, combined with Freud. Within it she follows recurring figures — the femme fatale, the androgyne, the vampire, the beautiful boy, the Great Mother — across thousands of years, from Egyptian sculpture to Victorian poetry.
She treats high and popular culture as one continuous tradition. Glittering Images moves from an Egyptian tomb painting to Star Wars; Break, Blow, Burn puts a Joni Mitchell song in the same book as Shakespeare and Donne. Her method in both is close reading: one poem or one image at a time, line by line or detail by detail.
Her essays are written as argument, in short declarative sentences built to be quoted. Reviewers have praised the energy and criticised the repetition: Kirkus Reviews found her at her best when she drops the polemics against academic theory, and Dwight Garner wrote that Free Women, Free Men showed both her strengths and her vanity.
Watch
Camille Paglia in conversation with Reason
Nick Gillespie talks with Paglia for Reason TV in March 2015 about feminism, identity politics, higher education, Madonna and Hillary Clinton.
Frequently asked questions about Camille Paglia’s books
How many books has Camille Paglia written?
Eight books: Sexual Personae (1990), Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992), Vamps & Tramps (1994), The Birds (1998), Break, Blow, Burn (2005), Glittering Images (2012), Free Women, Free Men (2017) and Provocations (2018). Her 1974 Yale dissertation, The Androgyne in Literature and Art, is not counted here.
What are Camille Paglia’s books in order?
Sexual Personae (1990), Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992), Vamps & Tramps (1994), The Birds (1998), Break, Blow, Burn (2005), Glittering Images (2012), Free Women, Free Men (2017) and Provocations (2018).
Where should I start with Camille Paglia?
With Glittering Images (2012): 29 short essays, each on one work of art, which show her way of reading in a few pages at a time. Then go to Sexual Personae, the book everything else builds on.
What is Camille Paglia’s most famous book?
Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990). It was rejected by seven New York publishers, published by Yale University Press and became a bestseller.
What is Sexual Personae about?
It argues that Western culture never lost its pagan roots, and traces recurring sexual figures — the femme fatale, the androgyne, the vampire, the beautiful boy — through art and literature from ancient Egypt to the end of the 19th century, ending with Emily Dickinson. It draws on Nietzsche and Freud and runs to more than 700 pages.
Who was Camille Paglia’s teacher?
Harold Bloom mentored her at Yale, where she took her PhD in 1974, and recommended her for her first teaching post at Bennington College. He later called Sexual Personae a “masterwork”.
Where did Camille Paglia teach?
At Bennington College from 1972 to 1979, and from 1984 at the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, which became part of the University of the Arts in 1987. She taught there until the university closed in 2024.
Why is Camille Paglia controversial?
Many feminist writers, among them Gloria Steinem, Naomi Wolf and Katha Pollitt, have attacked her views on sex and gender, and Paglia has attacked them in return. Her 1990s remarks on the age of consent drew sharp criticism; in 2018 she said she no longer held that view. In April 2019 students and alumni at the University of the Arts protested a lecture of hers and started a petition, signed by more than 800 people by mid-April, asking for her removal, objecting to her comments on #MeToo and on transgender people. The university’s president, David Yager, affirmed free speech and academic freedom in an email to the school without naming her, and the university rejected the petition. Paglia called the protests a publicity stunt.
Is Camille Paglia still alive?
Yes. She was born on 2 April 1947 in Endicott, New York. Her most recent book is Provocations (2018).
Footnotes
- Camille Paglia — Wikipedia
- Sexual Personae — Wikipedia
- UArts students protest Camille Paglia — The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2019
- Glittering Images — Kirkus Reviews
- Break, Blow, Burn — Penguin Random House
- Everything’s Awesome and Camille Paglia Is Unhappy! — Reason, 2015
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts.”
— Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae (1990)
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