Leopold von Sacher-Masoch 18425 225545039 2008-07-14T06:36:47Z Treybien 1234927 /* Private Life */ [[Image:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.jpg|thumb|right|Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. An 1860s photo.]] '''Leopold Ritter<ref>{{German title|Ritter}}</ref> von Sacher-Masoch''' ([[27 January]], [[1836]] – [[9 March]], [[1895]]) was an [[Austria]]n writer and journalist, who gained renown at his time for his stories of [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galician]] life and [[Romanticism|romantic]] novels. The term [[masochism]] is derived from his name. During his life, Sacher-Masoch was well-known as a man of letters, who was seen by some as a potential successor to [[Goethe]] and was often compared to [[Turgenev]]. He was a [[utopia]]n thinker who espoused [[socialist]] and [[Humanism|humanist]] ideals in his fiction and non-fiction. Most of his works remain untranslated in [[English language|English]]; the novel ''[[Venus in Furs]]'' is his only book commonly available in English. ==Biography== ===Galician Storyteller=== Von Sacher-Masoch was born in [[Lemberg]], the capital of the [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria]], a province of the [[Austrian Empire]] (now [[Lviv]], [[Ukraine]]), into the [[Roman Catholic]] family of an [[Austria]]n police director and Charlotte von Masoch. He started learning [[German language|German]] at age 12. He studied law, history and mathematics at [[Graz University]] and after graduating from it moved back to Lemberg where he became a professor. His early, non-fictional publications dealt mostly with Austrian history. At the same time Masoch turned to the folklore and culture of his homeland, Galicia. Soon he abandoned lecturing and became a free man of letters. Within a decade his short stories and novels prevailed over his historical [[non-fiction]] works, though historic themes continued to imbue his fiction. Masoch found a particular interest in depicting picturesque types of various ethnicities that inhabited Galicia. From the 1860s to the 1880s he published a number of volumes of ''Jewish Short Stories'', ''Polish Short Stories'', ''Galician Short Stories'', ''German Court Stories'' and ''Russian Court Stories''. His works were published in translations in [[Russia]] and [[France]]. ===''The Legacy of Cain''=== In 1869 Sacher-Masoch conceived a grandiose series of short stories under the collective title ''[[Legacy of Cain]]'' that would represent the author's aesthetic [[World view|weltanschauung]]. The cycle opened with manifesto-like ''The Wanderer'' that brought out the [[misogynist]] theme that became peculiar to Masoch's writings. But of the six planned volumes only the first two were ever completed. By the middle of 1880s Masoch abandoned the idea of ''Legacy of Cain''. Nevertheless the published volumes of the series included Masoch's most known stories and ''[[Venus in Furs]]'' (1869) of them is the most famous today. The short novel expressed Sacher-Masoch's fantasies and fetishes (especially for dominant women wearing fur). He did his best to live out his fantasies with his mistresses and wives. ===Philosemitism and Feminism=== He edited in Leipzig-based monthly literary magazine ''Auf der Höhe. Internationale Review'' (''At the Pinnacle. International Review''), which was published from October 1881 to September 1885. This was a [[progressive]] magazine aimed at tolerance and integration for [[Jew]]s in [[Saxony]], as well as [[women's rights|emancipation of women]] with articles on women's education and suffrage. In his later years, he worked against local [[antisemitism]] through an association for adult education called the Oberhessischer Verein für Volksbildung (OVV), founded in 1893 with his second wife, Hulda Meister.<ref>Hyams, Barbara "Causal Connections: The Case of Sacher-Masoch" in Finke, M.C. and C. Niekirk, eds. ''One Hundred Years of Masochism'' Rodopi, 2000 ISBN 9042006579</ref> ===Private Life=== On [[8 December]], [[1869]] Sacher-Masoch and his mistress Fanny Pistor signed a contract making him her [[slave]] for the period of six months, with the stipulation that the Baroness wear furs as often as possible, especially when she was in a cruel mood. Sacher-Masoch took the alias of “Gregor”, a stereotypical male servant's name, and fitted out in disguise as the servant of the Baroness. The two traveled by train to [[Italy]]. As in ''Venus in Furs'', he traveled in the third class compartment, while she had a seat in first class, arriving in [[Venice, Italy|Venice]] ([[Florence, Italy|Florence]], in the novel), where they were not known, and would not arouse suspicion.<ref>[http://homepage.newschool.edu/~schlemoj/imptopia/sacher-masoch_venus.html About the novel Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> He pressured his first wife, Aurora von Römelin, whom he married in 1873, into living out the experience of the book, against her preferences. He found his family life to be unexciting, and eventually got a [[divorce]] and married his assistant. ===Later Years=== In 1875 Masoch wrote ''The Ideals of Our Time'', the author's attempt to give a portrait of [[Germany|German]] society during its [[Gründerzeit]] period. In his late 50s, his [[mental health]] began to deteriorate, and he spent the last years of his life in [[psychiatry|psychiatric]] care. According to official reports, he died in Lindheim, [[Germany]] in 1895; however some claim that he actually died in an [[asylum]] in [[Mannheim]] in 1905.