HarperCollins published Bentley's book The Surrender (2004), a memoir of her experiences with heterosexual
sodomy and a celebration of female sexual submission. At the time the book caused Bentley considerable notoriety given her perceived status as part of cultured society and the taboo nature of the subject matter.[16][17] The subject has since received considerable mainstream attention because of the worldwide profile gained by Fifty Shades of Grey. The book has been translated into eighteen languages. A one-woman play adaptation of The Surrender, La Rendición[18] directed by Spanish film director
Sigfrid Monleón [
es] adapted by Swiss-German actress
Isabelle Stoffel [
de] had its premiere in Spanish in Madrid at the Microteatro Por Dinero in January 2012. Stoffel starred in the production. It was subsequently produced by the Spanish National Theatre (
Centro Dramático Nacional)[19] in January 2013 at the
Teatro María Guerrero in Madrid. The play had its English-language world premiere at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2013, and had its American premiere at the
Clurman Theatre in New York City in January 2014. It has also been performed in Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Valencia, and in a German-language version, Die Hingabe in Kiel, Germany, and Bern, Switzerland.[citation needed]
Selected works
Books
Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal (Random House, 1982)
Holding On to the Air (Simon & Schuster, 1990)
Costumes by Karinska (Harry N. Abrams, 1995)
Sisters of Salome (Yale University Press, 2002)
The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2004)
Serenade: A Balanchine Story (Pantheon Books, 2022)
Anthologies
Remembering Lincoln (editor Nancy Reynolds, The Ballet Society, 2007)
Reading Dance (editor Robert Gottlieb, Pantheon Books, 2008)
Dirty Words, A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex (editor
Ellen Sussman, Bloomsbury, 2008)
Best American Essays 2010 (editor
Christopher Hitchens, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010)
New York Diaries 1609–2009 (editor Teresa Carpenter, Modern Library, 2012)