4 h 45 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 117 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 117 pagesAbout this book
What if the love you long for demands that you surrender every claim to power?
A narrator dreams of a marble Venus wrapped in furs, then turns to his friend Severin for an explanation. Severin offers a manuscript: Confessions of a Supersensual Man. Its pages lead into a desire that unsettles the boundary between loving someone and wanting to belong to them.
Severin von Kusiemski begs Wanda von Dunajew, a bright young widow, to make him her slave. Amused and curious, she enters his fantasy through a contract of submission. From a Carpathian spa town to Italy, their relationship tests how far chosen surrender can go before desire becomes a trap.
What you’ll discover
- A dream in furs Meet a cold, mocking Venus whose presence opens the door to Severin's unsettling confession.
- A contract of surrender Watch Severin press for the very terms that place his freedom in Wanda's hands.
- Wanda's growing fascination Follow a free young widow as curiosity draws her into the role of mistress.
- Love measured in power Question Severin's belief that one lover must always rule while the other must serve.
- The name behind masochism Explore the short novel that gives the term its name through its author's own.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, psychological fiction about desire, power and self-deception, and anyone curious about nineteenth century ideas of love and gender or the origins of the word masochism.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dream of Venus opens the tale
- Severin meets Wanda in the Carpathians
- A contract makes him her slave
- Travel to Italy and the role of servant
- Cruelty grows and a rival appears
- What the story says about love and power
Who’s who
- Severin von KusiemskiA Galician landowner who longs to be a woman's slave and tells his story to a friend as a record of cure.
- Wanda von DunajewA bright, free young widow who is amused by Severin's wish and slowly finds herself drawn into playing the mistress.
- The narratorA calm listener who dreams of Venus in furs and then reads Severin's manuscript, standing in for the reader.
- The GreekA confident, strong man who attracts Wanda and sharpens Severin's jealousy and torment.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Venus in Furs in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Venus in Furs
by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch · 1870
Severin begs a young widow to treat him as her slave, turning his fantasy of desire into a contract.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Venus in Furs is a short novel by the Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, published in 1870. It belongs to a planned cycle of stories about love, property, war and death, which he called The Legacy of Cain.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dream of Venus opens the tale
The story begins in the narrator's study, where he sits by the fire with a book and a sense of unease. He dreams of a goddess of love, a Venus in a heavy fur coat, who talks with him in a cold and mocking way. She tells him that love in the modern world is a fight, and that a man who loves must either rule or serve.
When he wakes, he tells the dream to his friend Severin, a man he knows as serious and a little odd. Severin takes the dream seriously. He points to a painting in his rooms, a picture of a woman in furs with her foot on a man who lies beneath her. The man in the picture, he says, is himself.
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What is Venus in Furs about?
It is a short novel about Severin, a man who asks a young widow, Wanda, to treat him as her slave. A contract and a trip to Italy follow, and the story studies desire, power and fantasy.
Where does the word masochism come from?
The psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing coined it in the 1880s from the author's name, because of the themes in Sacher-Masoch's fiction, especially this book. The author did not choose the term himself.
When was Venus in Furs written?
It was published in 1870 as part of a planned story cycle called The Legacy of Cain. It is fiction, though the author drew on his own interests and a relationship in his life.
The author
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
1836–1895 · Austrian novelist
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian author born in Lemberg, now Lviv, in 1836. He wrote novels and short stories in German. His novella Venus in Furs appeared in 1870. He lived in Graz and Leipzig and later in Lindheim, Germany, where he died in 1895.
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