Book Review Pauline Reage The Story Of O

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1954 (Various editions) Spoiler alerts. Famous, rather sad and sinister, though remarkably unerotic novel of Bondage, Domination and sado-Masochism (BDSM). O, the name alone, suggesting infinity, any bodily orifice, a woman of no identity or remaining personality, and anonymity, is a young lady treated perpetually as a sex slave. Her fate begins when her boyfriend suddenly obliges her to become the property of another man, a mysterious and initially masked figure who takes her to his house, and condemns her to have to be ready to receive his sexual attention and cruelty at any time he wishes. Later, the owner invites various friends to come and make use of O too, and she is simply reduced to an item of property, used and abused. The sex scenes are graphic, and relentless, to the point of actually getting somewhat tedious. The author, influenced by The Marquis De Sade, avoids vulgarism, preferring a poetic language, which is refreshing, but the style never changes. Only the alternative ending, in which O requests and gets granted the right to end her own unhappy wretched existence in suicide is a contrast to the rest of the dark story. A sequel simply extends on her fate and therefore ignores the suicide option. The story plays heavily on O’s willingness to submit to her torment, beatings, chainings, and bondage. She is never strictly speaking, a rape victim. The story has been highly influential on the BDSM scene, and on many other writers since publication. Reage (Pseudonym of French novelist Anne Desclos) kept the work anonymous for many years. Her identity was publicly revealed in 1988, four years after her death. More of a horror tory than a work of erotica. Arthur Chappell