O is a young, beautiful fashion photographer in Paris. One day her lover, Rene, takes her to a chateau, where she is enslaved, with Rene's approval, and systematically sexually assaulted by various other men. Later, Rene turns O over to Sir Stephen, an English friend who intensifies the brutality. But the final humiliation is yet to come.
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"A rare thing, a pornographic book well written and without a trace of obscenity." ---Graham Greene
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
About the Author
Pauline Réage (1907-1998) is a pseudonym of Anne Desclos, a French journalist and novelist. She is the author of Story of O. Anne also wrote several published works under the pseudonym Dominique Aury, including Lecture pour Tous II and Vocation: Clandestine. Käthe Mazur (pronounced "kay-ta") has recorded over one hundred titles, including The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, Hillary Clinton's Living History, Emily March's Eternity Springs series, French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano, and Jacquelyn Mitchard's Cage of Stars, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner. She can be seen as DDA Hobbs on The Closer and in the spin-off Major Crimes. She has worked extensively as an actress in film, theater, and television, including on Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Brothers and Sisters, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, ER, and Monk. Käthe lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.
--This text refers to the
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
193 of 202 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Story of O is about a young, beautiful Parisian photographer named O who wants nothing more than to be her lover's slave. She goes through strict "training" for two weeks at Roissey, a club where other women like her learn how to "obey" their masters in whatever they order them to do, whether it be for their masters alone or for other members of the club. O goes through harsh punishments, such as being whipped and flogged daily and being chained to her bed every night. What is most disturbing about this first part of the book, is not O's harsh punishments that she endures, but the fact that she endures all this debasement willingly.
Though she may be considered as a masochist at the beginning of the novel, it becomes clear while reading through the rest of the novel that this is not the case. This is not so much a story about masochism, as it is more a story about love, about how much a woman would sacrifice for it, and the length a woman will go to keep her lover, Rene, happy. O derives no pleasure from the physical, emotional, and psychological torture she endures. Rather, her pleasure is derived from the aftermath of those things: the lashes to her skin, the debasement and objectification of her body and the cruelty that she willingly chooses to endure makes O "happy" in the fact that she is doing all this to please her lover.
O is not a prisoner or slave in the normal term of the word, but rather she is a slave to her love for Rene, as he has made it clear to her that she is free to leave anytime she desires. But she is blinded by her love for him and feels that by enduring the punishment he puts her through, she is becoming closer to him. Or rather, she is becoming his, his object, his property. O cannot stand the thought of losing him or of being separated from him and she feels that her submission to him proves to him that she is his and only his and he can do whatever he wants with her so long as he dos not leave her:
"O was happy that Rene had had her whipped and had prostituted her, because her impassioned submission would furnish her lover with the proof that she belonged to him, but also because the pain and shame of the lash, and the outrage inflicted upon her by those who compelled to her pleasure when they took her, and at the same time delighted in their own without paying the slightest heed to hers, seemed to her the very redemption of her sins."
I saw O, at times, when in the presence of her "masters" as very naive, bordering on the edge of foolish, but cannot help but feel that she deliberately acted this way to seem all the more submissive to them. The only time I ever see O, the real person and not as an object, was when she was with her lover Jacqueline. But I found it odd that O took on many of Rene's domineering characteristics while with Jacqueline, wanting to be in control of Jacqueline intimately, wanting to control her body the way Rene controlled O's. It was only when Jacqueline saw O's body, the marks of the flogging and her scars, that Jacqueline began to back away from O and O had "felt insulted at seeing Jacqueline's contempt for her condition as a flogged and branded slave, a condition of which O herself was proud".
This novel is definitely not for everyone. In fact, it's not for a lot of people due to the neverending violence. I have heard many people call this book "erotic" but it was nothing like that for me. The only reason I kept reading was because I was more intrigued by O. I wanted to understand her, but I think at the end, I was only more confused by her and her mindset. I began thinking toward the end of the novel that she was nothing more than a [...], which ironically, is just what O wanted people to think of her. I also began to greatly dislike her, whereas at the beginning of the novel I was indifferent to her. The ending of this book also left me with a feeling of emptiness as I still had more questions that will forever be unanswered.
What probably disturbed me most about this book, though, was surprisingly not the torture that O endured. If she had been unwilling, it would have caused me to sympathize for her but because she was a willing partner in it, I could not seem to find any kind of sympathy for her, except for at the very end which I will not give away here. That, in itself, disturbed me but what also disturbed me was the fact that I saw in O many characteristics that I have seen in a lot of women today: her willingness to please her lover, to go to drastic lengths to make her lover happy, and her blind passion for him.
Though she may be considered as a masochist at the beginning of the novel, it becomes clear while reading through the rest of the novel that this is not the case. This is not so much a story about masochism, as it is more a story about love, about how much a woman would sacrifice for it, and the length a woman will go to keep her lover, Rene, happy. O derives no pleasure from the physical, emotional, and psychological torture she endures. Rather, her pleasure is derived from the aftermath of those things: the lashes to her skin, the debasement and objectification of her body and the cruelty that she willingly chooses to endure makes O "happy" in the fact that she is doing all this to please her lover.
