Book Review: The Story of O by Pauline Reage

Title: The Story of O
Author: Pauline Réage
Translator: Sabine d'Estrée
Published: New York: Ballantine Books, 1965 (1954)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 199
Total Page Count: 51,441
Text Number: 148
Read For: at lupanotte's recommendation, purchased from Borders
Short review: For love for her lover René, a young woman called O consents to be bound, humiliated, beaten and abused, marked, and prostituted. Trained at the château Roissy, graduated into her lover's personal care, and then gifted by René to an even more dominant master, O journeys through slavery—at first happy only to please her lover, O eventually becomes proud of her identity as a willing slave. Balancing scenes of O's slavery with introspection into O's evolving thought, desire, and motivation, The Story of O is at once erotic, discomforting, and psychological. I was deeply impressed by the balance between these factors, and found the book thought provoking and all together wonderful. Very highly recommended.

( Long review. )

Review posted here at Amazon.com.

This is my 100th Amazon review, and that makes me oddly proud. ^_^

Final thoughts on The Story of O: gaining identity by submitting the body in the book's second half

I am waiting impatiently on a review to go up on Amazon—reviews for more obscure books always seem to take longer. It happened with The Dreamers and The Story of O, and it's happening now with Playing—which only has four Amazon reviews to date. I suppose this is actually a good sign, indicating that Amazon does do some sort of moderation, or at least checks to see that the submission is a review for the correct book. However, I publish reviews there first, grab the permanent link for crossposting purposes, and then publish my reviews here—so I'd love for them to go up just a bit faster.

On the topic...

I've finished reading The Story of O [review], and so wanted to add to my comments on the first half of the book. ( Book chatter, with spoilers for The Story of O. )

Further adventures in BPAL (scenting with Boomslang, wearing florals) & purchasing Agrat-Bat-Mahlaht

Ever more adventures in BPAL: The boy sometimes scents my blankie with BPAL at the very end of the dry cycle when we do wash ... but this time, on a whim, he decided to scent all of the bedding. We always use Boomslang (snake Oil with cocoa, teakwood, and rice milk Snake Oil: a blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla) because I have a bottle, it is the deepest, richest chocolate, and it disappears entirely on my skin—so I have no reason to save it for personal wear.

My bed smells like chocolate, now. When I move the blankets or turn over, a fresh wave of scent watches up, warm and rich, like that first moment when you unwrap a box of the best dark chocolate truffles. When I wake up, my hair smells of it. All of the oils that I wear personally are layered over by chocolate. It is, for lack of a better word, divine. I am a chocolate addict—I lust after single-origin 85% cocoa bars—and this is my heaven.

Conversely, as the weather gets warmer I've been turning more often to a different group of blends: lighter scents than my usual cocoa/amber/musk/dragon's blood—sometimes even (gasp!) florals. Not strong or pure florals, but more floral accents. Mouse's Long and Sad Tale (vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood) is a particular favorite. In the warmer weather, the sweetpea is neither too strong nor cloying, but actually quite wonderfully pink and cheery. It's also a chance to wear some of the lighter dragon's blood scents, as well as the the random few—linen, salty aquatics—which I don't turn to in autumn and winter. It also makes me want to buy more BPAL, but when is that not true?

On that note, the Lab just released Carnival Diaboloque Acts IV and V. Whenever new releases come out I read through, contemplate notes, and add to my gigantic wishlist if only for my own future reference, but I generally don't join decant circles or make impulse purchases because I have no income of my own. BPAL spending money comes from gifts and random cash discoveries, so BPAL purchases are timed to match. However, just as this release came out I discovered $30 in my Paypal account from dA art purchases. And there happened to be one blend that called out to me. I considered saving the cash or investing in decant circles instead, but I have good luck with buying LE bottles unsniffed and the notes seem so promising. So I purchased an unsniffed bottle of AGRAT-BAT-MAHLAHT (NSFW) Amber, cream accord, white honey, apple blossom, skin musk, caramel, and teak.

I expect it will be resin-warm and cream-smooth, sensual in the musk and teak, and a bit sweet and feminine in the honey, apple blossom, and caramel. I've had wonderful luck so far with every note (like my true love amber, the cream and teak in Glowing Vulva, always-perfect musk and honey, and Brisingamen's apple blossom) except for caramel, which I've only tried once and am not quite decided upon—I like it in Engaged Groundhog Musk, but that blend is so consumed by cardamom that it's hard to judge the other notes. The image doesn't call to me, but somehow the notes do, especially in combination. As I was scrolling through the long update I just kept coming back to this one. The blend just seems very much to my taste, very much like me, and a smooth amber that is sensual instead of dark—somewhat more appropriate for buying in summer. I could save up and buy one potential imp of each category, go frugal and broad, or I can splurge a bit on the scents that seem best. The latter has worked so well in the past—thus my continuing affair with Glowing Vulva—and so it seemed best to try it again. Now I'm just impatiently awaiting for my bottle.