She wanted to produce something to hold his interest. She scribbled the story down in pencil, writing deep into the night, to complete a work to entice her own lover – Jean Paulhan.Īury was devoted to Paulhan. She had no intention to publish the manuscript as a book, nor to shock the 1950’s French literary world. The few that did know her identity, never released the information.ĭominique Aury wrote Histoire d’O at the age of 47. Already a respected literary figure in France, and publicly perceived as a conservative middle-aged woman, few suspected Aury had written Story of O. In 1994, 86 year old Dominique Aury publicly announced that she was the author. The writer who penned Histoire d’O did not reveal her true identity for decades after publication. The literary quality of Story of O was confirmed and the novel’s notoriety was firmly established.ĭespite subsequent public outrage and a police investigation involving the interrogation of the publisher Jean-Jacques Pauvert, the book continued to be published, and the identity of Pauline Reage, who, it is said, quelled further police intervention after meeting the Minister of Justice over lunch, remained a well kept secret.įor many years Story of O was assumed written by a man but in fact its author was a French woman of letters who kept her identity secret until just before her death on 2 May, 1998 – at the age of 91 – when she revealed that she had written it as a ‘love letter’ to her lover of 20 years. In the following year Story of O won the Prix des Deux Magots, a literary prize generally awarded to new and unconventional books, with a number of famous writers amongst its earlier recipients. The daring nature of the novel became the talk of the French salons and cafes and there was much speculation as to the true identity of its author. The publication of Histoire d’O caused immediate controversy. Originally published in France in 1954 by Jean-Jacques Pauvert, Histoire d’O relates the tale of a young Parisian fashion photographer, called O, and her willful debasement at the hands of her lover Rene and the members of a clandestine society dedicated to the pleasures of sadomasochism. It is a book which should come with a health warning… Story of O might seduce your heart.

It is a romance of violence written by a gentle French woman who for over forty years hid behind the name ‘Pauline Reage’.

The story of o reage