Venus in Furs

Sylvan, 1947-01-01. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good Acetate Jacket. Hardcover with original acetate jacket, (#593 of a limited edition of 1499 copies) 1947 privately printed for the Sylvan Press, NY 140 pages. Very Good, in a VG acetate jacket with paper flap attached stating Limited edition. Minor shelf/edge wear to publishers full Black pebble-grain leather boards with with embossed oval-centric pattern in green which is slightly worn to yellow - corners sharp. Small amount of foxing to top edges of textblock. Front cover is embossed with ovals that branch out to the edges, inside the smallest oval is a eye-catching nude female figure holding a whip. Moderate shelf/edge wear and rubbing to scarce clear acetate DJ with front and back panels and flaps. Front panel has paper attached with descriptive text of book. No previous owner markings - all pages are clean and unmarked. Frontispiece with intact tissue guard is Titian's Venus With A Mirror which now hangs in The national Gallery of Art, Mellon Collection. The dedication page reads: Large paper edition designed by Lewis F White is limited to 1499 copies for the US & same number for British Empire. Ten unnumbered copies have been struck off for reviewers. This copy is number 593 of 1499. NOTE: The first picture is of the book without the acetate DJ. Picture #2 is with the acetate DJ which is rubbed. Picture #3 show the DJ flap stating Limited Edition and picture #4 shows the numberering. THE classic story of masochistic love. On 9 December 1869, Sacher-Masoch and his mistress Baroness Fanny Pistor signed a contract making him her slave for a 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 assumed a disguise as the servant of the Baroness. The two travelled 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 (Florence, in the novel), where they were not known, and would not arouse suspicion. Sacher-Masoch pressured his first wife – Aurora von Rümelin, whom he married in 1873 – to live out the experience of the book, against her preferences. Sacher-Masoch found his family life to be unexciting, and eventually got a divorce and married his assistant. Very handsome numbered copy. LOC SS-FB-01