Q&A Forum - August 2010 ("Searching for Wanda" edition)

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Q. Ms Sutton, with his all of his biographers having passed away, it would seem to me that the research you did for “Searching for Wanda” makes you the foremost expert living today when it comes to the life of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. I wish you would have written your book ten years ago. I wrote a paper in college on Sacher-Masoch and I came to the conclusion that based on his sexuality, he should have married Fanny Pistor and not Aurora Rumelin. Fanny was the inspiration for the character Wanda in “Venus in Furs” and she enjoyed treating Leopold like her slave奴隶 — a person kept in total obedience. It came much more natural to her than it did Aurora Rumelin. Do you agree with my observation?

A. I agree that Fanny Pistor’s disposition and sexuality was closer to Leopold’s ideal dominant and cruel female than any other woman he was romantically involved with. Fanny delighted in cheating on Leopold to his face with other men while denying him any sexual contact with her. She also frequently humiliated Leopold and, of course, she commonly whipped him while wearing furs.