Venus in Furs

The novel was to be part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called Legacy of Cain (Das Vermächtniß Kains).

Wanda von Dunajew, the novel's central female character, was modelled after Fanny Pistor, who was an emerging literary writer.

[1] The two met when Pistor contacted Sacher-Masoch, under the assumed name and fictitious title of Baroness Bogdanoff, for suggestions on improving her writing to make it suitable for publication.

The relationship arrives at a crisis when Wanda meets a man to whom she would like to submit, a Byronic hero known as Alexis Papadopolis.

[3] Then, in the intellectual ferment of post-World War II, theorists like Gilles Deleuze broke apart the duality of sadomasochism.