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Story of O
Story of O
Story of O
Audiobook7 hours

Story of O

Written by Pauline Reage

Narrated by Kathe Mazur

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

O is a young, beautiful fashion photographer in Paris. One day her
lover, Rene, takes her to a chateau, where she is enslaved, with Rene's
approval, and systematically sexually assaulted by various other men.
Later, Rene turns O over to Sir Stephen, an English friend who
intensifies the brutality. But the final humiliation is yet to come.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 24, 2012
ISBN9781452679051
Story of O

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Reviews for Story of O

Rating: 3.39335008782936 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was written anonymously as a series of stories/episodes by a very famous/successful female French book editor for a lover who was about to leave her. He did eventually leave her which accounts for the non-upbeat ending.

    The author of the book, at the end of her life, identified herself and told the story of its creation.

    She was a well off, well educated, woman, a Parisian Shaharazad, using an erotic tale to avoid the axe from a demanding boyfriend.

    Knowing that makes the book (already pretty fascinating) interesting on many new levels and may help readers forgive any wording they find awkward. You are reading a translation.

    Great writers in the grip of powerful emotions write wold things.

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A fictional novel following the female protagonist in her submission to her lover. Throughout the novel, O’s consent is asked for, though there are situations of potentially dubious consent featuring other characters. The reader sees O blindfolded, whipped, chained, pierced, branded, masked, and trained to always be available for any type of intercourse with anyone approved by her lover. Additionally, the reader sees O proudly showing off her welts, branding, and piercings to her female lover.Trained at the chateau of Roissy by a group of upper-class men, O did not know what her lover had or had not done when she was whipped and taken as was frequently blindfolded or partnered with men wearing masks. At the end of this training, her lover gives her to a more dominant master: Sir Stephen. Her lover claims that it is very important for O to learn how to serve someone she does not love, and who does not love her. However, as the training progresses, O falls in love with Sir Stephen, and she is under the impression that he loves her as well. O chooses to remain with Sir Stephen instead of her lover, and is branded and pierced with his initials and crest.There has been some feminist backlash against this novel. Dworkin, for example, argues that having the protagonist’s name shortened to O represents her being zero, empty, and nothing more than an orifice. It has also been argued that the novel is just about the ultimate objectification of the female, and that it glorifies the abuse of women.In this light, the character of O does delineate being submissive as a person from being submissive in a sexual context. We do, however briefly, see her life in the outside world as a successful photographer. Furthermore, I think it is useful to keep in mind that Réage wrote this as a series of fantasy letters to her lover, a de Sade fan.I would not recommend this to anyone uncomfortable with mixing pain and pleasure; otherwise, it’s an interesting fantasy.Nibble: “And yet all she was aiming for was to make the silks, the furs, and the laces more beautiful by that sudden beauty of an elfin creature surprised by her reflection in the mirror, which Jacqueline became in the simplest blouse, as she did in the most elegant mink.”

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Forget 50 Shades. READ 'O' to see what the world of D/s is ideally lived

