It is quite an accomplishment to have your name given to a sexual perversion. According to his biographer, James Cleugh, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895) “was born in 1836, in Lemberg, Galicia. His father was the Chief of Police, his mother a noble-woman. A nervous and excitable child, he was once badly thrashed by an aunt he adored, and though he later recalled the pain as terrible, he was enraptured by it. Thus the beginning. Later in life, he demanded sexual stimulus of an incredible nature: the whips had to have specially sharpened hooks or nails, and they were called for several times a day.” (From the dust jacket of The First Masochist: a biography of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Stein and Day, 1967).
Sacher-Masoch was a prolific author, writing over ninety books. The novella, Venus In Furs (1870), is his most famous work. Venus In Furs was intended to be a part of a much larger work, a projected multi-volume work to be called The Legacy of Cain, in which Sacher-Masoch intended to diagnose all of the ills of the human condition. Venus In Furs was a part of the volume on Love which Sacher-Masoch completed and which contained a series of six novellas.
Venus In Furs is the story of the affair between Severin, a young nobleman, and Wanda, a wealthy widow. Venus In Furs begins with an elaborate framing story in which “Sacher-Masoch” has a dream in which he is talking with Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love, who is reclining by a fireplace wrapped only in furs. The Goddess and “Sacher-Masoch” talk about the true nature of the relationship between men and women. Venus tells “Sacher-Masoch” that man must either dominate woman or put himself entirely under her yoke:
“Man is the one who desires, woman the one who is desired. This is woman’s entire but decisive advantage. Through his passion nature has given man into woman’s hands, and the woman who does not know how to make him her subject, her slave, her toy, and how to betray him with a smile in the end is not wise.
. . . The more devoted a woman shows herself, the sooner the man sobers down and becomes domineering. The more cruelly she treats him and the more faithless she is, the worse she uses him, the more wantonly she plays with him, the less pity she shows him, by so much the more will she increase his desire, be loved, worshipped by him.”
After “Sacher-Masoch” wakes up from his dream, he goes to have dinner with his friend Severin. “Sacher-Masoch” is appalled when Severin strikes his beautiful serving girl:
“But Severin,” I said placing my hand on his arm, “how can you treat a pretty young woman thus?
“Look at the woman,” he replied, blinking humorously with his eyes. “Had I flattered her, she would have cast the noose around my neck, but now, when I bring her up with kantchuk, she adores me.”
“. . . Goethe’s ‘you must be hammer or anvil’ is absolutely appropriate to the relationship between man and woman. Didn’t Lady Venus in your dream prove that to you? Woman’s power lies in man’s passion, and she knows how to use it, if man doesn’t understand himself. He has only one choice: to be the tyrant over or the slave of the woman. As soon as he gives in, his neck is under the yoke, and the lash will soon fall upon him.”
“Sacher-Masoch” sees a painting on Severin’s wall which shows a beautiful woman wrapped in furs, who appears to be the Venus of his dream, with Severin lying at her feet as her slave. When “Sacher-Masoch” asks about the painting, Severin gives him a manuscript titled “Confessions of a Supersensual Man.” The remainder of the novel consists of the contents of the manuscript.
Severin is living in an apartment building which has a garden with a statue of Venus in its center. Severin is sexually aroused by the statue and sits for hours and stares at it. He has a card with a drawing of Venus wearing furs which he keeps in a book. A beautiful young red headed widow lives on the first floor of the building. The widow, Wanda, borrows some books from Severin including the book in which he has left the card of Venus In Furs. One evening, as Severin is sitting in the garden fantasizing about the statue of Venus, he sees his Venus come to life wrapped in furs and reclining on a park bench. The Venus come to life turns out to be Wanda who has dressed herself as the Venus In Furs in Severin’s picture card.
Severin and Wanda become involved with each other. Wanda promises to live with Severin for a year in which he will have all the rights of a husband. After the year, Wanda will decide whether or not she wishes to marry Severin.
