"Love is the war of the sexes."
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch wrote it, thought it and lived it that way.
“Man has no choice but between the role of slave and that of tyrant.”
In 1870, La Vénus à la fur
appeared
, a novel with autobiographical overtones in which the author theorized what would later become masochism.
Which book!
What pain and what joy!
Enough to make
Fifty Shades of Gray
readers pale … In this little 184-page book, Séverin falls madly in love with a statue of Venus with large dark fur who, one day, comes to life.
Wanda, that's her name, tells her that she only obeys pleasure, far from any Christian morality.
At first, their passion is innocent, but very quickly turns perverse.
Séverin fears losing his beloved and gives himself entirely to her.
"If you love me, be cruel to me."
The woman first, a despot in spite of herself, takes a liking to the tyranny she exercises.
Venus transforms into a “sadistic” Lucrezia Borgia and Severin into a “masochistic” slave.
Here is the whip, the blood and the dungeon!
She changes into a Devil, and asks her Faust to sign a pact.
"Poetry and demonic are concentrated in the woman."
A fascinating literary classic…
Venus in Fur, By Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, translated from German by Aude Willm, 1,001 nights, 207 p., €5.