Story Of O
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
One of the most controversial and provocative works of erotic literature ever published, Story of O chronicles the voluntary submission of a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer named O, who surrenders herself entirely to her lover René and the shadowy, aristocratic world he delivers her to — a secluded château where desire, dominance, and devotion are pressed to their absolute limits. First published in France in 1954 under the pseudonym Pauline Réage, the novel shocked and captivated the literary establishment in equal measure, winning the prestigious Prix des Deux Magots and igniting fierce debate about the nature of erotic fiction, female agency, and the boundaries of art. Written with cool, almost clinical elegance, Story of O presents a paradox that continues to unsettle and fascinate readers decades after its publication — a narrative in which surrender becomes a form of transcendence, and objectification a path to an unsettling kind of selfhood. The true author was later revealed to be Anne Desclos, a prominent French intellectual and editor, who reportedly wrote the novel as a love letter to her partner, the writer Jean Paulhan. Its influence on literature, feminist theory, and cultural discourse is immeasurable, and its capacity to disturb, seduce, and provoke remains entirely intact. Whether read as a philosophical meditation on power or a pure work of transgressive fiction, it leaves no reader unchanged.
Author: Pauline Réage
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fiction
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
One of the most controversial and provocative works of erotic literature ever published, Story of O chronicles the voluntary submission of a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer named O, who surrenders herself entirely to her lover René and the shadowy, aristocratic world he delivers her to — a secluded château where desire, dominance, and devotion are pressed to their absolute limits. First published in France in 1954 under the pseudonym Pauline Réage, the novel shocked and captivated the literary establishment in equal measure, winning the prestigious Prix des Deux Magots and igniting fierce debate about the nature of erotic fiction, female agency, and the boundaries of art. Written with cool, almost clinical elegance, Story of O presents a paradox that continues to unsettle and fascinate readers decades after its publication — a narrative in which surrender becomes a form of transcendence, and objectification a path to an unsettling kind of selfhood. The true author was later revealed to be Anne Desclos, a prominent French intellectual and editor, who reportedly wrote the novel as a love letter to her partner, the writer Jean Paulhan. Its influence on literature, feminist theory, and cultural discourse is immeasurable, and its capacity to disturb, seduce, and provoke remains entirely intact. Whether read as a philosophical meditation on power or a pure work of transgressive fiction, it leaves no reader unchanged.