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La masochista
Vigilia di Natale del 1874. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch lascia la sua dimora austriaca per l’ignoto, salvo ricomparire dalla foresta di Lemberg, l’attuale Leopoli, portando con sé una neonata dalla capigliatura fiammeggiante. “La masochista” è la storia di Nadežda Moser, della donna che diventerà questa bambina lupo, personaggio immaginario calato in un formidabile cast di figure reali e che tiene testa a Freud, gira al largo da Klimt, ammira Gustav e Alma Mahler, ridicolizza Rilke, e di tanto in tanto, quando la pressione familiare o esterna supera il limite di guardia, perde l’uso della parola… Una riflessione audace e brillante sui confini del desiderio e della libertà femminile, sullo sfondo delle tensioni etniche, di classe e di genere di un impero non ancora consapevole del proprio declino.
240 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2018
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October 10, 2020
The latest from Istros Books, The Masochist is Michael Biggins' translation of Katja Perat's Mazohistka, originally published in Slovene in May 2018, her debut novel after two collections of poetry (see here for some samples https://www.versopolis-poetry.com/poe...).
A sample translation of the opening by Olivia Hellewell won Asymptote's Close Approximations prize: https://www.asymptotejournal.com/spec... although Hellewell instead translated another Slovenian novel, The Fig Tree from Goran Vojnović's original, also just out from Istros.
The Masochist is set in the fin de siècle Habsburg Empire and is narrated by Nadezhda Moser, a fictional daughter of the real-life Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, from whose writing and life his contemporary, the Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing, derived the term 'masochism', to Sacher-Masoch's disapproval. von Krafft-Ebing explained in his book Psychopathia Sexualis:
In the fictional world of the novel, Nadezhda was discovered by Sacher-Masoch as an abandoned baby in the woods - his own explanations of exactly what happened vary and verge on myth - brought up by him and often presented in society as a 'wild child' as if she had spent years rather than hours alone.
Upon mention of my family name, he first recalled the old police chief; a good man he was, he said, and then his son, who—so he’d heard—had become a writer.
“And a fantasist, if I’m not mistaken?” he said, tending to a glass. "Only a man who has never truly taken a beating can afford to dream of being whipped by women in furs. You’re nothing like him.”
What he wanted to say was: Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was a revolting man, while you are rather pleasant. Are you convinced that you are his daughter?
Though strictly speaking it wasn’t true, Leopold loved to indulge himself at every possible opportunity to tell the tale of his wolf-child.
This is Nada, my wolf-child, he said, and so he would say until it stuck, until everyone who knew him knew that he had, and was raising, a wolf-child. Given that he found me at barely a day old, there’s not a chance I could have grown up in the cellar of some madman with Carpathian natives or wolves, but why would people trouble themselves with the facts, when fiction is so much more enticing?
(from the Hellewell translation)
The novel begins in Lemberg where she lives with her father and his latest lover, a maid, but much is set after his death when Nadezhda moves to Vienna following a, ultimately rather loveless, marriage. Those she encounters in Vienna include a number of cameos from real-life figures of the period, artist Gustav Klimt and his companion, the fashion-designer Emilie Flöge, Adele Bloch-Bauer, a model for Klimt and her banker husband Ferdinand, the married composers Gustav and Alma Mahler, Theodor Herzl, father of modern Zionism and the writer Rainer Maria Rilke, and indeed at the novel's end in Trieste, Nadezhda mistakes for a drunk another writer, called James with a daughter Lucia. And most notably Sigmund Freud, indeed if much of Nadezhda's analysis of her own love life, and her relationship with her father, could be described as Freudian, it is because in the novel Freud serves as her psychologist and a significant character in his own right.
Overall, I found this an interest novel but one that I couldn't make cohere, in particular the relationship between the fascinating set-up (wolf-child daughter of the original masochist), the cast of real-life artistic and society figures and the background of the late Austro-Hungarian empire, and the story itself (which I see a number of reviewers have compared to Emma Bovary), somehow didn't quite come together for me.
