"To suffer and endure cruel torture from then on seemed to me exquisite delight, especially when it was inflicted by a beautiful woman."

DESCRIPTION

Venus in Furs describes the obsessions of Severin von Kusiemski, a European nobleman who desires to be enslaved to a woman.

Severin finds his ideal of voluptuous cruelty in the merciless Wanda von Dunajew. This is a passionate and powerful portrayal of one man’s struggle to enlighten and instruct himself and others in the realm of desire.

Published in 1870, the novel gained notoriety and a degree of immortality for its author when the word “masochism”—derived from his name—entered the vocabulary of psychiatry. This remains a classic literary statement on sexual submission and control.

The Author Sacher- Masoch was the poet of the anomaly now generally known as masochism. By this is meant the desire on the part of the individual affected of desiring himself completely and unconditionally subject to the will of a person of the opposite sex, and being treated by this person as by a master, to be humiliated, abused, and tormented, even to the verge of death.

This motive is treated in all its innumerable variations. as creative artist Sacher-Masoch was, of course, on the quest for the absolute, and sometimes, when impulses in the human being assume an abnormal or exaggerated form, there is just for a moment a flash that gives a glimpse of the thing in itself.

FACTS/ In Culture/ References

The title was inspired by the painting of Titian’s Venus With a Mirror

Masochism is a term derived from the author's name

Full Definition of masochism

1: the derivation of sexual gratification from being subjected to physical pain or humiliation by oneself or another person— compare SADISM, SADOMASOCHISM 2: pleasure in being abused or dominated : a taste for suffering Webster Dictionary

Part of series which was never completed, Legacy of Cain

The Velvet Underground band released the song Venus in Furs in 1967

• Steven Severin, co-founder of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees, took the name "Severin" from the character in Sacher-Masoch's novel who is mentioned in the Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs".[6]

Several movies and theater adaptions of the novel over years, latest by Polanski

2013 ‧ Drama/Comedy

• Venus in Furs was a fictitious band who performed in the 1998 British-American drama film Velvet Goldmine.[1]

• In 2013, Roman Polanski directed the film Venus in Fur (original French title La Vénus à la fourrure), which is based on the David Ives play.[4] The film premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and in January 2014 it won the Best Director award at the 39th César Awards.[5]

• Steven Severin, co-founder of the band Siouxsie and the Banshees, took the name "Severin" from the character in Sacher-Masoch's novel who is mentioned in the Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs".[6]