L'histoire D'o

[Atheist]

Has anyone here read L'histoire d'O (the Story of O)? My version (English translation) claims to be unexpurgated, but ends without an ending! I find it far more literary than 'Grey'. Fascinating exposition of womens' view of sexuality. Is it porn or is it literature? What's the difference?

[Atheist]

Prudie, I was looking for opinions. I must say that regardless of people's personal taste, there can be a judgement made on the literary merits of a piece of writing. I can find some stuff simply written to titillate, which it can succeed at even though badly written (cf Grey) and other stuff which is beautifully written regardless of its titillatory success.

[Buenchico]

>>> if you haven't read it in French, how can you comment on the quality of the translation into English?

I think that it's sometimes easy to spot failings in a translated work even though you've not read the original. For example, when I read Mark Adrian Corner's translation of Zdeněk Jirotka's 'Saturnin', there were points in the story where it seemed readily apparent to me that Corner had opted for a very literal translation, thus leading to a rather stilted style in places. I didn't need to have read the original Czech version to form my opinion. (It's still an interesting read though: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1724928.Saturnin ).

With regard to the ending (or various possible endings) of 'Histoire d'O', which I've not read and I doubt would appeal to me, there's some relevant info on Wikipedia which might be of interest to you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_O

[AuntPollyGrey]

// APG; if you haven't read it in French, how can you comment on the quality of the translation into English?//

I did not say I had not read in in French -I said I had not read it, and meant as a whole book.

The bits I have read were in French and it was for a psychological assessment. Aury inadvertently created a literary case study of cognitive dissonance. This is the observation that forced compliance in a situation, often leads to an apparent change in opinion.

I had access to both French and English copies, and like Buenchico it was quite evident some of the English translation was stilted and literal. This is probably because many French words cannot be truly translated other than literal hence the hackneyed phrase 'Lost in Translation'. I could give examples, but they would more than likely get removed.

[Atheist]

Thanks APG. My old paperback copy doesn't say who translated it from French. On the whole I sensed it is a decent translation, with only a few awkwardnesses.

[LadyCG]

One should never forget to quote one's source:

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-22/edition-3/eye-fiction-psychology-o