This study addresses the works of Adelaide Carraro (1925-1992) and Cassandra Rios (1932-2002), often referred to as the greatest pornographers of Brazilian literature, an epithet of dubious distinction. They were best-selling authors, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, and were also among the most censured during the last dictatorship (1964-1985). Their vast bibliographies are linked by a passion for the visible, which is proper to the naturalist tradition, and by a daring sexual content. This study will show, however, that the two authors had distinct and to a large extent contrary aims. Their literary projects, which maintained a significant level of internal cohesion over a long period of constant activity, combined transgressive and conservative elements in a way that challenges interpretation. Premised on the notion that critics should take full account of their objects of inquiry, this study breaks new ground by exploring a number of novels of each author, as well as interviews and press commentary. This study questions the scant body of previous criticism that easily associates their novels with emancipatory movements or excludes them altogether from the realm of literature. At the same time, this study brings to light oft-ignored features of these works, such as cruelty, idealism, and aspirations to purity.