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    My book included Histoire d'O and Retour à Roissy. My issue with the book is how thoroughly unlikeable I found O: co-dependent, jealous, fickle, and insecure. I honestly couldn't enjoy being in her mind. And the story on Retour à Roissy is so angsty and abrupt, since we are always seeing it from O's point of view. Trying to finish this book, somewhat appropriately, was like torture.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A fictional novel following the female protagonist in her submission to her lover. Throughout the novel, O’s consent is asked for, though there are situations of potentially dubious consent featuring other characters. The reader sees O blindfolded, whipped, chained, pierced, branded, masked, and trained to always be available for any type of intercourse with anyone approved by her lover. Additionally, the reader sees O proudly showing off her welts, branding, and piercings to her female lover.Trained at the chateau of Roissy by a group of upper-class men, O did not know what her lover had or had not done when she was whipped and taken as was frequently blindfolded or partnered with men wearing masks. At the end of this training, her lover gives her to a more dominant master: Sir Stephen. Her lover claims that it is very important for O to learn how to serve someone she does not love, and who does not love her. However, as the training progresses, O falls in love with Sir Stephen, and she is under the impression that he loves her as well. O chooses to remain with Sir Stephen instead of her lover, and is branded and pierced with his initials and crest.There has been some feminist backlash against this novel. Dworkin, for example, argues that having the protagonist’s name shortened to O represents her being zero, empty, and nothing more than an orifice. It has also been argued that the novel is just about the ultimate objectification of the female, and that it glorifies the abuse of women.In this light, the character of O does delineate being submissive as a person from being submissive in a sexual context. We do, however briefly, see her life in the outside world as a successful photographer. Furthermore, I think it is useful to keep in mind that Réage wrote this as a series of fantasy letters to her lover, a de Sade fan.I would not recommend this to anyone uncomfortable with mixing pain and pleasure; otherwise, it’s an interesting fantasy.Nibble: “And yet all she was aiming for was to make the silks, the furs, and the laces more beautiful by that sudden beauty of an elfin creature surprised by her reflection in the mirror, which Jacqueline became in the simplest blouse, as she did in the most elegant mink.”
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This is not a good interpretation of BDSM, more like abuse and manipulation. Would NOT recommend.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The original ending of this book was suppressed because it supposedly objectified women. However, I think the book is very empowering for women. It makes very clear the difference between being submissive as a person and being submissive as a sexual preference. O is a successful career woman who gets her freak on as a sexual slave. We are all hedonists at heart! The prudish, Protestant roots of society plus the pc attitudes for which feminism is responsible in part, make this a very shocking book now. But not as much as in the past for its pornographic content,no now it is seen as the choices its protagonist makes that are shocking. I would recommend the book to loads of people if only because it's fabulously well-written, a real literary classic and of course, it's hot, really hot. How many classics can you say are that?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this because of the polarized reviews, and I landed square in the middle of "meh"

    I would've enjoyed it more if it had gotten more into the clarity/satisfaction/freedom O may have felt through being subjected to it all.

