Venus In Furs

[Des Esseintes]

Has anyone else here read Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus In Furs? It's not really a gothic romance but it's fairly close. It's about a love/hate relationship between an inexperienced young man and a hedonistic young woman and it's set in Italy in the late 1800s. It's best remembered for the kinky sex scenes of bondage and whips (now very tame today) but the sex is only secondary to the underlying subtext regarding their relationship. The man (Severin) only wants to serve his lover as a sexual slave but the woman (Wanda) wants a real, emotionally mature relationship. As the novel progresses their relationship deteriorates under their conflicting desires.

I checked online and it looks like nobody has ever made a faithful screenplay of it. I was considering trying my hand at it.

Is anyone here familar with the story?

You can read about it here and you can read the English translation for free here.