The Observer on Dominique Aury - author of Story of O

[Suzanne]

I wrote the story of O

It's an erotic classic yet it was written anonymously by a shy, intellectual French woman in honour of her secret lover. Fifty years on, Geraldine Bedell goes in search of Dominique Aury, one of the first women to write frankly about sex

Fifty years ago, an extraordinary pornographic novel appeared in Paris. Published simultaneously in French and English, Story of O portrayed explicit scenes of bondage and violent penetration in spare, elegant prose, the purity of the writing making the novel seem reticent even as it dealt with demonic desire, with whips, masks and chains.

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