Rating: 
Summary: A Great book, a twentieth century classic
Review: Some reviewers criticize this book as not being an accurate portrayal of the 'S & M lifestyle.' It should be pointed out that this book was never written to be such a book!Don't lay your expectations on this book, and you'll likely enjoy it. Whether or not you believe the events to have actually happened, it is very possible to suspend your disbelief and read it as biographical. It is a very well written book (both in the original French and the English translation). Those readers who slag it for not being 'accurate' are just reading to see their own take on the whole issue. They would like to see their own lives in print. Well, this is not the book for them, and it is NOT why Pauline Reage wrote it. Toss your expectations, open up this book, and prepare to be entertained, shocked, repulsed, and turned on.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected, at all...
Review: Being a mathematician, I immediately bought the Story of 0 when I first heard about it because I wanted to learn why Indian mathematicians invented the number. After I finished reading it, however, I realized it was not the story of 0 but O, a dimwitted woman who knows what (most) men want. Since I read it, though, I've not been able to concentrate on...what was I saying?
Rating:
Summary: The pyschology of intimacy
Review: O is a young woman with a career and a successful life from what we are told about her.This is a thought provoking piece of literature on many levels.It deals with love and emotional bondage in a way that many would prefer to have swept underneathe the door mat.I think that over-all and above-all it is a beautiful and heart rending love story.It is not an easy book to read and i am yet to successfully have another go at it.I have absorbed it in one careful reading and recognize in myself the tangible seductive hold that O was ensnared in of her OWN volition, and i have been made aware of the fact that a lot of us are prone to O but not many will admit this or delve deeply enough to discover whether this is so or not.It is a powerful, non-descript little book.I commend the author and at the same time i wonder what was the larger issue for her in creating O.A challenging read not meant for the faint of heart.
Rating: 
Summary: Those who like this sort of thing will like this
Review: This book started promisingly with a description of how O's boyfriend removed her underwear during a taxi ride; this was good, sophisticated erotica. After this, there was an awful scene where O was whipped. There was more good stuff as O had to go about her normal daily life with no underwear or suspenders and to roll the tops of her stockings to stop them from from falling down. However, after this O was treated more and more cruelly and eventually mutilated with a red-hot branding iron. This required a strong stomach. Beware - only read this book if you can stand such writing. I doubt that this book was really written by a woman; it doesn't have the right feel.
Rating: 
Summary: sexual metaphor
Review: As far as the structure of the novel itself goes, The Story of O is amazingly engaging. I say engaging because as one reads, one becomes intrinsically involved in and empathetic to O's experiences and situations.
However, one searching for eroticism should not read this book; despite the events in the story, this book is neither sexual nor erotic in nature. Much more prominent are the male vs. female , human vs. inhuman plots that occupy life. Additionally, the tone of the book and the characters lead me to suspect that this story was written by a man and not a woman, which serves to alter the reader's appreciation and understanding of the novel.
Rating:
Summary: 1950's
Review: Thats when this book was first written, so it tells you right there it is NOT graphic or very sexual. It is aboout a man who loves his girlfriend so much he makes her sleep with other men, her eyes always have to be down and she is not allowed to talk. THEY lock her up so anyone can have her. She is almost always kept naked, except in the day when she has to lift her skirt up so they can do what they do to her. It's like a S & M book that's very PLAIN not descriptive. If that helps at all.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, a compulsive page turner
Review: Since my girlfriend and I are into the D/s lifestyle, she really identifies with the power of the heroine. The story is written tastefully yet vividly. A classic that needs be in most every well-rounded library
Rating:
Summary: Time had sullened this great book!
Review: The story of O could easily had earned a 4 or 5 stars rating when it first came out decades ago. It was one of the very first books of its kind, and it had a huge shock value as well as creative value back then. But during the intermediate years from its published date to our present time, the sexual revolution had already made a lot of changes to the SM landscape. Many new theories and techniques on SM literature had been developed since, which in turn had made the ideas and writings in 'the story of O' seem very primative and out of date. My bottom line is that it's not worth awhile to spent money or time on this book unless: 1) you are doing a research on the history of erotica/literature 2) you are an avid collector and want to collect all the erotica writings there is
Rating: 
Summary: My first BDSM book
Review: Having visited some chat rooms on BDSM, I decided to read a book on the subject. Since this is considered a classic, it seemed like the place to start. I found the speculations, found in the preface, as to whether the book was really written by a woman very interesting, considering that the book was written in 1955. I was amazed at how stimulated and aroused I became right from the first page, with so little description of sexual acts or physical beating. Nothing like any pornographic book I have read. An extrodinary amount of detail in describing the scene and the dress. I would have rated this higher except I found many of the sentences long and hard to understand, and for the lack of no conclusion. I thought the first half of the book was much better than last half.
Rating:
Summary: The story of our lives
Review: Before the Internet, before Anne Rice, before the Bettie Page revival, there was only this slender volume about a French girl's ascent through degradation that was available to those of us who were utterly confused and captivated by our dark desires. So we hid purloined copies under our mattresses, reading its words over and over until we had it practically memorized. Seminal, to say the least.
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