Venus in Furs

Venus in Furs (or essentially, "The Education of a Young Woman') is novelist and poet von Sacher-Masoch's most sublime text on the devotion of "masochism"-emotional, psychological, sexual-and it is a masterpiece of persuasion. Its protagonist is an educated and devout man given to whips and ideals. Severin von Kusiemski's is an unusual pedagogy and his Ideal is the cruel woman in furs who will allow him to be her slave; for in his rapturous acquiescence, and in his conscious guidance of both his own and his mistress' will, Severin will have penetrated into the beating heart of a solitary man's deepest and most profound desires: to merge flesh with spirit, birth with death, Heaven with Hell. This classic late-nineteenth-century novel-surprisingly,is not, as popular rumor would have it, simply a lurid tale of obsessive obscenity. Nor is it merely a Victorian dream of antique decadence. It remains a deeply felt, intelligent and powerful morality play of our time, marvelously writte (From Independent Publisher)