Abstract
"The Story of the Eye" (George Bastille) and the "Story of O" (Pauline Reage) are both very early examples of erotic fiction. In many respects, they establish themes that will often be repeated in this modernist genre. The paper analyzes Bataille's "The Story of the Eye" (Histoire de l'Oille) which was written in the late 1920's and discusses the author's intention to exaggerate sexual encounters to the level of absurdity so as to illustrate the purely sensual, irrational nature of sex. The paper then discusses "The Story of O" and shows that it is much different from the "Story of the Eye" in that the protagonist is a slave instead of a master.

From the Paper
"Simone transforms the protagonist from a boy into the fantasy figure Marcelle describes as "The Cardinal," which we can imagine to be a cardinal of the inquisition. This image is evidenced in the bloody scene at the party to which Marcelle owes her compromised sanity, in which the protagonist approaches Marcelle in the wardrobe covered in blood and surrounded by passed-out bodies. The "evil cardinal" image is an appropriate symbolic approximation of evil and religious perversion in both southern France and Spain, as the Inquisition took place in Spain and Provence was home to the Albegensian heresy of the Middle Ages. "

Tags:sadism, voyeurism, Lord, Auch, masochism