    I'm all for CNC but I also want to hear that all parties enthusiastically want to be involved. This fell short of that for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    At some point or other just about every point of view has been put forth on this book, so there's not much point in me even bothering to write a review.On the other hand I'm an opinionated jackass who can't shut up so I'm doing one anyway.I will keep it brief though.The fact is already established that this book is a far cry from some seedy bit of written porn where there is a constant search for the next phrase which will be used to refer to genitalia. This is a much deeper work than any of those. The language doesn't have the coarseness, nor that struggling aspect, nor the lack of understanding of the human mind you find in inferior attempts at erotica. This Book is extremely cerebral in that it gets into the readers head rather than their pants (though it does sneak a hand down there too) but also very primal in it's unabashed navigation of power and sex.While on the surface it seems to be about a women's submission to dominant men, if you read a little deeper you find that every combination of one sex being submissive to or dominating the other or same sex is all in there as well. Power is found in unusual places in this book i.e. the farther O. submits to her master the more empowered and confident she feels.This book makes one think about a lot of things, especially oneself.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    book is disgusting why is it on romance section?? anyone who likes this kind of book especially a women is sick.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    O is the slave of Rene who then passes her on to Sir Steven, his friend. O is taught how to be obedient to these men but these men are irresponsible. I know people in the lifestyle and as the reader described the two endings for the story abandonment would not occur to the Masters. A responsible Master cares for his slave.I did like the beginning as it told the history of The Story of O as well as what critics have said. I liked O, Ann Marie, and Natalie. Hated Jacquelinn from the beginning--she was a user. I came hate Rene and Sir Steven for their lack of caring for O (physical as well as emotional.) It is a story of its time but this is not the way a responsible pairing occurs.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Interesting idea, but the poor writing ruined it for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have a lot of history with this book. I first read it when I was 15 or so and I was just starting to figure out what I was into sexually, and it really hit a chord with me, but I hadn't read it since. I have to say, a lot of it did live up to my memory and was *incredibly* hot, but there were also chunks in the middle that I honestly thought were, well, kinda boring. Still, it articulated a lot of the sorts of things I fantasize about very well, and I enjoyed revisiting it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have had this book to read forever. I originally got it because it was on a list of books you have to read kind of thing. It ended up being a well written and engaging story, that did have some slow points.This is a French erotic story about a woman named O who seeks to become the slave of a man named Rene. In her quest to be owned she undergoes a number of both sexual and psychological trials and training.The translation I read was well done and easy to read. The story is engaging if a bit incomplete. At times there is so much sexual debasement in this book that those parts start to become a boring and repetitive. Apparently O's masters don't have a ton of imagination. That being said if scenes with whipping, restraint, or multiple sex partners are offensive to you...don’t read this book.There is a lot I could say about this book. As for the sexual content there isn't much in here that I haven't seen in some adult epic fantasies where characters are enslaved or tortured...the main difference in this story is that O is willing and eager to be enslaved and debased. I think those who are bitching about how this book demeans women are kind of missing the point. This same story could have had a male as the main character just as easily; it’s just meant to be a representation of the BDSM scene and give readers a glimpse into the mind of someone who wants to be enslaved.O is many times asked by her male masters to give her permission for her initial contracts, which she always does eagerly. O despite being owned and passed around by a number of men and being totally at their beck and call has a different sort of power. This is more apparent towards the end of the book than the beginning. I have also read that too much time is spent discussing clothing. I actually thought that the discussion the occurs around clothing was pretty necessary to the story. Part of O’s obedience involves her being available to her master at his every whim. In the age of bulky bras and garter belts to hold up stockings; this involves O having to completely modify her wardrobe...which she does eagerly to prove her love and obedience to her master.The ending was a bit disappointing since the book kind of ends in the middle of everything. There is a note that the last chapter has been suppressed from modern day publications, this is disappointing because I hate to see a story broken apart like that.Overall I thought this was an interesting and engaging look into BDSM culture. There are parts where the sex/debasement gets a bit repetitive; I wish O’s masters had been a bit more creative. I was also disappointed in how abruptly the story ended. Again, people be smart, if BDSM completely offends you don’t read this book. If you are interested in other media that looks into the psychology of BDSM (but from a purely entertainment lighter side) I would also recommend the movie The Secretary. This movie does a wonderful job of showing how a woman who likes punishment and a man who likes to dominate can have a balanced and loving relationship. If you are interested in a fantasy series that deals with this (again in a slightly different and fantastical way) I would recommend the Kushiel’s Dart series by Jacqueline Carey.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A truly wonderful read. I finished it in almost one go and was very intrigued about the psychological journey the main character makes throughout the story. I would have liked to get some more details about the motives of the other characters however, but then again, it's the Story of O, not of anybody else.