The author's own google translated take is here, which certainly reveals subtle layers to the novel which I missed - for example the relationship between masochism and the Habsburg Empire for example which she compares to that drawn by John Noyes to the relationship with apartheid in his The Mastery of Submission: Inventions of Masochism.
So a three star read for me - but one I'd urge others to explore for themselves.
A sample translation of the opening by Olivia Hellewell won Asymptote's Close Approximations prize: https://www.asymptotejournal.com/spec... although Hellewell instead translated another Slovenian novel, The Fig Tree from Goran Vojnović's original, also just out from Istros.
The Masochist is set in the fin de siècle Habsburg Empire and is narrated by Nadezhda Moser, a fictional daughter of the real-life Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, from whose writing and life his contemporary, the Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing, derived the term 'masochism', to Sacher-Masoch's disapproval. von Krafft-Ebing explained in his book Psychopathia Sexualis:
I feel justified in calling this sexual anomaly "Masochism", because the author Sacher-Masoch frequently made this perversion, which up to his time was quite unknown to the scientific world as such, the substratum of his writings. I followed thereby the scientific formation of the term "Daltonism", from Dalton, the discoverer of colour-blindness.
During recent years facts have been advanced which prove that Sacher-Masoch was not only the poet of Masochism, but that he himself was afflicted with the anomaly. Although these proofs were communicated to me without restriction, I refrain from giving them to the public. I refute the accusation that "I have coupled the name of a revered author with a perversion of the sexual instinct", which has been made against me by some admirers of the author and by some critics of my book. As a man, Sacher-Masoch cannot lose anything in the estimation of his cultured fellow-beings simply because he was afflicted with an anomaly of his sexual feelings. As an author, he suffered severe injury so far as the influence and intrinsic merit of his work is concerned, for so long and whenever he eliminated his perversion from his literary efforts he was a gifted writer, and as such would have achieved real greatness had he been actuated by normally sexual feelings.
In the fictional world of the novel, Nadezhda was discovered by Sacher-Masoch as an abandoned baby in the woods - his own explanations of exactly what happened vary and verge on myth - brought up by him and often presented in society as a 'wild child' as if she had spent years rather than hours alone.
Upon mention of my family name, he first recalled the old police chief; a good man he was, he said, and then his son, who—so he’d heard—had become a writer.
“And a fantasist, if I’m not mistaken?” he said, tending to a glass. "Only a man who has never truly taken a beating can afford to dream of being whipped by women in furs. You’re nothing like him.”
What he wanted to say was: Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was a revolting man, while you are rather pleasant. Are you convinced that you are his daughter?
Though strictly speaking it wasn’t true, Leopold loved to indulge himself at every possible opportunity to tell the tale of his wolf-child.
This is Nada, my wolf-child, he said, and so he would say until it stuck, until everyone who knew him knew that he had, and was raising, a wolf-child. Given that he found me at barely a day old, there’s not a chance I could have grown up in the cellar of some madman with Carpathian natives or wolves, but why would people trouble themselves with the facts, when fiction is so much more enticing?
(from the Hellewell translation)
The novel begins in Lemberg where she lives with her father and his latest lover, a maid, but much is set after his death when Nadezhda moves to Vienna following a, ultimately rather loveless, marriage. Those she encounters in Vienna include a number of cameos from real-life figures of the period, artist Gustav Klimt and his companion, the fashion-designer Emilie Flöge, Adele Bloch-Bauer, a model for Klimt and her banker husband Ferdinand, the married composers Gustav and Alma Mahler, Theodor Herzl, father of modern Zionism and the writer Rainer Maria Rilke, and indeed at the novel's end in Trieste, Nadezhda mistakes for a drunk another writer, called James with a daughter Lucia. And most notably Sigmund Freud, indeed if much of Nadezhda's analysis of her own love life, and her relationship with her father, could be described as Freudian, it is because in the novel Freud serves as her psychologist and a significant character in his own right.
Overall, I found this an interest novel but one that I couldn't make cohere, in particular the relationship between the fascinating set-up (wolf-child daughter of the original masochist), the cast of real-life artistic and society figures and the background of the late Austro-Hungarian empire, and the story itself (which I see a number of reviewers have compared to Emma Bovary), somehow didn't quite come together for me.
