Pauline Reage - The Story of O - [eBook] {train_wreck}

Story of O (The Lovers of Roissy) in PDF and ASCII text formats.

ISBN-10: 1125742984
ISBN-13: 978-1125742983
There are at least a dozen different ISBNs for this novel as released by various publishers. This ISBN refers to the 1965 Grove Press First US Edition.

Story of O (Histoire d'O) also known as The Lovers of Roissy is an erotic novel published in 1954 by Pauline Reage, pen name of Anne Desclos. Desclos did not reveal herself as the author for forty years after the initial publication. Desclos claims she wrote the novel as a series of love letters to her lover Jean Paulhan, who had admired the work of the Marquis de Sade. The novel shares with the latter themes such as love, dominance and submission. Occasionally, the pen name Pauline Reage is attributed to Dominic Aury (see also 'Hidden Identities, below).

Story of O tells the story of a young Parisian fashion photographer simply named 'O'. O is willing to go to any length to prove her love to Rene. But after subjecting herself to extreme physical abuse at Rene's direction, Rene rejects her love and 'gives' her to a close friend and half-brother, Sir Stephen. Rene and Stephen are both members of an exclusive men's club which plays a part in the story. Sir Stephen has a new and demanding series of tests for O. Other characters drift in and out of O's world, each trying to find their own identity. By the end of the story, O proves to have the strongest character of the bunch.

In February 1955, Story of O won the French literature prize Prix des Deux Magots, although this did not prevent the French authorities from bringing obscenity charges against the publisher. The charges were rejected by the courts, but a publicity ban was imposed for a number of years. The first English edition was published by Olympia Press in 1965. The Grove Press edition (US, 1965) was translated by editor Richard Seaver (who had lived in France for many years) under the pseudonym Sabine d'Estree. Eliot Fremont-Smith (of The New York Times) called its publishing "a significant event". The public reception of this novel was such that it has been in continuous publication on both sides of the Atlantic since 1954.


Hidden identities

The author used a pen name, then later revealed herself under another pen name, before finally, prior to her death, revealing her true identity. Her lover Jean Paulhan wrote the preface as if the author were unknown to him. According to an article by Geraldine Bedell, published in The Observer on Sunday 24 July 2004, "Pauline Réage, the author, was a pseudonym, and many people thought that the book could only have been written by a man. The writer's true identity was not revealed until 10 years ago [1994], when, in an interview with John de St Jorre, a British journalist and some-time foreign correspondent of The Observer, an impeccably dressed 86-year-old intellectual called Dominique Aury acknowledged that the fantasies of castles, masks and debauchery were hers." According to several other sources, however, Dominique Aury was itself a pseudonym of Anne Cécile Desclos, born 23 September 1907 in Rochefort-sur-Mer, France, and deceased 26 April 1998 (at age 90) in Paris, France.


Notable Editions

Besides an endless number of print editions, Italian graphic artist Guido Crepax released a fully illustrated version of this novel in 1975, also published by Grove Press in the US. This remarkable graphic novel was a work of art in its own right. Crepax' sophisticated use of stacked images and photographic display was the perfect medium for this unusual story. Please see other torrent posts from {train_wreck} for the Guido Crepax illustrated version of this literary classic.