    Truly recommended to everyone who's interested to see how pornographic content can be laid out in such a classic and non-vulgar manner!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    For an erotic novel, I found it to be neither all that erotic or all that novel. The story is weak. I got the idea that love binds one as a slave early on. The book really never grew from there as literature or entertainment.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    after reading the 50 shades of grey whichni found rather boring and badly written, i was curious about well written books in this genre. i think i found one. not sure that i desire to be like O but the story was intersting and in some parts arousing. and you might even get a few ideas here and there. i did not bother me that it went not too deep into O's mind. i geuss it would be rather difficult to put this kind of life choice in words and make is ndestandable for an outsider.i will be looking for similar books.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really liked this book. I think it should definitely be labeled as a classic, though I think too many people are hung up on the sex and BDSM aspect to really consider it. I think we should open up more about sex. It is not a bad thing to take pleasure in sex or pain.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    My book included Histoire d'O and Retour à Roissy. My issue with the book is how thoroughly unlikeable I found O: co-dependent, jealous, fickle, and insecure. I honestly couldn't enjoy being in her mind. And the story on Retour à Roissy is so angsty and abrupt, since we are always seeing it from O's point of view. Trying to finish this book, somewhat appropriately, was like torture.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very interesting book. You don't know if this person lived this life or was an observer. Very well written. ;)
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I was rather mixed with my reaction so I went on-line to see what others thought. I do understand how risqué this was coming out in 1950. It really was miles ahead of its time because really, who wrote about BDSM then? Fifty Shades (as horrible as it is) is just bringing that subject out of the closet now! The writing style was great and the language used was actually rather subdued comparatively speaking so it really is less porn and more erotic literature. My problem with it, and I guess my problem with BDSM in general, is about consent. I get that the premise is that submissive actually has the power in the relationship because they ultimately choose if and when they wish to stop. I suppose for the garden-variety part-time BDSM participant, this works. But in this case, this was an overall, all-consuming lifestyle choice. O, while being told she could say no at any time, was completely infatuated with Rene and went along with everything because she felt that that was the only way to keep him. Sure she has a choice but really, what kind of choice is it? My boss gives me projects all the time and I have the choice of whether to do them or not. But if I don't, I won't have a job much longer. Rene asks her if she is okay with things but since he has tremendous power over her to begin with, she goes along with it all for fear of losing him. I also had a big problem with Rene. He continually says that he loves her but the whole time he seems to view her as a psychological experiment. He sells her to the highest bidder (Sir Stephen) because he claims that he isn't strong enough to handle her conversion but I think it was more that he wanted to be a passive observer. He was prominent in the beginning but by the end, he almost becomes part of the furniture as he watches from the sidelines. O starts off the novel with no name and by the end, she doesn't even have a personality. It is presented as if she is okay with everything that occurs but really, does someone being brainwashed know that they are being brainwashed? How does one really know what she wanted until after she is removed from the situation and can verify things for herself? Apparently the author wrote this as a love story for her boyfriend and that makes me really sad.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Perhaps this is a classic of erotica -- and I admit to having read it twice -- but in the end it's just a story of hatred clothed in anti-erotic sex. Hatred of self, hatred of women, hatred of men -- no one escapes. Not a scrap of redemption possible. The first read left me questioning, the second read confirmed what I suspected. I do not find hatred erotic.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Oh dear, what to say about this. One of those books I probably wont be telling my mum I've read! I am afraid I don't understand this as a manifestation of love, or how someone can view what amounts to complete abasement as enobling.



