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Written in the tradition of Venus in Furs, this book remains one of the best novels of heterosexual male submission. The protagonist slowly falls under the spell of a dominant woman (Lady Jane) and is initiated into the joys of sexual slavery. He is humiliated, tortured, made to wear lingerie, and more. Once firmly under spell, though, Jane does let him try things as a top. Antrews continues this theme in that even better book Submissions in which a newly-made millionaire falls hopelessly in thrall of a demanding dominatrix. He buys a mansion for her and her coworkers and they put him through every imaginable torture. Antrews' other bdsm novels include Rogues' Gallery which is a nice tale of a couple discovering the joys of bdsm together and Legacies in which he tries his hand at a male-dominant novel. His latest book (May 2000) is The 43rd Mistress: A Sensual Odyssey.

Originally reprinted by Grove Press in the 1970s, this 1902 English novel tells the story of "Frank," a beautiful, boarding school runaway. Pretending to be a boy, she is taken in by a wealthy aristocrat who discovers her true gender the first he pulls down her trousers to administer a well-deserved spanking. Further spankings, canings, and Victorian-style discipline follow as Frank and her master travel the world to sample its sensual and painful delights. This novel remains one of the best of this genre and continues to be imitated by current writers trying to capture its Victorian charm. 

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This republished British underground novel first appeared in 1907. Like many of its anonymously authored compatriots, it still holds up well today and will be popular with those who like Victorian settings. It recounts the sexual adventures of Cecil Prendergast, a student at Oxford,who falls under the spell of the domineering and alluring Muriel Harcourt. What marks it apart from the many similar Victorian-era novels (apart from the greater amount of sex), is that while Cecil eagerly submits to Harcourt, she also trains him to be a top and brings several young women to Cecil for much needed discipline. 

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After two novels (The Trainer and The Academy) that failed to measure up to their predecessors (The Marketplace and The Slave), Laura Antoniou is back at the top of her game. Already the best SM novelist of her generation, Antoniou has produced a masterpiece that is a joy to read and that sets a new standard for SM fiction. Typical for her work, she tells the story from the viewpoints of a rainbow coalition of characters with differing genders, orientations, and ethnicities, and uses the story to present her ideas on consensual slavery and SM relationships. In seventy short chapters that switch viewpoints seamlessly from character to character, Antoniou develops a sophisticated, multithreaded plot with a variety and quantity of sex scenes that should satisfy every taste. Two characters from previous novels, Chris Parker and Robin Cassidy, play prominent roles in the plot, but the other dozen well-developed characters are new. Hopefully they will return in future books, particularly the charming Nicole MacKensie.

There are a few minor problems with the book (particularly its copy editing and printing), but to enumerate them would be nitpicking of the worst sort. The simple fact is that no one has written an SM novel of this sophistication since the Story of O. Unlike Reage's classic, though, Antoniou transcends the genre and offers more than just erotic pleasure. The Reunion is a challenging novel with remarkable insight that would be worth reading even without its expertly presented (and hot) sex scenes. It is a must read.

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A woman's first person account of her discovery of bdsm and the joys of female domination. Despite being translated from French, her writing is beautiful and evocative. The author moves through a series of bdsm milleaus and relationships. Her descriptions of New York's old, now defunct bdsm clubs is particularly good. Unfortunately she often writes about her submissive men with the same detatchment as many professional dominatrices. SS&C purists will likely be offended by her disregard of common safety precautions in some of her scenes. In the most extreme of these she stabs one of her subs in the thigh and he has to be rushed to the hospital. She gives an interesting description of several of New York's old, and now defunct, bdsm clubs. 

Jeanne de Berg is a pseudonym for Catherine Robbe-Grillet, as is Jean de Berg under which Robbe-Grillet wrote The Image, an SM classic made into a movie by Radley Metzger.

This novel is set in the post-catastrophe world Califia loves so much. Civiliation has not collapsed, but it has retreated from large stretches of the United States, providing room for motorcycle gangs and other outlaw groups to strut their stuff. Dystopian is really not an accurate description as the protagonists do meet with a reasonably happy ending, though the world they inhabit is certainly grim. 

When first released, a number of critics complained about the graphic violence in this book, but none could dispute that it was superbly written. The story follows a butch, lesbian biker and her aptly named side-kick through a series adventures that include shoot-outs, rape, torture, human sacrifice, pagan spirituality, messy break-ups, and a lot of kinky, often violent sex. As always, Califia makes her political points, but never to the detrement of the story. This should probably not be your first taste of Califia's fiction. Try her short stories first. 

