Well I have to say that the "Story of O" was and still is a classic. I read O when I was about 14. I stole it from a bookshop on the way to school one morning having no real idea of what it was. It changed my life - the book not the stealing of it!!!!!!
How you can say it doesn't contain any emotion....it leaps from the page at me!!! The emotion is what you feel inside when you digest it (No Millie - not in that way!) - when Sir Stephen taps his cigarette and the ash falls onto O the emotion is intense. The book to me is about O's submission, her surrender. That in itself is emotional. Ask anyone who has submitted totally to another and I'd be surprised if they don't identify with O in some way. The "coldness" of the text is what makes it erotic to me. Makes it real. I have similar views on "The Image" as well.
Have probably bored you all stupid with that little diatribe so I'll shut up now.......