by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. (You know, the fellow for whom masochism is named?) And I was surprised by how fascinating I found it. It's a bit slow to start, and of course there's the flowery archaic language to get used to, but once it got going the story itself grabbed me.The tale involves a man (Severin) who dreams of becoming the slave of the woman he loves (Wanda), and what happens when they agree to make his dream a reality. I won't give away the plot, but much of the fascination of reading it was seeing just how many of the themes and ideas that run through modern femdom fantasies were present back then. (This book was first published 140 years ago!) There's bondage, physical punishments, humiliation, domestic servitude, cuckolding and object fetishes. Even the language is familiar; he speaks eloquently of cruel and strict Mistresses dominating adoring slaves.
There's also a very interesting thread of period morality running through it, preaching against sexism as it was understood in those days.
The novella is quite short, and for anyone with an interest in male submission/female domination I think well worth a read.
