shelivesinvenusstreet 's review for:

Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

4.0

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Despite the fact that this book is loaded with instances of Sacher-Masoch fetishising the foreignness of Slavic and Jewish people, particularly Slavic and Jewish women as the introduction goes into much needed detail into, I still very much enjoyed it. Loved all the physical and mental stuff that went on between Severin and Wanda. It paints BDSM in a ok ish light ig though obviously dated in various aspects. Severin was a good feminist for liek 5 seconds near the end which was surprising for a work written by a cis man in the 1870s. Joachim Neugroschel is a good enough translator that I could ignore the shitty american spelling, his translation is modern enough to be readable but not too modern that it feels out of place for the setting. Though a downside is that the scene where Severins friend reads his journal was a confusing to read bc it didnt transition into the story well

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation

Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, War, Classism