From the Top Shelf - The New Story of O

In The New Story of O,  the anonymous author reinvents the submissive and ultimately discarded sex slave from Pauline Reage's Story of O and Return to the Chateau as a dominant, liberated, empowered woman, "transformed, renewed, fulfilled... The degradation, the floggings and the humiliations she had endured at Roissy had brought O to a supreme detachment, an impassivity worthy of the great mystics. Sex, love and the whip are beneath her now; instead she concentrates on the essential battle against men."

For your enjoyment, here is a glimpse of one of those battles.

James scowled at her. "Well," she went on, "we come to the heart of the matter, Monsieur James Pembroke. Which is me; O. O attracts you; O fascinates you. Not just as a woman; but because she can get what she wants.

...James noticed O's riding crop was lying on the table. It was a small one, made of black leather. He picked it up and went back to O. "We shall see," he said. "You're too sure of yourself, O. "You don't know me very well yet."

"If this will give you pleasure," she sighed, and let her tunic slip to the floor. Naked, she turned away from James and knelt on the floor, offering him her back. "Carry on," she said, lowering her head and lifting her buttocks above her ankles.

Seized with ungovernable rage, James raised his arm and brought the riding crop down on the white skin. O did not flinch. James applied three further blows, each of which lacerated O's body, leaving a burning red weal. O remained motionless and silent throughout the ordeal. Then James threw the crop on to the sofa. He wiped the sweat that was trickling down his forehead. He was breathing heavily and his face was scarlet. O lowered her head to the floor and lifted her arse higher. "Have you finished already? she asked.

James made no reply. "I'm not one of your thousand dollar whores," O said. "I can take some more."

James felt more exhausted than he did after making love. "Don't you feel anything?" he asked, in a weary voice. "Didn't that hurt?"

"Yes, of course," O replied, jumping to her feet. "But it isn't the number of strokes that you receive that indicates your strength; it is the skill that you exhibit in taking them."

Do you agree?