First published in 1870, the author of ‘Venus in Furs’ defined – and unwittingly gave his own name to – that sexual proclivity we know as masochism in this understated, charged erotic classic.
What woman could resist a trembling man handing her the whip?
Severin is a young Galician nobleman with a secret; he can only love a woman with a ruthless heart, who will rain her whip upon him in a shower of bloody kisses. When he meets Wanda, the wealthy and beautiful widow living in the apartment upstairs, he wonders if she might be the one to help him realise his darkest desires. But Wanda is better than she ever dreamed possible at domination – and soon Severin realises he is powerless to escape what he has begun. Here, fantasy and reality writhe together in a ceaseless, fraught embrace…

Venus in Furs (Harper Perennial Forbidden Classics)

Literature & Fiction

SACHER-MASOCH, Leopold von

Literary

Harper-perennial

Venus in Furs describes the obsessions of Severin von Kusiemski, a European nobleman who desires to be enslaved to a woman. Severin finds his ideal of voluptuous cruelty in the merciless Wanda von Dunajew. This is a passionate and powerful portrayal of one man's struggle to enlighten and instruct himself and others in the realm of desire. Published in 1870, the novel gained notoriety and a degree of immortality for its author when the word "masochism"—derived from his name—entered the vocabulary of psychiatry. This remains a classic literary statement on sexual submission and control. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Venus in Furs (Penguin Classics)

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Penguin Classics

The daring successor to the writings of the Marquis de Sade, this 1870 novel offers a tale of submission, slavery, and redemption. Author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch — whose name provided the basis for the term "masochism" — drew upon his own experiences to chronicle the slavish obsession of a European nobleman, Severin von Kusiemski, with Wanda von Dunajew, a voluptuous, whip-wielding beauty. More than a sordid tale of perversion, this timeless psychodrama depicts von Kusiemski's surrender to the cruelties of a harsh mistress as his path to the realization of his own worth. A classic exploration of sexual dominance and submission, Venus in Furs constitutes an intelligent and thought-provoking portrayal of desire, emotion, and self-discovery.

Venus in Furs

United States

Dover Publications

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), whose name has been immortalized in the term masochism, is known today predominantly for his novel 'Venus in Furs' and for his tales of dominant women and suffering men. This collection features some of his best-known Jewish tales which display the author's warm sense of humanity as well as his considerable sense of humor. Sacher-Masoch's unusual ability to capture the essence of a person or place with a telling detail brings the vanished world of Galician Jewry back to life in all its splendor and squalor, mixing the grays, browns, and blacks of European Realism with the bright, sparkling colors of legend, myth, fairy tale, and tradition.

A Light for Others and Other Jewish Tales from Galicia (STUDIES IN AUSTRIAN LITERATURE, CULTURE, AND THOUGHT TRANSLATION SERIES)

Contemporary

Ariadne Pr

Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty & Venus in Furs

In his stunning essay, Coldness and Cruelty, Gilles Deleuze provides a rigorous and informed philosophical examination of the work of the late 19th-century German novelist Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Deleuze's essay, certainly the most profound study yet produced on the relations between sadism and masochism, seeks to develop and explain Masoch's "peculiar way of 'desexualizing' love while at the same time sexualizing the entire history of humanity." He shows that masochism is something far more subtle and complex than the enjoyment of pain, that masochism has nothing to do with sadism; their worlds do not communicate, just as the genius of those who created them - Masoch and Sade - lie stylistically, philosophically, and politically poles a part. Venus in Furs, the most famous of all of Masoch's novels was written in 1870 and belongs to an unfinished cycle of works that Masoch entitled The Heritage of Cain. The cycle was to treat a series of themes including love, war, and death. The present work is about love. Although the entire constellation of symbols that has come to characterize the masochistic syndrome can be found here - fetishes, whips, disguises, fur-clad women, contracts, humiliations, punishment, and always the volatile presence of a terrible coldness - these do not eclipse the singular power of Masoch's eroticism.

DELEUZE, GILLES

Zone Books

Die Satten Und Die Hungrigen V1-2 (1894) (German Edition)

Kessinger Publishing

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Venus In Furs

"And yet a restless, always unsatisfied craving for the nudity of paganism," she interrupted, "but that love, which is the highest joy, which is divine simplicity itself, is not for you moderns, you children of reflection. It works only evil in you. As soon as you wish to be natural, you become common. To you nature seems something hostile; you have made devils out of the smiling gods of Greece, and out of me a demon. You can only exorcise and curse me, or slay yourselves in bacchantic madness before my altar.

Over a century before 50 Shades of Grey, novels of feminine passions had been setting the stage and bending the morals laws which made erotica novels possible. Fanny Hill is an erotic novel by English novelist John Cleland. One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history, it has become a synonym for obscenity. Venus in Furs is a novella by the Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and the best known of his works. The novel draws themes, like female dominance and sadomasochism, and character inspiration heavily from Sacher-Masoch's own life. Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, The book soon became notorious for its story of the physical (and emotional) relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman, its explicit descriptions of sex, and its use of then-unprintable words. This edition is a collection of these three erotica classics, perfect for study or inspiration for your own writing muse.

Her Secret Needs - 3 Classic Novels of Feminine Passion

CLELAND, JOHN

LAWRENCE, D.H.

lulu.com

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Books by SACHER-MASOCH, Leopold von

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by SACHER-MASOCH, Leopold von. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Venus in Furs (Harper Perennial Forbidden Classics)

Venus in Furs (Penguin Classics)

Venus in Furs

A Light for Others and Other Jewish Tales from Galicia (STUDIES IN AUSTRIAN LITERATURE, CULTURE, AND THOUGHT TRANSLATION SERIES)

Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty & Venus in Furs

Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty & Venus in Furs

Die Satten Und Die Hungrigen V1-2 (1894) (German Edition)

Venus In Furs

Venus In Furs

Her Secret Needs - 3 Classic Novels of Feminine Passion