Venus in Furs

Venus in furs is the story of a man who loves one woman so much that he chooses to become her slave in order to not lose her. Severin meets his Venus in furs one night in a garden near his home; a red-headed woman with pale white skin and piercing green eyes. The first time he sees her, he runs away from her, but the second time, on his balcony, they make their acquaintances. She says that she was made curious about him from a picture he left in one of the books he lent her. So they discuss their differences in views of love and marriage and the relationship between men and women. She is of the opinion that the Christian viewpoint of marriage is flawed. One cannot expect a woman to stay in love with one man forever and ever. Severin expresses his opinion that in any relationship either the man or the woman will take the reins in a relationship. If the man does not quickly establish his place over the woman, then it is in her innate nature to take the reins and subjugate him. They continue their dialogue over time and he becomes more and more in love with her. She is resistant to his quest for marriage because she does not know yet if he is the man she can respect and therefore have a lasting relationship with. She asks to live with him for a year and then if the love is true she would marry him. In order not to lose her and to satisfy his desire to be controlled by his Venus, he asks that he may become her slave. At first she is resistant; she doesn’t think she has the predilection to be so cruel. But as the story unfolds she agrees to it with the warning to him that he may incite such cruelty that he may not want or expect from her.
The Venus makes up a contract for Severin to sign regarding their arrangement. Then they travel to Italy, to be away from the people they know and to be in a place where slavery is not abhorrent to the general populace. Once in Italy, she finds a Villa to stay in so no one thinks oddly of her behavior as she associates