Story of O
by Pauline Reage
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Book Summary Information
Author: Pauline ReageEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-01-01
ISBN: 0345301110
Number of pages: 204
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of Story of O
Book Review: At once erotic, discomforting, and psychological, O's story is wonderful and thought provoking. Very highly recommended
Summary: 5 Stars
For love for her lover René, a young woman called O consents to be bound, humiliated, beaten and abused, marked, and prostituted. Trained at the château Roissy, graduated into her lover's personal care, and then gifted by René to an even more dominant master, O journeys through slavery--at first happy only to please her lover, O eventually becomes proud of her identity as a willing slave. Balancing scenes of O's slavery with introspection into O's evolving thought, desire, and motivation, The Story of O is at once erotic, discomforting, and psychological. I was deeply impressed by the balance between these factors, and found the book thought provoking and all together wonderful. Very highly recommended.
It's difficult to critique the actual text of a translated work because the author's words are necessarily rewritten by the translator. The minor euphemism in the language (like "back entrance" for anus) sometimes feel weak, as if the writer lacks confidence. But for both of these defects, the book reads as swift and as slick as water. Cutting backstory to a minimum and never apologizing for the content, Réage approaches her topic boldly. At only 200 pages, the book moves swiftly through the different phases of O's training and her life as a slave, and these episodes are rarely repetitive but instead evolve into different forms of service, ownership, and punishment. Quickly intriguing and entirely engrossing, this is a difficult book to put down.
The novel is formed from a tripartite of elements: the erotic, the discomforting, and the psychological. The narrative voice of O's submission maintains a certain distance and is almost cold. As a result, like O, taught to keep her mouth open and her knees apart, the text is open and bare--and this naked honesty achieves an excruciating eroticism. The details of O's slavery, her beating and her prostitution, push the boundaries of generally accepted sexuality and are discomforting even as they are arousing. And weaving constantly into both the erotic and the discomforting are explorations of O's mental state. As O's servitude evolves, so does her mind. Initially, O consents to slavery at the behest of her lover, and find joy only in her lover's approval of her submission. However, as she continues down her chosen path and her relationship with René changes, O becomes increasingly proud of her role as a willing slave.
It is this introspection that gives the book depth and makes it truly wonderful: not just erotic, The Story of O is also psychological, an exploration of one woman's choice to become a slave. O's submissive role is not innate, it is learned. She becomes content. She discovers pride in her own debasement. O's story of submission is her own, and in Réage's voice is unapologetic--not all readers may agree with what O does. But O's motivations are real, as is the growth that she goes through as she continues along the path that she has chosen. It is rare to see a book that can so fully consume and combine both the body and the mind, but The Story of O does this precisely--for O, and perhaps also for the reader. The short book is quickly over, but it will remain in the reader's thoughts for a long time after as he comprehends and judges O's life. I expect that I will reread this book, and so I'm happy that I bought it. It is a brilliant example of its type--the philosophical erotic novel--and I very highly recommend it to all readers.
(On a side note: my biggest complaint about this book lies outside of the text itself, but rather with the mystery that surrounds it: the identities of the long-unknown author, the publishing editor, and this translator, as well as the editor's two-line conclusion to the book. Some online searches on The Story of O help clear up this mystery, but on the whole I find it only distracts from the book. I wish I had--and I recommend that other readers do--skip the various introductions to the Ballantine edition and concentrate instead on the text of the novel itself.)
Summary of Story of O
The classic erotic novel, THE STORY OF O relates the love of a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer for Rene. As part of that intense love, she demands debasement and severe sexual and pychological tests. It is a unique work not to be missed.Erotica Books
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