Pauline Réage

Anne Desclos (September 23, 1907 - April 27, 1998) was a French journalist and novelist who wrote under the pseudonyms Dominique Aury and Pauline Réage.

Early life

Born in Rochefort-sur-Mer, Charente-Maritime, France to a bilingual family, Desclos began reading in French and English at an early age. After completing her studies at the Sorbonne, she worked as a journalist until 1946 when she joined Gallimard Publishers as the editorial secretary for one of its imprints where she began using the pen name of Dominique Aury.

An avid reader of English and American literature, Desclos either translated or introduced to readers in France such renowned authors as Algernon Charles Swinburne, Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and numerous others. She became a highly respected critic and was made a member of the jury for several prominent literary awards.

Career

Desclos' lover and employer, Jean Paulhan, had made the remark to her that no woman was capable of writing an erotic novel. To prove him wrong, Desclos wrote a graphic, sadomasochistic novel that was published under the pseudonym Pauline Réage in June 1954. Titled Histoire d'O (Story of O), it was an enormous, though controversial, commercial success. The book caused much speculation as to the identity of the author. Many doubted that it was a woman, let alone the demure, intellectual, and almost prudish persona depicted in Dominique Aury.

In addition, the book's graphic content sparked so much controversy that the following March the government authorities brought obscenity charges against the publisher and its mysterious author that were thrown out of court in 1959. However, a publicity ban and a restriction on the book's sale to minors was imposed by the judge. Following the lifting of the publicity ban in 1967, the conclusion to Story of O was published under the title Retour à Roissy using the pseudonym of Pauline Réage. However, according to her recent biography by Angie David, Desclos did not write this second novel.

She did an interview about erotic books in 1975 with author and publisher Régine Deforges, yet at the time her authorship of Story of O was still unknown. Desclos publicly admitted that she was the author of The Story of O 40 years after the book was published, in an interview with The New Yorker.

Personal life

Desclos was actively bisexual at times in her life. ^[1]

Anne Desclos died in Corbeil-Essonnes, Île-de-France.

Adaptations

In 2000, Guido Crepax combined her work The Story of O with one of the Marquis de Sade's most famous pieces, Justine, creating an erotic graphic novel version of each. The English language versions were published by Grove Press.

Source

• Dominique Aury by Angie David - Editions Léo Scheer, 560 pp - ISBN 2756100307 - Biography in French

Footnotes

See also

• Writer of O, a 2004 documentary film by Pola Rapaport
• [1], Observer (UK Sunday Newspaper) article on Anne Desclos