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Before Fifty Shades of Grey, there was Venus in Furs. A novella that was originally part of the epic series Legacy of Cain by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Furs is an exploration of the themes of sado-masochism and female dominance in a time when the terms had yet to be conceived. The main character dreams of the goddess Venus wearing furs while he speaks to her about love. Unable to let go of the fantasy, he reads a book that tells the story of Severin and Wanda, a couple involved in a sado-masochistic relationship. Severin enslaves himself to Wanda, who treats him with ever-increasing brutality and disdain. The novel was translated into English in 1921 by Fernanda Savage, and has been adapted multiple times for film and theater. In 2013, it was adapted for film again into a French movie by the same title, based on the 2010 play by American playwright David Ives, which was in turn inspired by this classic. LEOPOLD VON SACHER-MASOCH (1836-1895) was an Austrian journalist and author, best known for his romantic stories of Eastern Central European life. Sacher-Masoch studied law, mathematics, and history at the University of Graz and soon after became a professor in what is now the city of Lviv, Ukraine. He wrote several non-fiction works before focusing on Austrian folktales. Socialist and humanist ideals, as well as historical themes, heavily influenced his fictional writing; from the 1860s to the 1880s he published a wide variety of short stories, which soon eclipsed his non-fiction writing. Von Sacher-Masoch’s most famous short story, Venus in Furs (1870), originally part of the Legacy of Cain series, is one of only a few of his titles translated into English. The sado-masochistic themes of the tale, as well as von Sacher-Masoch’s own proclivities, contributed to the term masochism being derived from his name.
