BDSM in books

Ok, we have had the BDSM in films thread but I have yet to see one for books. So, let's see some literary references for BDSM...

Now, the obvious ones are the works of Masoch, De Sade and their ilk and you can name them if you wish (it would be nice to see how many titles from these two we can get) but what we are really looking for here are references in non-BDSM literature. Naming the BDSM classics would be like putting a film entitled 'Chains, whips and leather' into the film thread...

So, what books can you name which have BDSM themes?

To start you off: Making Money by Terry Pratchett has reference to the former chairman of the bank's secret warderobe in which he keeps a large collection of rubber and leather outfits and 'devices'.

Anne Bishop - Black Jewels Trilogy - guys definitely dont want to be shaved
Anne Bishop - Invisible Ring
Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel Books

John Ringo, There Will be Dragons, The Emerald Sea, and Against the Tide, all touch on BDSM to a certain extent. I have to agree with Claire Anne Bishops books are excellent, though they should by no means be taken as a model of bdsm.

"The Loving Dominant" by John Warren.

I think Different Loving by Gloria & William Brame and Jon Jacobs is one of the most obvious titles...

The Gargantua and Pantagruel series by French renaissance writer François Rabelais isn't explicit in BDSM content but it's perhaps the oldest example a libertine lifestyle in classic literature. Despite the antiquity of these texts, they remain highly entertaining for their bawdy humor. His books were banned by the Roman Catholic Church in his time but these days, you'll find e-text copies at Project Gutenberg and biographical information at Wikipedia.

The unabridged version of Tales of the Arabian Nights also contains many episodes of slavery and forced submission. Other 'oriental' works also translated by Sir Richard Burton, such as The Perfumed Garden, also contain BDSM overtones. Burton himself was a fascinating person who enjoyed kinky diversions. Sadly for history, his wife burned many of his unpublished manuscripts shortly after his death.

Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw (and based on the ancient Greek myth of Pygmalion), is a classic story of dominance and submission, though this sub-text was more likely simply a reflection of Victorian times and class differences. The movie My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, based on Shaw's play, is in my opinion the best D/s film ever made.

All good examples. I htought of one more...

In Neuromancer by William Gibson one of the characters restrains the hero using a 'sex toy' which is made of a material which tightens the more you compress it. When his hands are enveloped in it, she tells him that the more he struggles the more it will tighten, until it crushes his hands.

Victorian culture is full of BDSM under (and over)tones. Pygmalion is only one example. Greek and Roman culture had slavery as a part of society so talking about it in literature is not any different to talking about people who happen to work in IT call centres today (which I consider to be the modern slavery :) ) so there are probably many more examples in ancient literature. Arabian Nights is a similar thing and the whole concept of Hareems is a common BDSM fantasy.

I am not aware of any of the other books mentioned but may check them out...

John Norman The Gor series....

Laurel K Hamilton mentions bondage several times in her "Merry Gentry " series.

YOu know, I was timing how long it would take for some one to mention Gor... :) I am surprised it took this long. There is also some bondage in one or two of the Conan books if I remember rightly.

Not read LKH but it does not surprise me if there is bondage in there somewhere. She is one of the authors I need to get round to reading at some point...

There could be an argument for hypnosis domination in Huxley's Brave New World. The 'lower classes' are sleep conditioned to accept their roles as more or less slaves. NOt quite 'erotic BDSM' but still a form of domination.

Well, you have to throw in the Beauty Series and Exit to Eden by Anne Rice. She is under the pen name A. N. Roquelaure in the Beauty Series, my absolute favorite actually!

My all-time favourite is "The Queen of the Grove" by Louise Malatesta. I never had Femdom things in real life, but - unlike so much else - this book is beautifully written, and basically the dominant person in the stories could have the other gender just as well.

The other one I like a lot is "The Q Letters" by SirQ, which provides good insight into a Dom´s world of feelings, especially at the beginning of his experiences.

I also like the books of Sina-Aline Geißler, but she´s German and I do not know if her books were translated into other tongues; my favourite one by her is "Mut zur Demut".

I was actually considering that as a topic for my diploma thesis :)

It strikes me how often there are BDSM references in literature. Just from the top of my head, Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber" (which is a short story found in the collection of the same name) is pretty explicitely BDSM. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has subtle references -- Frankenstein is extremely possessive about his sister/lover...she's his most prized obsession. I agree on Victorian literature...but the reason for this may be the picture of the Victorian woman (I'm not launching into a speech here, ahem). Does locking your (mad because a sexual creature) wife up in the attick count? In that case, add Jane Eyre to the collection. All I can think of right now, I'll have to see if I can still find my list. :)

I don't know about the Conan books -- never read any of them -- but I can testify that in the mmorpg based onthe series...well, the second thing you see is a half naked woman in chains. So I can imagine that it's no different in the books :)

Well, I remember there being bound women in some of the stories but I cannot remember if they were *actual* RE Howard books or the L Sprague Le Camp follow ups.

I think Jane Eyre counts, definitely... :)