THE CORRECT SADIST

by Terence Sellers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 1985

First published by Vitriol Publications in 1983, Seller's murky, thinly-plotted novel poses as the memoirs of professional dominatrix Angel Stern, but it's really a derivative rendering of the philosophy of the Marquis de Sade, combined with a kind of how-to manual for aspiring sadists. The storyline, such as it is, is basically this: Angel Stem is born into a poor family and grows up the lonely child of unsympathetic parents. Early on she begins to fantasize that she is royalty, the lost daugher of a Prince and Princess. Later in her life, after a brief flirtation with the Catholic Church (she is fascinated by the gory sufferings of the martyrs in the lives of the saints), she becomes enthralled by the writings of the Marquis de Sade and decides to become a professional dominatrix in order to explore her own feelings of superiority and test the ethics of the ""battleground"" between sadist and masochist. She sets herself up in business in an unnamed big city (but almost certainly New York) and begins to act out scenarios of abuse and torture with her faithful, masochistic male clients. However, she eventually realizes how empty this life is, how much of a slave she herself is to her slavish customers, and decides to give conventional morality a try--after first, of course, penning this autobiography. In the fairly explicit central section of the novel, entitled ""The Leeching,"" Mistress Angel pauses in her narration, sounding for all the world like an extremely serious Miss Manners (""For the true torture aficionado, the Superior ought to have on hand: needles and thread, hammer, nails and a board. . .and perhaps the electric prod. . .""), and then takes her readers on a guided tour of the etiquette and protocol of the arcane world of sadomasochism. Written in a dense, obscure style, filled with baroque symbolism, The Correct Sadist will send readers back to more eminently readable classics of the genre like The Story Of O and 9« Weeks.

Pub Date: Sept. 6, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION