Customer Reviews

The Image (Creation Modern Classics)

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4 star:		(1)
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The Image is one of the few books that puts the "literature" in "erotic literature".

This novel was published in 1956 and is set in Paris. Our narrator and point of view Jean meets his old friend Claire at a party. She introduces him to her young friend, Anne, who "belongs to" Claire. Over the course of the next one or two months, Claire demonstrates her domination of Anne to Jean, shares Anne with Jean, and (incidentally) teaches him to be a master in an S/M relationship.

This is a short novel, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's as long as it needs to be to resolve the one conflict and it's a rare pleasure to see such good writing in an erotic novel.

Because Pauline Reage (Dominique Aury) wrote the introduction to this book, comparisons to _The Story of O_ are inevitable but misguided. Yes, they were both written by French women, set around Paris in the early 1950s, and have S/M themes, but that about covers the similarities. _Story of O_ is fantastical; to accept the invitation to Roissy is to enter another world. _The Image_ is more realistic and concrete. They are vastly different books.

By all means buy it.

This BDSM novella was a good example of great descriptive prose. Jean De Berg takes us through the seduction between Jean and Claire using Anne as the means to their end. While I do not appreciate nor understand how the abuse of Anne could fuel their passions, I could admire the beauty within each scene of exploitation and how that could be appealing. Her descriptions where flawless, mysterious and sensual. A fast easy read.

Jean is drawn into Claire's game of submission with her slave Anne, putting Anne thru varies humiliating erotic scenarios. As the story unfolds the dynamic between the three characters changes, mostly effecting Jean & Claire. It starts out with light BDSM moving into more aggresive torture. Not for the faint hearted. A very hot read!

The book's main character (Anne) is a photographer, and this is perhaps the most visual book I have read -- the images stay in your head, and I have very mixed feelings about watching the film version (presumably the director's vision is different, and some things are better to imagine) In any event, as another reviewer has said, this might be a more erotic book than the "story of O", but that's probably because "the story of O" is more of an introduction to the genre (I read it at the age of 14, and haven't been the same since), and "The Image" is for a more refined palate. It is a sad commentary on the US mores that this book is being sold in some sort of soft-core porn series.