What woman doesn't secretly wish for a submissive man to hand her the whip? Severin is a young nobleman who can only love the most ruthless of women-- one who will make him bleed and hurt-- and so offers himself to the wealthy and beautiful Wanda to pursue his darkest dreams. Although he at first revels in the submission, he soon realizes that Wanda may be too good at dominating him . . . But he is now powerless to escape. Published in 1870, the classic erotic story Venus in Furs defined for the first time what we now call sadomasochism.