O is not a prisoner or slave in the normal term of the word, but rather she is a slave to her love for Rene, as he has made it clear to her that she is free to leave anytime she desires. But she is blinded by her love for him and feels that by enduring the punishment he puts her through, she is becoming closer to him. Or rather, she is becoming his, his object, his property. O cannot stand the thought of losing him or of being separated from him and she feels that her submission to him proves to him that she is his and only his and he can do whatever he wants with her so long as he dos not leave her:
"O was happy that Rene had had her whipped and had prostituted her, because her impassioned submission would furnish her lover with the proof that she belonged to him, but also because the pain and shame of the lash, and the outrage inflicted upon her by those who compelled to her pleasure when they took her, and at the same time delighted in their own without paying the slightest heed to hers, seemed to her the very redemption of her sins."
I saw O, at times, when in the presence of her "masters" as very naive, bordering on the edge of foolish, but cannot help but feel that she deliberately acted this way to seem all the more submissive to them. The only time I ever see O, the real person and not as an object, was when she was with her lover Jacqueline. But I found it odd that O took on many of Rene's domineering characteristics while with Jacqueline, wanting to be in control of Jacqueline intimately, wanting to control her body the way Rene controlled O's. It was only when Jacqueline saw O's body, the marks of the flogging and her scars, that Jacqueline began to back away from O and O had "felt insulted at seeing Jacqueline's contempt for her condition as a flogged and branded slave, a condition of which O herself was proud".
This novel is definitely not for everyone. In fact, it's not for a lot of people due to the neverending violence. I have heard many people call this book "erotic" but it was nothing like that for me. The only reason I kept reading was because I was more intrigued by O. I wanted to understand her, but I think at the end, I was only more confused by her and her mindset. I began thinking toward the end of the novel that she was nothing more than a [...], which ironically, is just what O wanted people to think of her. I also began to greatly dislike her, whereas at the beginning of the novel I was indifferent to her. The ending of this book also left me with a feeling of emptiness as I still had more questions that will forever be unanswered.
What probably disturbed me most about this book, though, was surprisingly not the torture that O endured. If she had been unwilling, it would have caused me to sympathize for her but because she was a willing partner in it, I could not seem to find any kind of sympathy for her, except for at the very end which I will not give away here. That, in itself, disturbed me but what also disturbed me was the fact that I saw in O many characteristics that I have seen in a lot of women today: her willingness to please her lover, to go to drastic lengths to make her lover happy, and her blind passion for him.
75 of 83 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I read some of the customer reviews and I would like to clarify a couple of things. It seems that some of the readers did not pay much attention to the fact that Pauline Reage did not write this book. This book was written 40 years ago by an anonymous person. The reviews were negative toward the author and the writing style of the book which, I felt, was inncorrect on the part of the readers. Secondly, I feel that some of the readers did not understand that this was not, in my opinion, a romantic "love story." This book was about what O would do for her lover out of love. Yes, I believe that the characters ideals of love were extreme and very perverse, but that is not how I interpreted the book. To me, the book showed the enjoyment O received out of being submissive not only to Rene and Sir Stephen but to all men and women that wanted her to belong to them in everyway that was possible. This book took me by surprise but I would definitly recommend this book to anyone that has ever been curious about S/M. The Story of O will either push you into the exotic world of sado-masachisticism or it will completely horrify you. I would love to know who originally wrote the book but it will probably remain a mystery.
107 of 122 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The original "Story of O" is a novel. There is a comic book version by Guido Crepax which is NOT the novel. Amazon.com has mistakenly combined the reviews for the book and the comic book, which is very misleading because I wanted the novel and got the comic book!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
review
This story theme was only the degradation of the human spirit!! It had no substance Not really worth the read
Published 3 days ago by Frances T.Constantine
2.0 out of 5 stars
disappointing
after reading 50 shades trilogy and the sylvia day crossfire trilogy books 1 and 2, and sleeping beauty trilogy, not your childs reading for sure,, this book was boring, waiting on... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tracy J. Embert
2.0 out of 5 stars
Outdated
I guess its historically important but there's no care shown for the submissive and its all boring straight sex. I need more modern kinky smut.
Published 1 month ago by Tarsis
1.0 out of 5 stars
In The Trash!
I stuck with this book hoping it would get better! OMG, it was awful!!!! It was the same thing,page after page after page! The more I read it the worse it got! Read more
Published 2 months ago by marianne wollmann
3.0 out of 5 stars
Okay
The original "erotica" or at the very least, one of the popular ones. I had a hard time getting into this story & couldn't see what all the fuss was about :)
Published 2 months ago by Robin Kaufman
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book
Loved this story. It is better than any shades of grey book. More true to the bdsm world and a great story of empowerment and submission.
Published 2 months ago by Lovecraft Girl
1.0 out of 5 stars
Story of O is disturbing
I recently read this book due to the reviews stating that it was a better read than the Fifty Shades of Grey series. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Adk Girl
3.0 out of 5 stars
O is well..........OK
Great shocker when the book was first published, for 2013 makes for slow reading. But for my 8 hard earned dollars, I will finish it!!!!!
Published 3 months ago by Just Foxy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book
Book came very fast and in excellent condition. Would be enjoyed by anyone who likes erotic novels that are different and very expllicet BDSM books.
Published 3 months ago by Aurelia Scherf Donald
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice bdsm classic
A little dated when placed in the context of the enormous collection of bdsm erotica now available, but still a good read. Read more
Published 4 months ago by harrison
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