Customer Reviews

The Story of O

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

when i first read it i was a young teen-ager and it had a profound influence on me. yes i am male, and yes the debasement and torture of O aroused me greatly, but it also had a deep spiritual effect which is difficult to explain. i won't apologize for, try to justify, or write a disclaimer for this book. neither will i speculate as to whether it is pornography or literature, as surely these are not mutually exclusive. nor will i offer the fact that the book was written by a woman (it was) as its justification, as it is better served without any, and because theorizing about the significance of this fact is usually just political point scoring of one sort or other. but what i will do is offer up a little bit of history to dispel some of the misinformation i have seen in other reviews, and then of course my own opinion which is the point of writing a reviews is it not?

in 1994 Dominique Aury (which wasn't even her real name, but yet another pseudonym), a prominent french literary figure and editor finally admitted to having written the book. she wrote it over several months every night in pencil instead of ink, so as not to stain the sheets of her bed where she lay writing. she didn't write any first drafts, did no editing, and every few days sent what she had written to her lover, the French writer and editor Jean Paulhan. he slept around and she wanted to arouse him and keep him interested; it worked.

the novel was published in 1954 under the pseudonym Pauline Reage as a homage to Pauline Borghese and the 19th-century feminist/socialist Pauline Rolan. there was much ado about the book when it was published of course, with bannings and burnings in the U.S. and Britain especially. it was exclaimed that it had to be the work of a man, which just made Dominique laugh. like O, she was deeply in love with Paulhan. she was fascinated by his ability to marvel at both the most terrible and awful, as well as the most cheerful and beautiful things. is the book about spiritual transcendence, or the 'basest' of debauchery? yes of course, it is both of these things. but most of all, in my opinion, it is about affirmation, in the Nietzscheian sense of an 'amor fati', total abandonment and laughter in the face of death and pain, as well as love and joy; a love and respect for the eternal contradictions of life. Dominique once repeated the well known saying that a leopard never changes it's spots, and added something to the effect of: "that we should just let her go with her contradictions". and so we should.

I bought this book purely based on the fact that it is deemed "classic literature" as well as "scandalous".

I read through the first couple of chapters then threw it down with disgust..even for a translation it seemed poorly written and the content was DEFINITELY unnerving. (I was looking for a STORY behind the porn..and there was nothing but sex at first..).. Anyway, later that evening I picked it up and started to browse through it again..THIS TIME I saw the "story"! There is much more here than a woman debasing herself for a lover..there is much more here than the graphic depictions of sexual encounters...this is a story about the complex ities of love vs sex et al...about a very complex woman whom (it could be argued) was not "enslaved" at all. If there's anyone out there who,like me, want to read this as a literary experience..I would recommend it! BUT!..You must be willing (and able) to see the story through the sex..andI almost missed it because of a kind of knee-jerk, conservative reaction. I'm glad I overcame that, and allowed myself to finish the book.

My wife and I have read this book and have an original Beta copy of the video. We have throughly enjoyed the book as well as the video. We did not find the book disturbing at all. We found it to be quite stimulating, not in a true Sado-Masachisticist world. The submissive side of this book was very enjoyable. The fact that is was written anonymously adds to the mystic of the novel. For those who consider reading this book, please read it with an open mind. What the young photographer does for Rene is completely within her control to stop. We all face this type of submission within our lives. Just think how many times your boss has made you work late or your spouse made you do something you did not want to. We can control how far submissiveness go, as O could have. She chose not to stop it, because she was enjoying it.

Definitley an interesting read. Delving into how one can give themself up so completely and utterly... in it's own frightening way it can actually make you feel liberated in knowing how and why you give yourself up to someone (albeit not necessarily in such a fashion as O). The erotic content is subtle and is masked behind the rest of the story as well as what O endures... and that is part of the erotic content. If that is not understood it's just a story about a woman being tied up, used, whipped and branded. Not too erotic if you think about it. But in the context of the story, she endures it to show her love and devotion, and that is where it becomes erotic. Delving into the human psyche and uncovering that little part in all of us that wants to give ourselves completely to the one we love. However, if your looking for a quick, one handed read, this will not provide it. It's thinking erotica, definitely

" Story of O" was written by Dominique Aury as a kind of extended love letter to rekindle the passions of a lover, the French writer and editor Jean Paulhan, who was gradually losing interest in her. Paulhan was captivated, and the novel was published in 1954 under the pseudonym Pauline Reage--homage, according to Aury, to her heroines Pauline Borghese and the 19th-century feminist-socialist Pauline Roland.

Never let anyone, especially a rabid feminist, say anything against this book. More than anything else, it is a novel of a woman's right to choose. If that choice happens to be that of giving up her choices, so be it. That in and of itself is the greatest of choices. It is also a novel of love... the simple words "I Love You" mean little next to the act of giving oneself freely to another. These are the points that Reage illuminates with her work, done with a flowing sense of style and a wonderful grasp of the written word

Perhaps one the most controversial novels of all time, The Story of O focuses on the strange relationship between love and slavery. The heroine, known only as O, is a young woman who chooses to live only as a slave to her lover Rene. She undergoes a variety of "tests" to prove her devotion to him, including a visit to an ominous chateau where women are "trained" to be submissive. Eventually O is introduced to Rene's mysterious half-brother, a man who will change her life and possibly take part in her destruction. As disturbing as the book is, it raises some very interesting questions about the nature of individual freedom. The tone of the writing is lyrical and surreal; this helps to offset the occasionally graphic content.