Customer Reviews

Venus in Furs

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A well thought out erotic tale.

Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch's 'Venus In Furs', is interesting though eccentric, and perverse though compelling. Besieged in wonder and suspense, the love affair between characters: Severin von Kusiemski and Wanda von Dunajew, becomes a roller coaster ride of desire and emotion.

The obsessive fantasy to be enslaved and brutalized by the woman he loves becomes a cruel reality for poor old Severin. As beautiful Wanda slowly becomes thrilled and captivated by the notion of fulfilling her role in his fantasy, a role that previously made her shrug and laugh, she eventually transforms herself into the controlling dominatrix of Severin's dreams--by becoming more ideal at the sadomasochistic lifestyle than he had ever dreamed was possible. As Severin becomes the ever so content and happy slave, this tug-of-war between self-esteem and power begins to twist and turn with the innocent and deadly psychological games played out between the two.

Written more than a hundred years ago, this psychodrama of love, bound by the perverted desires of one and the demon lying dormant within the other, was tastefully and artfully done.

Venus in Furs is one of the most spritual works of erotica I've ever read. Much has been made of its "perversity", to the extent that the name of its author is also the name of a psycho-sexual disfunction. However, I feel that this is a grossly unfair way to treat a book that deals so beautifully with the descent and return of a man through his psyche.

Sevrin's tale is one of submission, slavery, and redemption. It is through the experience of being a woman's slave that he realizes his own worth. To treat this as an epic of laciviousness is puritanism of the lowest kind.

Venus in Furs also reminds us that the difference between hammer and anvil may not be so clear cut. It is Severin who brings out the whip in his lover. He then reaps the whirlwind, and can only ride it out.

This book is recommended for people who can see though the drivel that has been dripped upon it since its creation.

_Venus in Furs, a Novel: Letters of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Emilie Mataja_ by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch contains the both the story "Venus in Furs" and a selection of letters between Sacher-Masoch and budding writer, Emilie Mataja.

"Venus in Furs" is about a man who is obsessed with having his new mistress treat him like a slave. In particular, he wants her to become his ideal "venus in furs" and begs her to don furs and wield a whip against him. His desire to be treated as such is tested when she convinces him to sign an agreement to be her slave. The story is well-written, and one becomes drawn into the misery experienced by the man as his mistress becomes progressively more cruel.

The letters between Sacher- Masoch and Mataja show Sacher-Masoch's inability at times to separate his fiction from his real life. Sacher-Masoch speaks of his married life and encourages Mataja in her writing, but his professional encouragement is shot through with requests to meet Mataja so that he can be whipped by her while she is wearing fur.

Although there are certainly more graphically erotic examples present in current fiction, this book is a must read for those wanting to know why Sacher-Masoch's writings inspired Krafft-Ebing to create the term "masochism."

The Penguin Classics version of "Venus in Furs" is elegant, but doesn't engage the reader in the 19th century weirdeness of the book in the same way its contemporary translators managed to do. My old copy came (originally) from a book club that clearly catered to the tastes of fin du ciecle pornography fans, with end-papers containing ads that (essentially) said "If you liked this, you'll love..." books that, 20 years ago were considered genuine classics - Sade, Diderot, et al. Then, as now, Sacher-Masoch's writing did not belong in such company as literature, but merely as an exploration of sexuality (in the way that Sade's "Justine" may reasonably regarded as literature, whle the "120 Days" is not).

To regard this as a "classic" in literary terms is a mistake. It is a historical oddity and one best read in a period translation rather than one which - however inadvertently - smooths and modernises it.

In essence, the best thing that can be said about the book (unless you're a student of obscure Victorian sexuality) is that it isnpired a wonderful Velvet Underground tune...

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch manages to illustrate a deep sexual fantasy and moralize at the same time. The author artfully shows the reader the pain endured by Severin, the main character, and the twisted pleasure obtained from it. The obsession over furs is just one aspect of his pain-pleasure complex. It seems that von Sacher-Masoch, like Sade,oversimplifies complex feelings through autobiographical characters. However, unlike Sade's de Franval, the main character seems open to the possibility that this "deviant behavior" isn't perfection, but the manifestation of a personal problem dealt with in an unhealthy way. He seems to have enough of an open mind to "learn."

I highly recommend this novella and think any reader interested in Erotica at all will enjoy it.

This books rings strangely true. If you allow for the fact that it was written so long ago and in a different culture, it still seems like a plausible account of how a Mistress/slave relationship might have evolved at the time. There is even a negotiaion and a contract. This is the same thing you see in many similar real life, female dominant relationships today. ....

