Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Okay, this is an odd one. Bear with me.

I first heard about Venus in Furs from a Dover Publications catalog. I saw from the little blurb that this classic novel was "controversial" in its day and its author's name was where the word masochist comes from. That was all I needed to know, honestly. I loaded it onto my Kindle and stuck it on my Classics Club list in the "Wildcard" category, because it seemed to belong there more than anywhere else. I finally got around to reading it last week.

The plot concerns a young European man named Severin von Kusiemski. He is nursing a secret desire to be completely dominated and controlled by a woman, and he finally finds the perfect person to fulfill that desire in the beautiful Wanda von Dunajew, a young widow living in the rooms above him. After spending some time getting to know Wanda, Severin becomes completely obsessed with her and begs her to become his mistress and treat him like a slave. Wanda is intrigued by the concept and agrees to give it a try. She turns out to be a natural at it, and delights in controlling Severin. She employs both verbal abuse and a whip to shame, humiliate, and excite him. 

The relationship between the pair intensifies over time. They eventually enter into an official master/slave relationship, and Wanda has Severin sign a contract giving up all of his rights to her. They even relocate to Italy so that they can live freely in a place where they aren't known to anyone. Eventually, however, Wanda begins developing feelings for a different man, and their taboo arrangement begins to fall apart before Severin's eyes.

Most of the time, when you read a classic that was considered "shocking" when it was originally published, it doesn't exactly feel shocking anymore. Not so with Venus in Furs. It is still pretty shocking today. I felt like I was reading something I shouldn't, despite that fact that this was published back in 1870. All of Severin and Wanda's activities, like the master/slave contract, the whipping, the bondage,etc., could have come out of a modern story. I was surprised that people engaged in this type of relationship way back in the 1800s, and it was interesting to see it play out in the time period. As it was only 160 pages, I finished the whole thing in one sitting, fueled by a morbid curiosity to see what salacious thing would happen next.

Despite its short length and spicy content, there was a surprising amount of depth to the novel as well, particularly in Severin and Wanda's attitudes behind their relationship. There is a lot one could analyze about why Severin was interested in being dominated and why Wanda agrees to it. Severin starts out completely idolizing Wanda, but after his relationship with her ends, his feelings shift dramatically. He becomes bitter and cruel to all women, going to far as to tell a friend, "In spite of all the advances of civilization, woman has remained as she came out of the hand of nature. She has the nature of a savage, who is faithful or faithless, magnanimous or cruel, according to the impulse that dominates at the moment...Don't ever forget that, and never feel secure with the woman you love." He ends the novel saying that, "“The moral of the tale is this: whoever allows himself to be whipped,
deserves to be whipped.”

It felt strange to see a character that started out completely idolizing and wanting to be subservient to a woman end up with this attitude. He comes to embrace a completely sexist worldview and essentially kink-shames himself. Even Wanda expresses views that mix strength and sexism, once telling Severin that, “I can easily imagine belonging to one man for my entire life, but he would have to be a whole man, a man who would dominate me, who would subjugate me by his inate strength. And every man—I know this very well—as soon as he falls in love becomes weak, pliable, ridiculous. He puts himself into the woman's hands, kneels down before her. The only man whom I could love permanently would be he before whom I should have to kneel.” Yikes. I'm sure that someone well versed in human sexuality could write pages of analysis on this relationship. Alas, my knowledge in this area is too thin to attempt anything deep. It must suffice for me to say that the book was interesting and fostered a lot of thought about topics that I don't often think about.

The introduction to my version of the book asked the reader to keep an open mind while making their way through the text, and I think that's a good bit of advice for anyone interested in reading Venus in Furs. This was an enjoyable and different kind of read. It didn't end up being a special favorite, but it was certainly memorable.


Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#91 on my list): 64/100 

Total Books Read in 2020: 7