The author's own google translated take is here, which certainly reveals subtle layers to the novel which I missed - for example the relationship between masochism and the Habsburg Empire for example which she compares to that drawn by John Noyes to the relationship with apartheid in his The Mastery of Submission: Inventions of Masochism.
So a three star read for me - but one I'd urge others to explore for themselves.
April 8, 2022
Longlisted for Dublin Literary Award 2022
I read the Slovenian edition, so maybe I can’t speak accurately for the translated version.
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian nobleman and writer. Word masochism derives from his name. This novel presumes he adopted a little girl and named her Nadezhda. This is her story.
Nadezhda is a fictional character among real historical figures. The story takes place in Austro-Hungarian Empire, more accurately in Lemberg (present Lviv in Ukraine), Vienna, and Trieste from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Besides Leopold, Nadezhda meets a few other historical figures, like Sigmund Freud, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others. I noted some during my reading and missed a few.
Nadezhda is not necessarily the most loveable character. She is not perfect and is quite an inactive person. She represents a woman of the noble class, and this is her look on love and life.
This novel is full of long and sometimes a bit complex sentences. You may have to read some of them twice. But despite that, words and sentences flow easily. For me, it was still a very readable book. I often stopped to reread the same sentence just because I found it beautiful and cleverly done.
A well-researched novel that I am sure will not satisfy all readers. But some might find this a historical and literary gem.
I read the Slovenian edition, so maybe I can’t speak accurately for the translated version.
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian nobleman and writer. Word masochism derives from his name. This novel presumes he adopted a little girl and named her Nadezhda. This is her story.
Nadezhda is a fictional character among real historical figures. The story takes place in Austro-Hungarian Empire, more accurately in Lemberg (present Lviv in Ukraine), Vienna, and Trieste from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Besides Leopold, Nadezhda meets a few other historical figures, like Sigmund Freud, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others. I noted some during my reading and missed a few.
Nadezhda is not necessarily the most loveable character. She is not perfect and is quite an inactive person. She represents a woman of the noble class, and this is her look on love and life.
This novel is full of long and sometimes a bit complex sentences. You may have to read some of them twice. But despite that, words and sentences flow easily. For me, it was still a very readable book. I often stopped to reread the same sentence just because I found it beautiful and cleverly done.
A well-researched novel that I am sure will not satisfy all readers. But some might find this a historical and literary gem.
August 24, 2021
Необично написан, али веома добар роман, који анализира да жена може бити срећна у браку једино ако су јој обезбеђени исти услови као и мушкарцу. Све остало је, једноставно, мазохизам.
August 4, 2021
I loved this book, which I read for Women in Translation month. Istros Press is one of my favorite indie presses.
Written in first person, almost like a diary, Nadezjda Moser, the fictional adopted daughter of the real Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, narrates her life in the Habsburg Empire at the end of the 19th century. Most of the story takes place in Vienna where Nada lives with her nobleman husband and where she socializes with the cultural elite, famous herself as the daughter of the famous masochist.
Nada’s critical observations on the stars of the period: Gustav Mahler, Gustav Klimt, Rilke, and the Princess von Thurn and Taxis, and others are quite funny, but what gives the book its depth is Nada’s enduring effort to understand her father and his contradictions as well as her own, and to create an authentic life for herself in a world where chauvinism prevents women from living as free beings, the equal of men, an effort which includes several sessions of psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud.
Intelligently written, funny, smart, well paced, moving and thoughtful. I strongly recommended this book.
Written in first person, almost like a diary, Nadezjda Moser, the fictional adopted daughter of the real Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, narrates her life in the Habsburg Empire at the end of the 19th century. Most of the story takes place in Vienna where Nada lives with her nobleman husband and where she socializes with the cultural elite, famous herself as the daughter of the famous masochist.
Nada’s critical observations on the stars of the period: Gustav Mahler, Gustav Klimt, Rilke, and the Princess von Thurn and Taxis, and others are quite funny, but what gives the book its depth is Nada’s enduring effort to understand her father and his contradictions as well as her own, and to create an authentic life for herself in a world where chauvinism prevents women from living as free beings, the equal of men, an effort which includes several sessions of psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud.
