How deep will the rabbit hole go? or in this case how deep will O’s surrender by to Sir Stephen. Rene in the books seems to be just a passing relationship or more so a lure to get her into the Chateau. The Chateau was a good starter to introduce O into a life of slavery and submission which then continues within the hands of Sir Stephen which goes on a race between love, freedom and betrayal. There is a dance which is played between the characters, where Rene’s love seduces O to bring her to becoming vulnerable just almost as O’s seduction to Jacqueline to get her into a position and then perhaps continued in the hands of Rene which we do not really find out.
Who are these men? What is their purpose? Those are some strong questions which came into mind as I saw the interaction between the two. The level of submission for which O enters when she is seduced and layers of her individuality is slowly drawn away by her interactions with the various characters in the books and then ultimately paying the price at the very end of the book, when the attached notes speaks of her abandonment by Sir Stephen. Did these men really love her? Did they actually care for her or merely use her for some sort of inner twisted game within their own society for which they established.
as much as the dark fantasy of love, seduction, submission, and the cruelty of even the acts of slavery are prominent in the book, the ending was rather harsh.
Overall, my assessment of the book was that it is certainly a great erotic fantasy with many twists and turns to the story. It is interesting to continue to see O’s seduction and submission as it continues to grow deeper and deeper. Overall, I enjoyed the reading but I must be honest the ending of the book and where things turned was rather disheartening. There were some aspects which I found hard to swallow, like the introduction of the child character in the book and her interaction with the group.
I’ve attached my cliff notes which I had taken during my read of the book for my own interest if anything else. There were some passages I pointed out and where I found interest or lack of interest in them.
————————————————————————– Chapters One through six. It covered the portions where O had been taken to the Chateau and through her initial training and interactions with the Valets and other Masters of the Chateau and her initial discovery into submission. It then continued with various encounters with Rene, for which I had a sense of feeling that the “I love you” which had past between the two were not done for the beauty of the words, but more of a “I needed to hear it from you” temperament, but I could be wrong with this, that is for sure.
Reading the story of the Chateau certainly gave me the understanding for not just the foundation for the chateau itself but the training as it had been laid out for the GITs.
The story then turns to her return back to her apartment for which she was to get rid of anything for which she wore which couldn’t be opened at the front to give easy access and of course her panties. It then turned to its first encounter with Sir Stephen, for which si where I am at right now.
Then chapter 10 with the saint cloud scene which was rather interesting to see. It was once more a turn in the relationship between Sir Stephen and O… It was obvious that Sir Stephen was trying to profess his feelings for her, that he in fact was beginning to or had loved her. It was also obvious that O was falling for Sir Stephen in a way. Things were changing from O belonging to both of them to O belonging just to Sir Stephen.
at the end of chapter 10 we see that O is set forth on her newest assignment from Sir Stephen, to get Jacqueline who’s name is just a use name, to the chateau. From there, Jacqueline moves in with O, and intimate interactions between the two begin.
Which poses some interesting questions for me.. Did Rene actually “love” O? Did he actually have any sort of emotional investment into O, or was it possible he was there to get O into the Chateau and that was his position? Did Sir Stephen have something over Rene?
Chapter 12:
————————————————— “Listen to me,” Ren# went on, “there’s one thing anyway I want you to tell her, and tell her right away, and that is that I’m in love with her.”
“Is that true?” O said.
“I want her,” Ren# said, “and since you can’t – or won’t – do anything about it, I’ll take charge of the matter myself and do what has to be done.”
“You’ll never get her to agree to go to Roissy,” O said.
“I won’t? In that case,” Ren# retorted, “we’ll force her to.”
—————————————
This continued to make me ponder the mentality of “Rene”. In the previous passages, Sir Stephen refers to Rene as “Boy” and that he was not properly handling “O”. It shows a bit of conflict between Rene and Sir Stephen with “O” caught in the middle of said conflict. This passage I outlined really disturbed me about the whole “forcing” issue… as it goes against the cocnept of consensualism… In the previous passages, Sir Stephen or Rene speaks that Jacqueline is that she could leave the chateau if she wanted to but I am unsure if I really believe that or not, if they had that ability to do so. Was they there by their own wishes or were they being contained there against their own free will?
The book then opens up to a “Female Dominant” which was rather interesting and the interactions between this dominant and “O” for which Sir Stephen has left her in her hands for a period of time to be marked which I assume is by rings and some form of a permanent branding.
O is taken and placed through another series of beatings ath the mercy of Anne-Marie and two others. It was very unusual to see a Female Dominant in the books, which was interesting. Anne-Marine and two others tend to O in a various amounts of corporal punishments and sexual exploitations. There was also the corset training which she was placed under to mold and shape her body to much better feminine curves. It then comes down to the piercings where she’s informed that anyone who sees her or even lift sup her skirts will see the piercings on her loins and if bent over the branding on her buttocks.
It was now obvious that Sir Stephen had taken full ownership of “O” and had completely marked her as his, but what about Rene and the supposed relationship for which O has with him? It seems he has drifted off in the dark right now and my thoughts on who truly owned O seemed to be coming true as there was no markings on Rene placed on O’s body, just that of Sir Stephen.
The book breaks out into a wierd twisted love affair now in the next chapter with a bit of a competition between men and Sir Stephen offering her freedom and to be released, which to be honest with the branding of his initials into her buttocks seems rather silly to be honest. Then Sir Stephen goes into about punishing her for being used by other men which also seemed to be a bit of jealousy possibly with Sir Stephen loosing forcing of his overall emotions and control over them due to his feelings towards O?
———–
The child, slipping down and hugging O’s knees, also replied in a near-whisper:
“Oh, yes I do. I saw you the other morning on the terrace. I saw the initials, I saw the long black-and-blue marks. And Jacqueline has told me…”
“Told you what?”
“Where you’ve been, O, and what they did to you there.”
“Did she talk to you about Roissy?”
“She also told me that you had been, that you are…”
“That I was what?”
“That you wear iron rings.”
“That’s right,” O said, “and what else?”
“That Sir Stephen whips you every day.”
“That’s correct,” O repeated, “and he’ll be here any second. So run along, Natalie.”
Natalie, without shifting position, raised her head to O, and O’s eyes encountered her adoring gaze.
“Teach me, O, please teach me,” she started in again, “I want to be like you. I’ll do anything you tell me. Promise me you’ll take me with you when you go back to that place Jacqueline told me about.”
“You’re too young,” O said.
“No, I’m not too young, I’m fifteen going on sixteen,” she cried out angrily. “I’m not too young. Ask Sir Stephen,” she said, for he had just entered the room.
——————-
This part out of chapter 15 got a bit creepy with me. The reaction of the little girl and that she was exposed to what had happened in somewhat detail from what this is said really disturbed me. There was a big strong portion of the book which really bothered me when I read it and here is where this goes and what portion actually bothered me about the books. When its also mentioned that Sir Stephen wanted Nat to be brought to the Chateau “untouched” was also a bit on the disturbing side.
The ending continued to go down from there to the very end where the notations had been left about Sir Stephen abandoning her and then giving O conscent to die, which was rather horrid in my opinion.