Histoire d'O | Story of O by Pauline Réage

The precise point Paulhan intended to make is not altogether clear – or perhaps it is only too clear. When the book was ultimately published, Paulhan prefaced it with a short essay entitled Happiness in Slavery, a supposedly true account of slaves on a Caribbean plantation in 1838 who, once emancipated, preferred instead to remain enslaved. Unlike Atwood’s novel, however, the women in O are complicit in their humiliation – even if the possibility of genuine consent is nuanced throughout: Somewhat foreshadowing Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Reage paints a world in which absolute power is enacted by men upon women. Set in 1950s Paris, O consents to become her lover Rene’s slave, and is “given” by him to be the property of another man, whom we only know as “Sir Stephen”. Story of O is quite literally the story of a young professional woman called O. It was only after the author’s death in 1998 that Pauline Reage was revealed to be Anne Desclos, whose cautiousness regarding her identity was further underscored by the fact that she had also been known as Dominique Aury. Like Fifty Shades, the book was epoch-making and like Fifty Shades, the book was published pseudonymously. In 1954, a woman using the pseudonym Pauline Reage published a slim volume bearing the title l’Histoire d’O (Story of O). Many years before the Fifty Shades franchise was conceived came its singular predecessor.

Histoire d'O | Story of O by Pauline Réage