The Story of O

The Story of O is an erotic novel by Anne Desclos under the pseudonym Pauline Réage. The novel was published in Paris in 1954.

Story of O tells the story about a woman who is a fashion photographer in Paris, she falls in love and chooses to live a life without freedom. She joins "a secret society of men and women in the castle Roissy outside of Paris. Here she gradually learns to annihilate her own will and is broken in as a sexual servant for a circle of men. O’s process towards self-extermination goes through pain and degradation. But instead of being broken, her process becomes a form of cleansing or uprising, through which she eventually is elevated as a sexual icon."

Source: Ladegård, Kirsti (07.05.2009) Article called Historien om O og Irigarays feminisme (literally: Story of O and the feminism of Irigaray), Oslo: filiologen.no, 06.12.2010, http://www.filologen.no/?p=954