Venus in Furs

...On a moonlit night in the garden, Severin meets Venus—her name is Wanda von Dunaeva. She orders the stone statue’s to display her fur coat and offers Severin to become her slave. Severin is ready for anything! Soon Wanda appears before him in a ermine dressing gown, holding a whip. A blow: “Beat me without any mercy!” A hail of blows. “Get out of my sight, slave!”

Painful days follow—Wanda’s arrogant coldness, rare caresses, long separations. Then a contract is made: Wanda may torment him at her first whim—or even kill him if she wants. Severin writes, under Wanda’s dictation, a note about his voluntary departure from life. Now his fate is in her delightful, plump hands.