Severin tells Wanda that his fantasy is to be totally dominated by a woman. He tells her how his aunt, wearing a fur coat, once whipped him as a boy and how he became extremely sexually aroused. (Severin has a serious fur fetish!) Severin tells Wanda that he wants to be her slave and be totally in her power. At first Wanda is scandalized by the idea, but after Severin continues to pester her to allow him to be her slave, she gives in:
“I have two ideals of woman. If I cannot obtain the one that is noble and simple, the woman who will faithfully and truly share my life, well then I don’t want anything half-way or lukewarm. Then I would rather be subject to a woman without virtue, fidelity, or pity. Such a woman in her magnificent selfishness is likewise an ideal. If I am not permitted to enjoy the happiness of love, fully and wholly, I want to taste its pains and torments to the very dregs; I want to be maltreated and betrayed by the woman I love, and the more cruelly the better. This too is a luxury.”
“Have you lost your senses,” cried Wanda.
“I love you with all my soul,” I continued, “with all my senses, and your presence and personality are absolutely essential to me, if I am to go on living. Choose between my ideals. Do with me what you will, make of me your husband or your slave.”
“Very well,” said Wanda, contracting her small but strongly arched brows, “it seems to me it would be rather entertaining to have a man, who interests me and loves me, completely in my power; at least I shall not lack pastime. You were imprudent enough to leave the choice to me. Therefore I choose; I want you to be my slave, I shall make a plaything for myself out of you!”
. . . And everyone knows and feels how closely sexual love and cruelty are related.”
Wanda dresses Severin up as a servant and requires him to go by the name “Gregor.” When traveling Wanda requires "Gregor" to travel and eat with the other servants. Wanda and “Gregor” travel to Italy where Wanda leases a villa in the Italian countryside. “Gregor” is only allowed to come to Wanda when she calls for him. "Gregor" is required to address Wanda as his mistress at all times. When "Gregor" is called for, Wanda is usually dressed in her furs and little else. On most occasions, the Mistress will have “Gregor” tied up and whip him. Wanda may then allow “Gregor” to pleasure her.
The sexual intercourse is more implied than explicit. Venus In Furs suffers from the disease of 19th century novels that it is mostly talk. What little action there is in this book moves very, very slowly. Mostly the characters sit around in drawing rooms and talk. (Of course a lot of this talking occurs with “Gregor” kneeling at his Mistress’ feet while she reclines on the sofa wearing nothing but her furs and brandishing her whip!)
(Charcoal Drawing by Eileen Sedgwick)
Mistress Wanda makes Severin sign a written agreement that he will continue to serve as her slave until she releases him. She also makes him sign a suicide note which gives Wanda the power to take his life if she so chooses. All of this apparently makes Severin very, very horny.
Wanda acquires a couple of beautiful black woman to assist her with the sex slave. The black women are at Wanda’s beck and call to tie Gregor up, tie Gregor to a plow in the garden, and generally beat Gregor’s ass. We are never told where these sexy black chicks came from. (Maybe Wanda put a classified ad in the paper that said “WANTED: AFRICAN DOMINATRIX TO HELP WITH SEX SLAVE!”) Wanda hires a German painter who is also very excited by Mistress Wanda and also wants to be whipped. The German painter is commissioned to paint the picture of Wanda and “Gregor” which “Sacher-Masoch” admired in Severin’s apartment.
Finally, Wanda begins to go out with other men. She makes “Gregor” find out about men she is attracted to and bring her messages back and forth to them. Ultimately, she tells Severin that she will marry him but it is really an elaborate cruelty. Wanda ties Severin up to a massive marble bed post and her new lover, a young Greek hunk, pulls aside the curtains and steps out of her bed. The Greek is cruel and masculine (in other words he is the kind who will slap Wanda on the ass and tell her to hurry up and bring him another beer!) Wanda then allows her new lover to whip “Gregor” unmercifully. Wanda tells Severin that she is tired of him and wants a man who will dominate her. She then releases Severin from his bond.
Briefly returning to the framing story, “Sacher-Masoch” asks Severin what the moral of the story is. Here is Severin’s answer:
“That woman, as nature has created her and as man is at present educating her, is his enemy. She can only be his slave or his despot, but never his companion. This she can become only when she has the same rights as he, and is his equal in education and work. At present we have only the choice of being hammer or anvil, and I was the kind of donkey who let a woman make a slave of him, do you understand? The moral of the tale is this: whoever allows himself to be whipped, deserves to be whipped.”
Venus In Furs is a classic of Sado-Masochistic literature by one of the guys who invented it. As a classic it definitely deserves at least four whips and chains out of five.
