Venus in Furs

from multifaceted

I think I may have pinpointed the reason this novel didn't impress me so much: In the end of the novel, a moral to the story is introduced-that women and men, at the time of Sacher-Masoch's writing, were not able to live as equal companions, but that one must inherently dominate the other because...

from lewispike

I'm not a fan of the style of most 19th Century writing, and this book is no exception. However, as the origin of the word Masochism, it can't really be passed up and it's mercifully short if, like me, you don't like the style. It's an odd mix of the perverse and the coquettish, it's not erotica...

from TheAmpersand

From a certain literary perspective, "Venus in Furs" is a failure of a novel. Two rich, excessively cultured Europeans go on and on in a stiff, maddeningly formal tone, discecting their relationship and their complexes while neglecting to take their clothes off. It doesn't sound like a good time,...

from ToddSherman

In between Westerns, and awaiting my used copy of McCarthy's "The Crossing" from Alibris, I decided to read something completely different to keep my senses sharp. And, boy, did I pick a pink-welted doozy. However, I was unprepared for how funny "Venus in Furs" actually is: "Whip me," I begged, "...

from Kuiperdolin

Venus in Furs is a bad book. Like seemingly all of the underwhelming literature before 1900, it is a pointlessly nested story about a "supersensual" man throwing himself in the arms and the hands of a briefly reluctant mistress. Beginning with a sinister attempt at levity, it ends as a rather sel...