    I thought it odd that when I reserved it at the library that both the county's copies were in the prison libraries. They were then found to not to be in a condition to lend. Having read it I think I can see why - on both counts! One suspects that the jacket blurb about this book being erotic but not pornographic was rather too fine a distinction.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is an exceptional adventure. What does it feel like to have someone else in control of everything? where you live, what you do, what you wear. I was apprehensive at the start of the book but as I continued I was captivated by the degrading tasks O succumbs to.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I knew from first hearing of it that I should read Story of O, as I am a submissive myself and felt I would get a lot from it. In spite of its flaws, I did indeed find it fascinating, engaging, and I found myself thinking "Oh what a perfect way to describe it". This is a story of a young woman being shown her true self by her lover. O is slowly drawn into a secret world where she is used by many different men as a tool for their pleasure. She is bound and whipped, and forced to show her obedience and her submissiveness in many other ways besides. In spite of the obviously questionable nature of someone being tied and hurt beyond the stage when they are begging for it to stop, the point in this book is that O can leave when she wishes, however she must lose her lover. As opposed to being a story of domestic abuse, this is a story of O conversely finding freedom through having her freedom taken away. When O is bound, she is free to behave as though she does not want this treatment, whereas really, she finds the state of submission deeply calming on a fundamental level. When not bound, O is forced to request certain treatment. She wants this, yet her tongue is tied, she longs for control to be taken out of her hands - to let go completely. This is something that resonated with me, as for me being submissive is about freedom from having to think for a time.I found many parts of this book difficult, as I could never go as far as O does, indeed the same would be true of a vast majority of submissives. However this is a story which shows the nature of the beast in a touching and beautiful way. I must admit I would have preferred clearer grammar at times, and I felt that the ending was neither an ending, nor an artistic statement. That said, I left it knowing that there are others that can feel the same feeling of release, in the same way. It's a softly delivered story of brutal emotions, one that I am very happy to have read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not sure what to do with this. As an exploration of submissive sexuality, it seems fairly lackluster, though (as is suggested in some of the prefatory material) I'm not sure it isn't meant to be less about inclinations and acts and more an exploration of soul and psyche. But in either case I would expect strong characterization and specificity of experience and growth. But all of the characters here read strikingly blank to me--especially O, whose designation makes her seem almost a literal hole in the text which is inescapably associated with the bodily orifices she is forced to keep ready for use at all times. Even the sex acts depicted--wherein lies the most specificity of detail in the book--lack the kind of infusion of meaning that would justify the narrative time spent on them. I don't feel as if I've come to know a character, nor can I comfortably read O as a symbol for woman, or love, or slavery, or anything else which suggests itself as a possible subject of this novel. I am left utterly dumbfounded by the thing; perhaps it needs to percolate, perhaps the novel doesn't speak to my generation, perhaps it just doesn't speak to me.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    read it more out of curiosity and, well, it's exactly what it says it is, but it also helped prepare for the sexual revolution during the 1960s and the women's liberation of the 1970s. in that sense, the book is a lot more significant than what the author intended it to be.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Most casual readers probably approach this book to see if they will be titillated, shocked or provoked; they probably come armed with the knowledge that it pushes the boundaries of BDSM. Potential readers should know that the titillation and sex-focused content is concentrated in the first third of the book and gradually fades from detailed or lingering description as Pauline Reage (a pseudonym) becomes more concerned with advancing the inexorable, linear trajectory of her argument, and this amounts to a second warning or caution (from me): this book is more didactic than it is playful. The gradual, consensual enslavement, and transformation--or rather erasure--of O, is certainly thought-provoking. The book could serve as a revealing conversation starter for people from all backgrounds, who, it is easy to imagine, will seize on different aspects of O's progression to justify and explain or judge and condemn the sexual attitudes of the characters (whatever mix of dominant and submissive they present). After the riveting "Traumnovelle" ("Eyes Wide Shut")/Sadeian first section of the novel that deals with O's induction into the secret community of her masters--according to a process and in the privacy of an institution that is well imagined and described--the book slows undeniably. I found myself tempted to skim the two middle sections that depict O's semi-hesitant embrace of what she is becoming; probably because the other characters in her drama who exert a significant amount of pressure and influence are rather two dimensional and unsympathetic--also because the outcome seemed obvious. But, the actual ending (and my version suggests that the true last chapter has gone missing or is in dispute--which is too bad) is far more cryptic and somehow beautiful than I expected--at least in its symbolism. Something primal and magnetic about the aesthetic that governs the attraction of the dominant people in "The Story of O" makes an unforgettable visual impression. I would not read this book for the quality of the writing, which is somewhat hurried, often distractingly euphemistic with regards to action and artless with regards to the narration of internal thought processes. But, I would read this book for the story and for the opportunities that it offers a reader to inhabit a wide array of perspectives along a most unusual and controversial route.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The great, enduring classic of submissive erotica, written long before the kink even had a name. Gender issues are not explored, nor are feminism or political correctness. None of these existed either. The writing is simple, detached, emotionless. No attempt is made to turn the reader on through graphic descriptions or overheated prose. If you have the kink, either latent or fully self-aware, the cool and elegant words will take you into a living dream - or nightmare.Modern erotica cannot get away with the toy-like absolute submission depicted in Story of O. Perhaps this is why Blue: The Color of Desire and Journey Round a Darker Sun are the only modern works which have had such a powerful effect on me. They both offer greater emotional depth than O, but for that same reason lack the purity, the almost hallucinatory quality, of Reage's timeless masterpiece. Her follow-on, by the way, is a potboiler that has none of the class or style of the original and should be avoided.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I understand this to be a classic of BDSM and sex literature. However, I found myself disappointed by Story of O. I would have liked more of O's thoughts and feelings to be given to the reader in order to understand her submission and how she feels about it. As it is, it seemed to me that her submission was with her body only and not her heart and mind. It was only in brief glimpses did O think on her submission and remark on its ease and her satisfaction. I also feel that the book played on the theme that submissives are sex slaves and sex toys to their Masters. I found this distasteful and out of my style of thought as far as D/s goes. The women were mindless sex toys. It was an empty book. Ultimately, while sexy, that was all it really was. Sex and violence.