Not as amazingly sensuous as expected, or elegantly arousing for that matter. What's so classic about this book, I wonder. I'm kinda disappointed here.

Maybe the setting is too modern for my taste? Or the plot's too simple? It was almost like reading a pwp story from fanfiction.net.

Meh. I haven't read many similar books, but I guess I'll be more cautious in selecting another in the future. Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty trilogy is more ah...enchanting and imaginative ;) ( )

Surprised, wow quick ead ( )

read it more out of curiosity and, well, it's exactly what it says it is, but it also helped prepare for the sexual revolution during the 1960s and the women's liberation of the 1970s. in that sense, the book is a lot more significant than what the author intended it to be. ( )

O is taken one day without discussion by her lover Rene to Roissy. It is a place full of S&M and O is to be the new slave. There she is kept naked but for a collar and wrist cuffs, open to be abused by anyone in any way they see fit. This is mostly carried out by having sex with O in a number of different ways and orafices as well as frequent whippings. She is passed around by her lover, beaten and humiliated. No matter how much she cries or begs, no one will take pity on her. All that keeps her going is knowing Rene loves her and that she loves him.

One discharged from Roissy she goes back home to her career as a photographer. She takes a symbol of Roissy (an iron and gold ring) that she must wear at all times and if anyone recognises it's symbolism they are at liberty to use her as they would at Roissy. People recognise a change in her clothing (she is never allowed to wear any underwear or a bra and must always wear clothes that open easily so no buttons) and manner. She develops feelings for one of her models Jacqueline and Rene encourages her to seduce her with a view to recruiting her to Roissy. Rene also passes her to a new Master Sir Stephen who takes her even further on her internal journey. He also puts his marks upon her which once placed on O are permanent.

Now this is not the first novel of S&M I have read and is by no means my first experience in that world. Saying that I found this quite a hard read. It was more like torture than reading about an erotic experience. I didn't like O's attitude the further into her journey she got. I found much of it to be ugly and distasteful. On the other hand the sections where O is out of the S&M side of the story the book is very beautiful and sensual, there are some lovely passages and descriptions. I also liked that there were two beginnings and two endings to the tale. ( )

Most casual readers probably approach this book to see if they will be titillated, shocked or provoked; they probably come armed with the knowledge that it pushes the boundaries of BDSM. Potential readers should know that the titillation and sex-focused content is concentrated in the first third of the book and gradually fades from detailed or lingering description as Pauline Reage (a pseudonym) becomes more concerned with advancing the inexorable, linear trajectory of her argument, and this amounts to a second warning or caution (from me): this book is more didactic than it is playful.

The gradual, consensual enslavement, and transformation--or rather erasure--of O, is certainly thought-provoking. The book could serve as a revealing conversation starter for people from all backgrounds, who, it is easy to imagine, will seize on different aspects of O's progression to justify and explain or judge and condemn the sexual attitudes of the characters (whatever mix of dominant and submissive they present). After the riveting "Traumnovelle" ("Eyes Wide Shut")/Sadeian first section of the novel that deals with O's induction into the secret community of her masters--according to a process and in the privacy of an institution that is well imagined and described--the book slows undeniably. I found myself tempted to skim the two middle sections that depict O's semi-hesitant embrace of what she is becoming; probably because the other characters in her drama who exert a significant amount of pressure and influence are rather two dimensional and unsympathetic--also because the outcome seemed obvious.

But, the actual ending (and my version suggests that the true last chapter has gone missing or is in dispute--which is too bad) is far more cryptic and somehow beautiful than I expected--at least in its symbolism. Something primal and magnetic about the aesthetic that governs the attraction of the dominant people in "The Story of O" makes an unforgettable visual impression. I would not read this book for the quality of the writing, which is somewhat hurried, often distractingly euphemistic with regards to action and artless with regards to the narration of internal thought processes. But, I would read this book for the story and for the opportunities that it offers a reader to inhabit a wide array of perspectives along a most unusual and controversial route. ( )