In the 1950’s a journalist and professional translator wrote a series of letters to her husband. He was an enthusiast for the writings of the Marquis de Sade and once told her that no female could ever write erotic fiction as well as a man. The wife set out to prove him wrong and those letters were collected into a novel that eventually became published as Story of O by Pauline Reage, the pen name of Anne Decile Desclos. The book was controversial from the start and is now considered a classic in some circles. In our age when anything and everything is available on the internet it does not have the same impact it did in the 1950s. But if you approach the story with the right set of expectations, it might be a good book. Ultimately, a lot depends on who you are and what you are willing to tolerate.
To start off, Story of O is not pornography. Pornography is explicit and its primary function is to sexually arose the audience. In porn story is less important than the sexual activity, if there even is a story to begin with. Pornography contrasts with erotica which is sexually oriented by nature but includes more emotion and character development even if the characters are shallow. Erotic art is less crude and allows more room for context and expression. But Story of O does not fit easily into either category. It blends elements of the two and hovers somewhere in between, almost as if it forms its own genre of literature. It tells the story of a woman who voluntarily enters a sado-masochistic relationship in which her boyfriend, Rene, takes her to a chateaux called Roissy. It is there that O gets tied-up, whipped, and forced to have sex with several anonymous men. Rene asks her permission before any of this starts and she agrees. She has become his slave and he can do with her whatever he wants.
The description of physical sensations is central to both pornography and erotica. The sensations described by O are not necessarily sexual. It is true that she gets penetrated by men throughout the book, sometimes by multiple men at the same time, but the description never goes beyond the act itself. It is not phallo-centric in any way nor does O say what it feels like to have sex. The process leading from arousal to climax is given no attention. Actually, most of what she describes are secondary details like the textures of clothing, the softness of a bed, the surface of stone floors she kneels on, and, most importantly, what it feels like to be put in bondage and whipped. The act of tying her wrists and restricting her movements make her limbs feel separate from her body which results in a sensation of disassociation. When O gets whipped she has sensations of her body dissolving so that she feels outside of herself. In fact, when the men in the story bind her and flagellate her they describe it as “opening” her body. When the beatings stop, the sense of relief from pain gives O pleasure, probably a rush of endorphins. The relief gained from having her ordeals ended tends to be the point where agony turns into ecstasy.
Roissy is a secret society, maybe like what people imagined the Hellfire Clubs of the 19th century to be like. When Rene takes her away, he gives her a signet ring with a triskellion symbol on it meaning she must submit to the desires of any man who knows what the symbol means. As the story moves on, O is coaxed into having a sexual relationship with a fashion model named Jacqueline. She is also handed over to Sir Stephen, a superior to Rene in the Roissy society.
O’s subjectivity is described along the way. At the start of the novel, she agrees to Rene’s requests because she loves him and wants his acceptance. This need for acceptance plays a running theme throughout the story. O also describes her desire to be treated like an object and deprived of her ability to choose. Why she feels this way is never explained. This is one shortcoming of the novel; O says how she feels about her situation but she doesn’t say enough to give the reader a deep understanding of what she truly wants. The descriptions of her subjectivity give her depth but do not go deep enough.
Sir Stephen takes over as her dominant partner but again, she gives her permission to him and Rene before they begin their dominant/submissive relationship. Every time O reaches a new stage in her development as a submissive woman, she is asked for permission before the torture begins. O feels a lot of ambivalence every time she is asked to cross that line and it is the resolution of that hesitancy, fear, and desire for pain that gives her pleasure. The physical sensation of torture is less important to her than what it does to her psychologically. Keep in mind that this type of ambivalence is called "cognitive dissonance" and the process of helping someone overcome that state of uncertainty is used by cult leaders as a method of coercion and manipulation, making the person more loyal to the group through resolution of their conflicting emotions
Speaking of psychology, as her relationship with Sir Steven intensifies, she goes back to Rene who convinces her to lure Jacqueline into going to Roissy. Rene says he loves Jacqueline. O does not want her to go there because of her infatuation and does not want her to suffer. However, when Rene says he loves Jacqueline, O is inflamed with jealousy and it is then that she wants to see Jacqueline tied up and tortured with tears running down her face. O has reached another turning point: she is no longer just a masochist because the doorway to her sadism has been opened. Rene appears to have learned from the others in Roissy how to manipulate women and get what he wants from them.