<ref>[http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SEN/CH22.HTM#b1-SACHERMASOCH,%20LEOPOLD%20RITTER%20VON Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Sacher-Masoch is the great-great-uncle to [[British people|British]] singer/actress [[Marianne Faithfull]] on her mother's side, the [[Vienna|Viennese]] [[Baron|Baroness]] [[Eva Erisso]]. ==Sacher-Masoch and Masochism== The term ''[[masochism]]'' was coined in 1886 by the Austrian psychiatrist [[Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing]] in his seminal work ''[[Psychopathia Sexualis]]'': {{cquote2|...I feel justified in calling this sexual anomaly "Masochism," because the author Sacher-Masoch frequently made this perversion, which up to his time was quite unknown to the scientific world as such, the substratum of his writings. I followed thereby the scientific formation of the term "Daltonism," from Dalton, the discoverer of colour-blindness. During recent years facts have been advanced which prove that Sacher-Masoch was not only the poet of Masochism, but that he himself was afflicted with the anomaly. Although these proofs were communicated to me without restriction, I refrain from giving them to the public. I refute the accusation that 'I have coupled the name of a revered author with a perversion of the sexual instinct,' which has been made against me by some admirers of the author and by some critics of my book. As a man Sacher-Masoch cannot lose anything in the estimation of his cultured fellow-beings simply because he was afflicted with an anomaly of his sexual feelings. As an author he suffered severe injury so far as the influence and intrinsic merit of his work is concerned, for so long and whenever he eliminated his perversion from his literary efforts he was a gifted writer, and as such would have achieved real greatness had he been actuated by normally sexual feelings. In this respect he is a remarkable example of the powerful influence exercised by the vita sexualis be it in the good or [[evil]] sense over the formation and direction of man's mind.<ref>Krafft-Ebing, Richard von, ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' ([http://ia350608.us.archive.org/1/items/psychopathiasexu00krafuoft/psychopathiasexu00krafuoft_djvu.txt])</ref>}} Sacher-Masoch was not pleased with Kraft-Ebbing's assertions. Nevertheless, details of Masoch's private life were obscure until Aurora von Römelin's memoirs were published in 1905 (under the pseudonym of ''Wanda von Sacher-Masoch''). ==Books== {{main|Bibliography of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch}} Selected bibliography of Masoch's fiction books: novels and collections of short stories. For detailed original bibliography, see the [[Bibliography of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch|main article]]. * 1858 ''A Galician Story 1846.'' * 1865 ''Kaunitz.'' * 1867 ''The Last King of Hungary.'' * 1870 ''The Divorced Woman.'' * 1870 ''[[Legacy of Cain]]. Vol. 1: Love.'' (includes his most famous novella ''[[Venus in Furs]]'') * 1872 ''Faux Ermine.'' * 1873 ''Female Sultan.'' * 1873 ''The Messalinas of Vienna.'' * 1873-1874 ''Russian Court Stories'': 4 Vols. * 1873-1877 ''Viennese Court Stories'': 2 Vols. * 1875 ''[[The Ideals of Our Time]].'' * 1875 ''Galician Stories.'' * 1877 ''The Man Without Prejustice.'' * 1877 ''[[Legacy of Cain]]. Vol. 2: Property.'' * 1878 ''The New Hiob.'' * 1878 ''Jewish Stories.'' * 1878 ''The Republic of Women's Enemies.'' * 1879 ''Silhouettes.'' * 1881 ''New Jewish Stories.'' * 1883 ''The Godmother.'' * 1886 ''Eternal Youth.'' * 1886 ''Stories from Polish Ghetto.'' * 1886 ''Little Mysteries of World History.'' * 1887 ''Polish Stories.'' * 1890 ''The Serpent in Paradise.'' * 1891 ''The Lonesome.'' * 1894 ''Love Stories.'' * 1898 ''Entre nous.'' * 1900 ''Catherina II.'' * 1901 ''Afrikas Semiramis.'' * 1907 ''Fierce Women.'' == See also == {{wikisource author}} * [[Sadism and masochism in fiction]] * ''[[Story of O]]'' ==References== <!-- this 'empty' section displays references defined elsewhere --> {{reflist}} == External links == * {{gutenberg author| id=Leopold+von+Sacher-Masoch | name=Leopold von Sacher-Masoch}} ** [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6852 The complete text of ''Venus in Furs''] from [[Project Gutenberg]] ** [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=5431 The Bookbinder of Hort], part of an anthology, Stories by Foreign Authors * [http://brendanconnell.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/leopold-von-sacher-masoch-the-letawitza-2/ The Letawitza] * [http://homepage.newschool.edu/~schlemoj/imptopia/sacher-masoch.html Leopold von Sacher-Masoch] * [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SEN/CH22.HTM#b1-SACHERMASOCH,%20LEOPOLD%20RITTER%20VON Leopold von Sacher-Masoch article] from Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Sacher-Masoch, Leopold von}} [[Category:1836 births]] [[Category:1895 deaths]] [[Category:People from Lviv]] [[Category:Austrian writers]] [[Category:Austrian nobility]] [[Category:Erotic fiction]] [[Category:BDSM writers]] [[Category:Austrian erotica writers]] [[cs:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[da:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[de:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[es:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[eo:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[fa:مازوخ]] [[fr:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[id:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[it:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[he:ליאופולד פון זאכר מאזוך]] [[nl:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[ja:レーオポルト・フォン・ザッハー=マゾッホ]] [[pl:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[ru:Захер-Мазох, Леопольд фон]] [[sv:Masochism]] [[tr:Leopold von Sacher-Masoch]] [[uk:Захер-Мазох Леопольд фон]]