Story Of O

The classic French erotic bestseller that preceded Fifty Shades of GreyA beautiful young French woman, known only as ‘O’, is taken by her lover René to a splendid mansion near Paris. Here, she is initiated into an elite secret society, where she must learn to serve the sexual fantasies of René and his fellow members. But she must also explore the nature of her own darkest desires – and confront just how far she is willing to go for love…

"'A rare thing, a pornographic book well written and without a trace of obscenity', ‘A remarkable piece of work’, A highly literary and imaginative work, the brilliance of whose style leaves one in no doubt whatever of the author's genius...a profoundly disturbing book, as well as a black tour-de-force, Here all kinds of terrors await us, but like a baby taking its mother's milk all pains are assuaged. Touched by the magic of love, everything is transformed. Story of O is a deeply moral homily

Pauline Réage is the pseudonym of Anne Desclos, a French journalist and novelist. Story of O was first published in 1954, to much controversy and speculation as to the identity of the author. Desclos publicly admitted that she was the author of Story of O forty years after it was first published. She died in 1998.