This is an extraordinary work of sexual deviation. It goes without say that Sacher-Masoch supplied the M in S & M. This novel which mirrors a relationship in Sacher-Masochs real life is a disarmingly sensual tale. While I have no desire to be tied up and whipped, I found myself deeply engrossed in Severins plight into abuse and humiliation. This philosophy of the hammer or the anvil is interesting to me. Obviously, Severin prefers to be the anvil to Wandas hammer. This confuses me as I believe in human dignity but to each his own. I can not agree with the hammer or anvil theory but I suppose that it is a formula that works for many people. It apparently was quite thrilling to Sacher-Masoch. This is an amazingly frank work. It is sensual and poignant simultaneously. Reccommended.

Severin von Kusiemski is a European nobleman who has always fantasized about and found pleasure in pain and submission, a condition that he terms suprasensuality. In his memoir he recounts an affair with Wanda von Dunajew, a woman of voluptuous, cruel sexuality. He asks to become her slave and submits to increasingly degrading treatment--until Wanda meet a man to whom she wishes to submit. A classic text, Venus in Furs has a writing style that may not appeal to all readers: the narratives delves deeper into desires and relationships than action and sexual acts and has an airy, self-indulgent tone. This narrative voice, however, creates an intimate view of "suprasensuality"--a sort of masochism that predates (and originates) the term, and the ethereal style allows Sacher-Masoch to build up and break down the ideal of the cruel mistress. Worth reading for concept and significance alone, the text is softly seductive and swiftly readable. I recommend it.

To describe the sexual desire to receive pain, Krafft-Ebbing created the word "masochism" from Sacher-Masoch's name. Krafft-Ebbing's research is now out of date, but the word is still in use. Likewise a lot has changed since the book's publishing, but Venus in Furs remains an early exploration of masochistic desires and a sadomasochistic relationship, and is in some ways foundational and in some still relevant. Severin idealizes Wanda: replacing the statue of Venus, iconographed in a painting, she becomes the archetype of the merciless woman. Naming and describing his own suprasensuality, Severin creates an ideal also for the submissive man, who fetishizes the paraphernalia of powerful women, who falls in thrall at a women's feet, who submits to degradation and abuse--and finds pleasure in it all. The lovers often discuss the causes and boundaries of their relationship, and Severin's narrative pauses frequently for introspection and artistic descriptions. All told, Venus in Furs is both portrait and exploration of a sadomasochistic relationship. Some of these aspects are outdated and some may not ring true to the reader, but in Sacher-Masoch's text they are both archetypal and real, a strong fictional entrance into the topic which still readable, relevant, and thought-provoking today.

Two aspects, however, alter this view of the novel. First, the writing style sometimes glosses over the essential content of the relationship. Sacher-Masoch spends plenty of time on motivation and lead up, but little on actual action--sexual aspects, both intercourse and sadistic/masochistic scenes, are brief or absent. Although hardly surprising (especially given the content and publishing date), this deficiency restricts the text to the theoretical. The characters and desires--although well crafted--are rendered somewhat insubstantial. The writing becomes dreamlike, detouring often and only ghosting over action, and this style is somewhat inaccessible. Secondly, Wanda and Severin's relationship takes a dramatic turn in the second half of the book, changing the characters and also the sadomasochistic relationship. This change is more of a complication than a drawback. It muddies the idealized view of the characters and desires, but also creates a plot--granting the book a direction and purpose greater than simply illustrating ideals.

All of this in barely more than 100 pages: Venus in Furs moves swiftly through even its languorous introspection, and packs a lot into a very small space. The book is worth reading both for the early concept of masochism and a sadomasochistic relationship and for its characters, plot, and unusual narrative voice. The novel does read like a classic, but remains accessible to a modern audience. Personally, I wasn't blown away by this book but I was generally impressed and glad to return to one of the literary "sources," as it were, of the topic. On that basis I was pleased, and I recommend the book.

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch is the root for the term masochism and he portrays this in his novel 'Venus in Furs' by depicting the personal discovery of a young man whose relationship takes a turn when he realizes he wants to stay with his "venus" no matter the consequences. This devolves into his own urge to be treated badly by his lover, and results in his ultimately getting exactly what he wished for.

Told from the point of view of the man when he is older, he tells the story to another young man as a lesson to avoid suffering the pains he has suffered. Told with fascinating language and imagery, it is a book that offers an understanding of the source of the term "masochism" and provides a nice short story in and of itself.

This is probably one of the best books I've ever read. I devoured it. A lot of people compare Leopold Von Sacher-Mosoch to The Marquis de Sade, but this novel was tragically romantic. I would compare it to something like Wuthering Heights.