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Not to be confused with the book of the same title by Guy Baldwin. This novel is modeled on the Story of O and purports to be the true story of a French woman's bdsm experiences. The author was killed in car accident shorly after its publication, so we are unlikely ever to know the truth. Like O, the protagonist of Ties That Bind probes deeper and deeper into her submissive desires, though unlike the Story of O this novel is set within a more realistic bdsm community. The sex scenes are quite good, though the narrative linking them could have used some work. Despite the constant comparisons, it does not equal the Story of O in literary quality, but it does rise above the vast majority of bdsm fiction. 
  

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Sara French, Master of Timberland
(Masquerade, 1992), paperback, 308 pages, $6.95

This is a surprisingly good novel that I wish I had read long ago. Set at a bdsm resort, this novel follows the adventures of a new group of slaves who have sold their services to the establishment for a year-long contract. The short chapters move the story along well, and make the book good bedtime reading. While primarily focusing on the tale of newly-enslaved Sara, the book alternates viewpoints with her master. Sara is trained strictly and her punishments are quick and often inventive. The sex and bdsm scenes (of which there are a lot) are quite good, and actually plausible. The cliffhanger ending to set up the sequel (Return to Timberland) is a bit of a disappointment, but this book is far, far better than most of the bdsm erotica that is being churned out these days. While SS&C strictures are followed throughout, the author manages this subtlety and they do not disturb the flow of the book.

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This is the first in a rapidly growing series of well-written spanking novels. Set in the small, New England town of Random Point, all offer the fairly typical scenarios of bad girls who need to be spanked by strong men. Four women, all good friends, all manage to find men to give them the spankings they so desperately need. Damaris gets spanked by a police officer; Laura gets a surprise birthday spanking; Susan gets spanked by her boyfriend; and so on. If you're into spanking without all the leather, chains, whips, and other sm equipment, these books are for you. 

The women's stories continue in:

Shadow Lane II: Return to Random Point
Shadow Lane III: The Romance of Discipline
Shadow Lane IV: Chronicles of Random Point
Shadow Lane V: The Spanking Persuasion

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The Darker Passions: Fall of the House of Usher (out of print) 
The Darker Passions: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde  
The Darker Passions: Dracula (1996) 
The Darker Passions: Dorian Gray (1996) 
The Darker Passions: Frankenstein (1998) 
The Darker Passions: The Pit and the Pendulum (1998)
The Darker Passions: Carmilla (1998)

If you are not sure they're for you, The Darker Passions Reader is a collection of some the best parts from earlier in the series. In The Pit and the Pendulum, Poe's pit is turned into a chamber of sensual delight for bdsm play. Carmilla is her retelling of Sheridan LeFanu's original horror story. 
 

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Anonymous (Richard Manton), The Captive
(Blue Moon, 1996), paperback, 160 pages, $7.95

Despite being set in the modern era, this popular novel is written in the same pseudo-Victorian style as too many recent bdsm novels. The writing isn't too bad, but it is rife with Blue Moon's usual minor grammatical and editorial errors. A wealthy English gentleman pays to have the object of his affections (Caroline) kidnapped and trained as his sex slave by a mysterious organization named Rio 9. The novel focuses almost entirely on Caroline's training. Despite a lot of forced sex, the bdsm sequences are relatively mild and accompanied by lots of pseudo-Victorian dialogue such as: "You beast, you brute, . . . oh, no, not my panties," etc. The later books in the series continue the story of Rio 9 and its kidnapping and training exploits. Each tells the story of a new victim rather than continuing a slave's story after her training. Manton has written numerous other pseudo-Victorian erotic novels apart from this series. The other books in the Captive series are:

The Captive II
The Captive III: The Perfumed Trap
Captive IV: The Eyes Behind the Mask
The Captive V: The Soundproof Dream

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Scott's first book tells the story of a woman who presents herself to her husband as his bdsm plaything. Unlike many bdsm novels, it makes no pretense at being a recounting of true events. The strong opening is followed by a recounting of the couple's sex games which include lots of bondage and several mock rapes. Scott's writing is considerably better than most of what is published in this genre. 

In her second book, His Mistress's Voice (1997), Scott explores female dominance. Dominatrix Harriet Jones accepts Tom, a bdsm novice, for traiing and shows him the usual joys of bondage, pain, humiliation, and cross-dressing. Scott flips this situation in her third novel, Their Master's Voice (1998). Tom finds Harriet all tied up and has his way with her. He decides he likes being top better than bottom and spends a lot of time tying up Katya, one of Harriet's other submissives. 

In Travels with a Whip (2002), a vacationing female business executive discovers the joys of submission. Whip Hand (2002) features a male submissive and continues the story from House Rules.