Sophia C. reviewed on 9/18/2011 + 289 more book reviews

Venus in Furs is the novella that led von Krafft-Ebing to coin the term 'masochism' after its author in his 1890 Psychopathia Sexualis. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch tells the story of Severin, a young nobleman who meets a young beautiful widow named Wanda von Dunajew, and ultimately places himself in her hands as her slave. It's a brief, frenzied affair without any sexually explicit scenes, but the cruelty and repetition can make one flinch. The introduction by Larry Wolff provides great historical context of the life and times of Sacher-Masoch—who entered into a similar relationship with a woman who renamed herself Wanda and became his wife—as well as its literary themes, but be warned that it provides spoilers for the entire story, a brief whimsical statement on love and the relationship between the sexes.

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