Searching for Wanda Paperback – 15 Jun. 2010

It is several years since I first read Venus in Furs, but I vividly remember how shocking and erotic I found it at the time. I envied Severin, the much-abused slave, and admired Wanda the fur-wearing object of his unatainable desires, but I never knew anything of the author, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. This is the third book by Elise Sutton, and has the trade-mark Sardax cover, in this case showing a man kneeling meekly before a crop-wielding Amazon. (I wonder if the woman on this and other covers is based on Elise Sutton; hope so!)In it she sets out to biographise a man whose slightly cumbersome name is much better known than his life story. The author attempts to discover his early life influences, and it seems that he was raised largely by a Ukrainian nurse maid named Handzya. Whilst most of us were brought up on the likes of Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows, Leopold was fed a diet of violent and darkly erotic Ruthenian folk stories. Subsequently Leopold became besotted with his imperious fur-clad Aunt Xenobia who moved into the family home when he was an adolescant. Little wonder that he went on to write the defining classic of masochist literature, as well as other stories featuring submissive men and powerful women. The book is scattered with delicious quotes about masochism, one of my favourites is by Theodor Rike; "To the masochist to be punished is to be loved". Elise Sutton also includes many explorations of contemporary dominant/submissive relationships and explores the way such couples choose to lead their lives, with an emphasis on those relationships involving sado-masochism and not just dominance.Despite some solecisms (such as describing Leopold's relationship with Anna as "plutonic" instead of "platonic") this is a well constructed book and I thinkElise Sutton's best so far. I would recommend it to anybody who has read and enjoyed Venus in Furs. If you are a submissive male you should read this book. If you are a Dominant Woman get your slave to buy it for your. Whip him if it is held up in the post; unjust punishments are always the best ones.