eBlyss

I heard about Venus in Furs, by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch (yes, the term masochist was coined after his name) a while ago but I only just picked it up from the bookstore the other day, and even though I haven’t finished it yet I must say… Wow! What a marvelous venture into the mind of man obsessed with the ideal cruelly dominant woman, Venus herself… in furs no less. Some quotes to titillate you:

…and am I not entitled to be cruel? Man desires, woman is desired. That is woman’s entire but decisive advantage. Nature has put man at woman’s mercy through his passion, and woman is misguided if she fails to make him her subject, her slave, no, her toy…

We can truly love only that what stands above us, a woman who subjugates us through beauty, temperment, intellect, willpower, a woman who becomes our despot.

…and everyone knows and feels the close kinship between voluptuousness and cruelty.

Think, you man, you’re not much better than a dog, a lifeless obect. You are my thing, my toy, which I can smash to while away an hour. You are nothing, and I am everything. Do you understand?