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THE STORY OF F

STORY OF O. By Pauline Reage. Translated by Sabine d'Estree. Grove Press, 199 pp. $6.00.

"Don't touch me! And if you do, let me watch."

"I'm sorry. What may I do for you?"

A tight smile of disdain sneered across the wily features of F's lover, "If I shared you with my friends and had them whip, and beat and mutilate you with hot irons and anonymously cross your private portals, if you know what I mean, would you still love me, huh?"

F's body said no, but her body said yes, because her body was irresistably attracted to her lover's mind and by proving that she could ignore the feelings of her body she could prove that her love was binding because her body which would not bind her would be not binding. A paradox.

She shook her head in response.

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"Yippee, F, let's go. My friends are out in the car." The two unclad figures slipped from the barstools into the night.

Later F found herself in a secret bat cavern deep in the mountains nearby Paris. She wore a circlet of peacock feathers about her neck and the words "Property of the batboys" were written in silver tape in a heart shape around her navel."

F's lover spoke.

"F, baby, this is my friend Lothar. To prove your love to me you must do whatever he says. OK?"

F nodded her assent. Lother was a tall fat man with a misshapen nose. He had the look of a man who once might have wielded authority in his native land.

Lother spoke, "Krump studge goo goo poo poo," and began to hop excitedly. F had no choice but to comply. She slowly lifted her peacock feather and began to submit to indignations heaped on her body by the unwieldy fat man. As Lother donned his batmask for his final ecstasies, F could not prevent a moan from escaping her lips.

"Ickey poo," said Lother, befuddled, and walked away.

F's lover began to kick her for her failure to please his friend. "What is thine is mine," he screamed in a rage, "and what is mine is his and thine is his."

F caressed her lover's feet with her bleeding gums, "I wub oo," she repeated endlessly.

There exists a second ending to the Story of F in which a wandering forest ranger saves the reluctant F from her lover only to watch her be abused by bears. Another version of the beginning has a janitor burn the manuscript and use the ashes for an eggtimer.

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