Rating: 
Summary: The Story of O
Review: I just finished reading this book this weekend. It is highly erotic. You have to have a strong stomach to take some of the things done to her. Also remember it is just a story and no real woman would reduce themselves to a slave. There is a lot of hot heavy sex and pain. But it is a classic so I am giving it 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: I wish I had not read it
Review: I wish I had not read it. Very, very cleverly and smoothly written to seduce you into thinking this sickness is erotic. Pages and pages of philosophical claptrap that seduces the reader to "buy into" a few pages of very arousing scenes. After you have read it there is a bad kickback due to the impersonal cruelty of the men, the self-humiliation of the women, and the the corruption of the child. I recently shredded my copy. I wish I had not read it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Disappointment.
Review: To give this book any more than two stars would be a mere act of pity. This book is more a psychological study of a disturbed woman, and a bunch of extremely domineering males than any sort of erotic tale. I was far too busy wondering when she was going to grab the riding crop and beat Rene and Sir Stephen until they cried for her mercy to get any sort of enjoyable sexual charge out of this story. I also found the writing style to be extremely redundant, and the "plot" to be no more than a series of the same beatings and sexual mistreatments in different settings. And the issues above are nothing compared to the fact that they cut off the ending. You don't get to find out what happens to O, much less poor little Natalie, an impressionable fifteen-year-old who is sucked into this world by Sir Stephen. The summary of the missing conclusion is one sentence long. I think that speaks to the importance the book places on any sort of plotline. As I said, a great disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't live up to the hype
Review: For years, I'd heard that this book was THE book to read for anyone interested in BDSM. And while it was certainly an interesting and somewhat enjoyable book, I've found that it doesn't live up to the hype. The characters aren't engaging at all, and somewhat inconsistent as well. The scenes in the book range from exciting and interesting to cold, distant, and full of downright cruelty. Even allowing for the fact that it's translated and that some of the kink was far beyond anything I would be interested in, I found O to be rather disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing more than slightly senstionalist.....
Review: One of my friends told me this was a really gripping story of human emotions and what people can be driven to... I wish she had told me she was joking BEFORE I bought the book! This is, at the very most, basic sensationalism. This book does not even have an ending!!! It builds up towards a huge finale and then stops dead, apparently because the last chapter was banned years ago, c'mon give us a break!!!!!!!! Trust me, only teenagers will be left amazed at this particualr book!
Rating:
Summary: Powerful Eroticism That Is Timeless.
Review: This is a unique and fascinating story of the unadulterated surrender of ones body mind and soul. That one, is a woman who is mysteriously named "O". .............. "O"s lover Rene, submits her to a strange house in which women are bound, blindfolded, and required to obediently do whatever they're told, for whomever tells them. The story is beautifully written, and really conjures up powerful mental images as you lose yourself in the story. I read this cover to cover on a three hour car ride, and it made the time pass far more quickly.Many debate over the authors true identity. Some think Pauline Reage is a man, but I can't understand why. There are so many details in this book that are clearly feelings of a woman, and the entire book is seemingly written from a womans point of view. I don't think a writer can fake that, especially in sexual matters.Of all the books I've read in the classic erotica realm, this is among my top favorites. It ranks up there with "Erotica" from Anais Nin, and the more humorous "Tropic..." classics of Henry Miller. However, "The Story Of O" is far more powerful than the aforementioned due to the bizarre deviance of the ... content. It's certainly not for everyone, but for those of us with an open mind, and a penchant for something wild and extraordinary, here's a story that will definitely satisfy in more ways than one.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing...
Review: Story of O was my first erotic novel, but I have heard from others that in reality the Story of O is not, by many, considered erotica. I have to say that there where some parts that totally scared me, but in turn there were parts that thrilled me. A strange understanding of the character "O" began to claim me, and I realized that the story itself is not about sex, it's not about S&M - it's really about a woman who NEEDS to be loved - NEEDS to be desired, a woman that we carry in all of us (women that is). I think over all we need the abandonment sometimes - we want to be desire so that we become enslaved, but most women can draw a line in the sand and say - I will not allow this to be done to me just to prove my love, but others like "O" are not strong enough to withstand the consequences of what may happen if we do not obey. I loved this story - it did change me. But I still would never want to be flogged.
Rating:
Summary: sick....
Review: I found this book sick and extreme. I can certainly understand the concept of "unconditional love" and doing anything for your lover, as well as the concept of s&m . However, the story confuses me and makes me feel that O is somewhat of a whore, and not really doing this for the love of Rene. She chose this lifestyle only to fulfill her own sick fantasies. By the end of the book, she does not have Rene anymore yet she persists with her lifestyle. So what is the point of all this? It makes me angry somewhat because not only is she reducing herself to the lowest form of human, but she is doing it for no concrete reason.
Rating:
Summary: Story of O
Review: First, this edition of STORY OF O needs an overhaul. The three introductory segments apparently have not been revised since they were penned back in 1965. The information they contain sets the book up as the subversive creation of an anonymous Parisian masochist. They focus on Réage's unknown identity and whether or not she is actually a woman. Pauline Réage's identity was publicly revealed, albeit a few years before her death: Dominique Aury, born Anne Declos, Rochefort-sur-Mer, France, 1907, died 30 April 1998. I suggest simply skipping the introductory material, it is misleading and does not lend a better understanding of the text. Réage herself approved of this translation, according to the translator Sabine D'Estrée. So I guess I can't say anything was lost in the translation. Generally, it seems Réage's writing lacks the potency to carry the tale she's aimed at telling. There are a limited number of moments when the book does truly shine, especially when the character Jacqueline is introduced into the tale. In fact, the second half is much better than the first. However, choppy writing and dreamy characterizations mire the novel's qualities. STORY OF O was not written as a genre novel. The person who supposedly inspired its creation was Réage's lover Jean Paulhan. (Paulhan's "A Note on Story of O" is among the introductory materials. It says nothing of the true origins of the book.) He may have been the inspiration, but it was Réage's imagination that brought the story to the page. In an essay by Réage, she recalled her, "...oft repeated reveries, those slow musings just before falling asleep, always the same ones, which the purest and wildest love always sanctioned, or rather always demanded, the most frightful surrender, in which childish images of chains and whips added constraint to the symbols of constraint." This precisely describes STORY OF O. It's a novel derived from Réage's unfettered erotic fantasies, not stylized S/M contrivance. And this is mainly why STORY OF O, though not quite a masterpiece, can be regarded as a unique work. If you're looking for something in this vein, but slightly more entertaining, read Alexander Trocchi's THONGS. If you're looking for something more substantial about sexual degradation, read some of Georges Bataille's work, especially STORY OF THE EYE.
Rating:
Summary: This is, then, the story of O
Review: The thesis of O is simple. Woman is lustful, wanton. She must be punished, tamed, debased. She gives the gift of herself, her body, her well-being, her life, to her lover. This is as it should be--natural and good. It ends necessarily in her annihilation, which is also natural and good, as well as beautiful, because she fulfills her destiny:
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