Story of O - Pauline Reage

The story of O, probably one of the most famous erotic novellas ever written next to the Marquis deSade's 120 days in Sodom. However to call this little book an erotic book would be selling it short and missing the bigger point. I have had many people read this book and even required in some of the seminars I have taught in architecture school. I know the book really has nothing to do with architecture but it was my seminar. Typically most women find the book annoying because they see O as weak and disgustingly submissive. Well she was but that is just the foreground. You have to look at the middleground and the background to fully appreciate the whole ...  Read the complete review

When one thinks about the words "the Fifties" and "sex" together, they conjure up images of repression and moral self-righteousness - but when you consider that Pauline Reage wrote the "Story of O" in the early part of that decade, it causes you to review your thinking somewhat. Then again, any book which has been banned for as long as this one was, has got to be good. And it is. Set mostly in and around Paris, it tells the story of a woman who would do anything for love, including being led to a chateau on the outskirts of the city where she is "given" to any man who wants her, where she is subjected to ...  Read the complete review

why on earth would anyone want to read the story of o in this day and age? Think of the story of o as a classic, I like to compare it to The Hobbit, for example, you may not have read it, but you know it exists. I can give you a few reasons for reading this book. One of the first is because the story was written by a woman, so it's quite an eye opener. The central character, O,(of course she doesn't have a proper name!) undertakes slave training at a very liberated gentleman's club, suffers torments and has her will broken, and ends up genitally pierced. It doesn't sound funny, and it's not. This is the book, however, that most people ...  Read the complete review