Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
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Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (January 27, 1836 – March 9, 1895), writer and journalist, was born in Lemberg, Austrian Empire (now Lviv, Ukraine). Today, he is best known for his name being the basis for the term masochism.
He was the son of an Austrian police director in Lemberg and Charlotte von Masoch, a Ukrainian lady of noble birth. He started learning German at age 12.
During his life, Sacher-Masoch was well-known as a man of letters, who was seen by some as a potential successor to Goethe. He was a utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideals in his fiction and non-fiction. He associated with the artistic elite of Mitteleuropa, but was frequently in debt.
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[edit] Venus in Furs
He planned to write a series of six novels under the collective title The Heritage of Cain: only the first two were ever completed, of which Venus in Furs (1870) is the most famous today. (Venus im Pelz is the original title in German). It is also the only Sacher-Masoch book commonly available in English.
This novel tells of a man, Serverin von Kusiemski, so infatuated with a woman, Wanda von Dunajew, that he requests to be treated as her slave, and encourages her to treat him in progressively more degrading ways. Severin describes his feelings during these experiences as suprasensuality. The relationship arrives at a crisis point when Wanda herself meets a man to whom she would like to submit. At the end of the book, Severin, humiliated by Wanda's new lover, ceases to desire to submit, stating that men should dominate women until the time when women are equal to men in education and rights: an ending that can be viewed as both misogynist and feminist.
The novel expressed Sacher-Masoch's fantasies and fetishes (especially for dominant women wearing fur), which strongly influenced his other works. He did his best to live out his fantasies with his mistresses and wives. He pressured his first wife, Aurora Rümelin, into living out the experience of the book, against her preferences. He wasn't excited about his family life, got a divorce and married his assistant. In his late 50s, his mental health began to deteriorate and he spent the last years of his life in psychiatry. According to official reports, he died in Lindheim, Germany in 1895; however some claim that he actually died in an asylum in Mannheim in 1905.
[edit] Influence
The term masochism was coined by the 19th century psychiatrist Krafft-Ebing with Sacher-Masoch and his writings in mind. Sacher-Masoch was not pleased with this development.
The novel has been adapted for film three times: in 1967, in 1969 and in 1994. The 1994 film was directed by Maartje Seyferth and Victor E. Nieuwenhuijs [see the website], and received an award at the 1994 international film festival of Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The lyrics of The Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs" refer to this book. In the 1998 Todd Haynes film Velvet Goldmine, main character Brian Slade's backing band is called "Venus in Furs".
Sacher-Masoch is related to British singer/actress Marianne Faithfull on her mother's side, the Viennese Baroness Eva Erisso.
[edit] Notes
- Note regarding personal names: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as Knight, not a first or middle name. There is no equivalent female form.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Works by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch at Project Gutenberg
- Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
- Leopold von Sacher-Masoch Life and works
- Leopold von Sacher-Masoch article from Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia
