Book Review: "Venus in Furs" by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Published in 1870 and part of the early Belle Epoque, this novel clearly details a strange relationship between a man and his lover whom he states, dreams of being dressed in furs. The author has initially envisioned it to be part of an epic series about love and female dominance entitled The Legacy of Cain. To be perfectly honest with you, though I liked the novel, I am pretty glad that it didn't make its way into an epic series.

It's author was born in 1836 in what is now known as Ukraine and back then, the Austrian Empire. I know, not really part of the French Belle Epoque. This is the point. At this time, that particular era hadn't really taken off and this was one of the first books to include the themes that would be later explored in European Aestheticism. The themes include: beauty, madness, desire and women. In Venus in Furs, it is quite clear that our author and our narrator (sometimes known as the same person since there are clear parallels between Sacher-Masoch and his narrator in terms of how they lived their lives). Later on, salaciousness would become a huge theme in Europe in the next ten to twenty years with everything from The Picture of Dorian Gray to The Phantom of the Opera becoming popular containing similar themes.

Based on a painting by Titian, Venus in Furs has become one of the strangest books of its era because of its blatant eroticism. I mean, Lady Chatterley's Lover got banned for less.

The book begins with a framing story, a story that comes to encompass what the actual narrative is (kind of like Walton's letters in Frankenstein). A man, the narrator, is dreaming about speaking to the goddess Venus whilst she is dressed in furs. They talk about love, desire and obviously, the fact that she is dressed in fur. This section can be fairly confusing if you don't know it is a dream. I would say proceed with caution with this part because it really does showcase the fragile state of mind of the narrator. It is something really quite interesting when we begin to study character. The reliability of the next sections of the story therefore come into question with their amounts of detail.

The next story tells us about a man called Severin and how his relationship with a dominant woman named Wanda is going. Wanda degrades Severin and much to his liking, she progresses into further terrible treatments of him. Severin is basically living the life that the author wishes he could always. I would say that the parallels between the character of Severin and the author, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch are pretty deliberate and too deliberate to be a 'composition' of many pieces of the author's character. I mean, if you do not believe me then just read the biographical information we have about the author.

The theme of dominance is quite big throughout the novel and not just through the way that Wanda treats Severin. It also comes through in the entrance of another character called Alexis Papadopolis - the near-Byronic hero of the novel. There is something very clear about adequacy in romance and the fact that Severin is so insecure about his adequacy really relates him back to the dream sequence - he could never be with a woman like Venus and so, instead he can only dream about her.

All in all, I cannot see how this book was published in 1870 when manners and polite society were still quite dominant in European countries. But I thoroughly respect that it was.