Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

When I returned, she was engaged in making tea. “Get it, and then we will have tea together, and chat.”

She didn’t say come in but opened the door herself and stood on the threshold. I ran upstairs, and at the top lost courage again. “Why don’t you come up?” she called down impatiently. Toward evening as I was sitting in my arbor, her gay red head peered suddenly through the greenery of her balcony.

ExcerptĪll day long I didn’t dare to go near her. Wanda abuses Severin mercilessly, drawing him deeper into her web of dominance and sex, but their relationship is put to the test when Wanda meets a man to whom she’d rather be the slave than the master…. Reluctant at first, Wanda soon finds herself drawn into the dark world of dominance and drunk on lust and control. When he meets the beautiful widow Wanda at an Italian resort, he is so captivated by her that he begs to be taken as her slave. Sensitive artist Severin, humiliated as a child by a glamorously cold aunt, has grown into a man who longs to worship a woman with his whole self. It has inspired films, a song written by Lou Reed and performed by the Velvet Underground, and-most recently-the four-time Tony nominated play Venus in Fur starring Hugh Dancy and Nina Arianda. Revolutionizing popular thought on the relationship among love, sex, and power, it paved the way for modern erotica like the wildly popular Fifty Shades of Grey series. Originally published in 1870, Venus in Furs was ahead of its time. Now available as an eBook, the classic erotic novel by the father of BDSM who has captivated readers for over a century with his visionary tale of seduction and power.

Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch