Product Description

'Venus in Furs' describes the obsessions of Severin von Kusiemski, a European nobleman who desires to be enslaved to a woman. Severin finds his ideal of voluptuous cruelty in the merciless Wanda von Dunajew. This is a passionate and powerful portrayal of one man's struggle to enlighten and instruct himself and others in the realm of desire. Published in 1870, the novel gained notoriety and a degree of immortality for its author when the word "masochism" - derived from his name - entered the vocabulary of psychiatry. This remains a classic literary statement on sexual submission and control.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90931 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895) was born in the Galician city of Lemberg. A novelist and poet, he is also known for his 'Stories of the Russian Court'. Joachim Neugroschel has translated Hermann Hess's 'Siddhartha' and Thomas Mann's 'Death in Venice' for Penguin Classics. He has won three PEN translation awards and a French-American translation prize. Larry Wolff is Professor of History at Boston College.

Customer Reviews

A classic novel describing a morbid manifestation of love
Those interested in abnormal psychology will find this a "must" book. It is a tribute to the open-mindedness of modern publishing that such an extreme text which was for so long out of print and unavailable in English, is here offered to the reader at a knock-down price. Even the most casual reader cannot avoid being at once fascinated and repelled by the graphic descriptions of morbid yearnings never satisfied despite beatings, humiliations and tortures to soul and body. The painting about which Sacher-Masoch dreamed so vividly and to which frequent reference is made throughout the text is officially titled "Venus with a Mirror" by Titian, and perhaps it would have been preferable if the front cover image more nearly reflected this source of the author's inspiration. Might I suggest that the prospective book-buyer would be well advised to read in addition or instead, the arguably more accomplished books by Madame de Morville, titled La Dominatrice, Slaves of Isis, and The Chateau, to name but three.

derivation of the term "masochism"
_Venus in Furs, a Novel: Letters of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Emilie Mataja_ by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch contains the both the story "Venus in Furs" and a selection of letters between Sacher-Masoch and budding writer, Emilie Mataja.

"Venus in Furs" is about a man who is obsessed with having his new mistress treat him like a slave. In particular, he wants her to become his ideal "venus in furs" and begs her to don furs and wield a whip against him. His desire to be treated as such is tested when she convinces him to sign an agreement to be her slave. The story is well-written, and one becomes drawn into the misery experienced by the man as his mistress becomes progressively more cruel.

The letters between Sacher- Masoch and Mataja show Sacher-Masoch's inability at times to separate his fiction from his real life. Sacher-Masoch speaks of his married life and encourages Mataja in her writing, but his professional encouragement is shot through with requests to meet Mataja so that he can be whipped by her while she is wearing fur.

Although there are certainly more graphically erotic examples present in current fiction, this book is a must read for those wanting to know why Sacher-Masoch's writings inspired Krafft-Ebing to create the term "masochism."

Tender, loving but brutal. One mans ideal?
This 19th Century classic seems to be considered the beginning of sexual exploration within the mainstream, indeed it is considered that its author Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch gave his name to masochism (although not consciously).

The story is told through a journal of one man: Severin von Kusiemski, a man of good standing within the community but who harbours a deep routed desire to become the slave of a goddess wearing fur. His choice coining her the Venus in Furs is no coincidence for he worships at statues of Venus herself and when he stumbles upon Wanda von Dunajew he feels his search is at an end.

Wanda is for me the far more fascinating of the two characters and arguable would have been a far more interesting character to use as the point of view for this novel. She has depth through the need to explore a chilling dark side that before Severin she was unaware of but you get the feeling that whole time this dark side is a façade, a front that doesn't truly exist and in fact it is her submitting to Severin in her quest to make him happy. This paradox explodes wonderfully towards the end of the book and (for me) you truly see how unprepared Severin is for the path he has chosen, Wanda concocts one last punishment for Severin but again you can clearly see the great love that has gone into doing just that - a women unhappy in her role but seemingly unwilling not to continue for fear of losing the man she loves, until finally he pushes her too far.

I felt the pace of the book was off, we fall far too quickly into the depraved relationship without enough of the build up work, it's like passing your driving test and hoping into a Ferrari - no satisfaction if you can't prang the Metro first. I also felt that oddly the writing of Severin to be a little stunted as well, if you consider this to be deliberate to show how the author feels so much more for Wanda than for himself it can be explained but even so it can be a little disappointing.

I can honestly say I truly enjoyed this novel and not just for the historically significance of the work, but for the tenderness and care that Sacher-Masoch (some what clumsily at times) attempts to instil in the relationship between the books two chief protagonists. Could it have been better? Absolutely. Are today's books on the same subject far more graphic? I would imagine so. Is this worth the read? Definitely, I doubt many works of this subject matter could come close to Sacher-Masoch's work, no matter how rough round the edges it may be.