At Sir Stephen’s Request, O is taken to the luxurious house of Anne-Marie, a middle-aged lesbian who has three younger female slaves working for her. As the bondage and whippings continue, Sir Stephen asks O to allow herself to be branded and to have her labia pierced in order to hold two links of a chain and a pendant stating his ownership of her. Again, O is asked for permission and she gives it. She also sleeps with Anne-Marie before going back to her apartment. It is interesting that Anne-Marie will not allow herself to be seen undressed. At this point O’s body is scarred and covered with welts but she is also becoming more confident in her status as a slave. But is Anne-Marie’s refusal to be seen nude an indication that her body is just as scarred as O’s? It is possible that Anne-Marie may be serving the function of a role model for O as she progresses up the hierarchy of the secret society.
Roissy does have a hierarchy. Rene gives O to Sir Stephen as a gift but towards the end another mysterious man called the Commander enters the story. He is the man that Sir Stephen takes orders from. But where O is a two and a half dimensional character, the men in the story are one dimensional. On the surface this may look like a flaw in the writing but as the wider picture of the Roissy society emerges this gives the novel a little more depth as you begin to wonder who these men are and what they are up to. The chateau and the society itself reek of wealth, privilege, and aristocracy. How powerful are these people in the outside world? Is dominance and submission merely a hobby for them or are they part of something larger, something with a hidden plan? The lack of detail and closure makes the whole story more creepy. And who are all the people attending the party at the end?
O is eventually taken to a villa outside Paris by Sir Stephen and the Commander. O is completely nude except for an owl mask over her head; Jacqeline’s younger sister leads her along on a leash attached to her leather collar. In some cultures, owls are symbols of evil and in others they are symbols of wisdom. In reality they are nocturnal creatures and birds of prey so this marks another transformation in O’s status. O has taken another step deeper, and possibly higher up, in the secret society. At the villa, there is a large party going on in the moonlight. O gets put on display to the guests. Sir Stephen and the Commander have put her on a figurative pedestal and she is admired as an idol and an example of what other female guests at the gathering should aspire to be. By the end of the book, O is the center of attention and she says she is proud of what she has become.
Story of O possibly makes some people uncomfortable because of the ambiguities it arouses in the readers as well as the shock value of what takes place. Is O being coerced, manipulated, or brainwashed? It is possible that the questions it raises are more unsettling than the descriptions of the ordeals O goes through. If a person uses their freedom to choose to give up their freedom of choice aren’t they actually free? If a woman chooses to be submissive, does she have a certain power that she can not obtain in other ways? When people use use their freedom to choose to do something we find repugnant or disgraceful, do we have any right to condemn them? Does O benefit in any way from her subservience? A lot of people don’t like these kinds of questions and it is difficult to get through this novel without confronting them. The story provides no answers. You have to figure it out for yourself or, certainly, you could always ask someone from the BDSM community to help you understand. If you approach them with sincere interest, many of them would be happy to share their thoughts on the matter.
This novel certainly has some problems. The prose is long winded and sometimes vague; paragraphs go on far longer than they should. This is partly a translation problem because French does not translate into English without causing these types of problems. Still, the section titled “Sir Stephen” is especially dull and unnecessarily wordy. There is an abundance of description but a lot of the things being described are of peripheral importance to the story; for example, some passages about clothing and furniture are too ornate and descriptive for their own good while some of the sex and BDSM scenes could benefit from more detail. The characters also lack depth. The writing suggests that they have depth but doesn’t actually deliver it.
Still, Story of O is an interesting book. It goes just a little bit beyond ordinary erotica. One thing that makes it unique is the understatement of O’s psychological development. It is there but it is buried and hidden beneath the layers of florid prose. It is like a small reward for those readers who look hard enough and pay attention to the fine details. As a work of pornography it fails and people who approach it as such will be disappointed. Even if those subtleties are not handled as well as they could have been, those understated details are what give Story of O its charm.
Reage, Pauline. Story of O. Ballantine Books, New York: 1973.
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