"Story of O" The Book and Author - Part 1

Histoire d'O ( "Story of O" ) is a sadomasochistic novel concerning a woman called O and her willing journey into bondage and submission at the hands of her lover Rene. She is blindfolded, chained, whipped, branded, pierced, and taught to accept oral, vaginal and anal intercourse. O is taken to the chateau 'Roissy' on the edge of Paris where she is systematically turned into a slave. The chateau is run entirely by and for the pleasure of men. O is not a prisoner or slave in the normal term of the word, but rather she is a slave to her love for Rene, as he has made it clear to her that she is free to leave anytime she desires. Histoire d'O was first published in 1954, in French. Censorship laws forbade publication in Britain for many years. It was published in 1965 in America, and five years later in Britain. In 1974 the book was turned into a film. It is unusual because the book has two beginnings and two endings. In the beginning of the novel, O enters the chateau twice, once blindfolded, once not, the reader is expected to choose the beginning they prefer... it does not matter which the reader selects. This book was written before the modern BDSM movement, where Safe, Sane and Consensual define dominant and submissive relationships. Thus the ideas in this book may seem very primitive and out of date, by today's standards. "Story of O" began as a love letter, and ended up being a novel. The author of "Story of O" was Dominique Aury ( 1907-1998 ) whose real name was Anne Declos - an identity she discarded during the Second World War. She also hid behind the pseudonym Pauline Reage, and denial that she wrote the book... so as not to embarrasses her mother, her academic father or her revered lover Jean Paulhan. Dominique was a very well-bred and polite lady, who dressed with quiet elegance, wore little make-up and no jewellery, and lived in a small flat with her parents and son. She behaved with propriety whilst her private life was quite the opposite. During World War II, Dominique worked with the French Resistance, against the Nazi occupation. Whilst distributing an underground resistance journal, Lettres Françaises, she became the mistress of the subversive magazine's editor, Jean Paulhan. Dominique's lover was married, and a generation older than her. She was in her mid-forties at the time she wrote "Story of O", and Paulhan was almost seventy, but she was worried that his attention might be shifting, as Paulhan was still a ladies' man, and there were other women in his life. Dominique had lived with him for almost two decades, and needed a way of maintain his interest. She was worried that he would leave her for a younger lover. Paulhan admired the work of the Marquis de Sade and had written the introduction to an important edition of his work. So Dominique decided to write an erotic text to match the tastes of her lover... something which might interest a man like him. She wasn't young, nor particularly pretty, and as she couldn't paint, and didn't think much of her own poetry, a highly erotic and sadistic story was a most stimulating way for her to grab his attention. But when Dominique told Paulhan she could write like the Marquis de Sade, he was at first dismissive, saying that erotica wasn't a thing women were capable of. Dominique decided to write "Story of O" as a dare and a challenge... and she had the skills as she was a translator, editor and judge of literary prizes. She began drawing upon her own sexual fantasies, as far back as her lonely adolescence, fantasies which persisted into her later life. She wrote it alone, for him, to interest him, to please him, to occupy him, lying on her side in bed with her pencil and her school exercise books, never expecting her work to be published. She read each chapter to him as she completed them, and in return was flattered by Paulhan's appreciation of her efforts. It was he who encouraged her, and urged her, to keep writing and turn it into a proper novel. Histoire d'O was published in Paris in June 1954, and the following year, won the Prix des Deux Magots, a literary prize that had been awarded to a number of famous writers. Since then, "Story of O" has sold millions of copies, and hasn't been out of print in more than 40 years. Dominique Aury waited until her parents were dead, before news of her true identity became widely known. She was 87 when it was publicly announced in 1994.