Oooo la la

Anne Declos

This week I’d like to take you on a journey to France. Not my beloved Paris, but to Rochefort the birthplace of French journalist Anne Declos.

Declos who was born in 1907, worked as a journalist until 1946 when she joined Gallimard Publishers as the editorial secretary. As an avid reader she translated and introduced the French to work by the likes of Virginia Woolf, T S Eliot and F Scott Fitzgerald. She became a critic and was on the jury for many literary awards.

Anne Declos AKA Pauline Reage and Dominique Aury

The Story of O came about when Anne’s lover made claim that a woman couldn’t write an erotic novel.  Declos proved him wrong by writing The Story of O. Published under the name Pauline Reage, many questioned whether or not it was actually written by a woman.

I remember the book being mentioned on television when I was in my teens.  I asked my mum about it and she told me it was filth and I shouldn’t read it. Years later when I was accidentally browsing through the erotica section of Borders in Carlton, I, by chance, stumbled across the controversial novel.  Of course I bought it and read it asap. However, I never did tell my mum.

The content of the book is sadomasochistic erotica. It’s the story of a French girl – referred to as O, who was sold into sexual slavery by her boyfriend.  Surprisingly, the book is actually written in good taste and the language isn’t at all what I imagined it to be.  Needless to say, The Story of O was prevented from being sold to minors and brought obscenity charges against the publisher due to the subject. Declos did not disclose that she was the author of the book until 40 years after the book was published.

Whether you like it or not, the controversial story is a classic.  The story is timeless and more than 50 years later, if you picked it up, although shocking, you could relate it to today. I’m glad I read it, not only for the experience, but also so I could tell you that, Once upon a time in France, a woman took a wager and proved that you don’t have to be a man to write erotica.