Intelligently written, funny, smart, well paced, moving and thoughtful. I strongly recommended this book.
March 11, 2022
Ni 3, ni 4, ali zbog pojedinih junakinjinih misli koje kao da su izašle iz moje glave, idu 4⭐! I da mi ostane na umu da gdje god da odem, ne mogu pobjeći od sebe!
February 18, 2023
Видавництво Пінзель - прекрасна знахідка цього року для мене. Дуже яскраві твори.
"Мазохістка" Каті Перат, не зважаючи на свою провокативну назву і обкладинку укр.видання (погугліть, бо тут не додано), є глибоким психологічним модерністським романом про місце та відчуття жінки накрикінці ХІХ і початку ХХ ст. в Австро-Угорській імперії.
Відень, Лемберг, Трієст; богемне модерне середовище наших героїв - Захер-Мазох, Фройд, Клімт, подружжя Малерів, Емілія Фльоґе, Герцель, Рільке, навіть Джойс.
Ще одне переосмислення історії Мадам Боварі.
"Мазохістка" Каті Перат, не зважаючи на свою провокативну назву і обкладинку укр.видання (погугліть, бо тут не додано), є глибоким психологічним модерністським романом про місце та відчуття жінки накрикінці ХІХ і початку ХХ ст. в Австро-Угорській імперії.
Відень, Лемберг, Трієст; богемне модерне середовище наших героїв - Захер-Мазох, Фройд, Клімт, подружжя Малерів, Емілія Фльоґе, Герцель, Рільке, навіть Джойс.
Ще одне переосмислення історії Мадам Боварі.
August 2, 2018
Romani, ki so pisani v konformistični tendenci po zadovoljitvi kapric kritiških sit, težko najdejo mesto na polici slovenskega bralstva. Naslov in renome pesnice veliko obetata, a na žalost roman razočara. Na trenutke klišejski zapleti, šibka dialoškost, nekega pravega vrhunca ni niti za zaslediti, v (ne)idealiziranih postranskih likih je - preveč avtorice. Četudi je zgodba postavljena v dunajsko moderno(st), (samo)pogovori junakinje s Freudom, "henganje" (ki to ni) z Rilkejem, bi se roman lahko odvijal v katerikoli srednjeevropski prestolnici še dandanes. Morda pa se je mentaliteta srednjeevropskega človeka tedaj le zavila v novodobno in neskončno trajajoče zapečkarstvo?
July 17, 2019
Ni slaba tale knjiga. Sicer gostobesedna, ampak vseeno berljiva zgodba o malomeščanski "Emmi Bovary" slovanskih korenin, ki išče smisel o sebi, svetu, moških in ljubezni.
November 2, 2020
For anyone with an interest in and love for Viennese Modernism, this novel is a must - apparently light in tone, with fictional cameos for many of the greats of the movement: Mahler, Klimt - and his lovers and models - Rilke, Joyce (though wittily not named), and longer appearances for Freud and of course Sacher-Masoch, but with deeper resonances of the period.
Marjorie Perloff, in her study of Austrian Modernism 'Edge of Irony' argues that it was distinct from the Modernisms of Germany, France, Italy and Anglo-America; formally traditional but with a radical irony resulting from the peculiar stress of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire, the sense of estrangement and loss, homelessness, at its collapse - and sensed well before it, it was shaped by writers from the geographical fringes, whose first languages were not German but for whom Austro-German was a linguistic home. So its appropriate that this novel of High Viennese Modernism should come from a Slovenian poet, from what would have been the margins of the Habsburg Empire, and that her narrator, Nada (Nadezhda) should likewise be found, literally, on the margins, only later taken by her husband to Vienna itself, her adoptive father being exiled from city.
The portrait of Vienna given is convincing, the details spot on. An example: after spending the afternoon with her lover in the Hotel Masoch, Nada arrives home to find her husband impatiently waiting for her to accompany him to a concert. It's a performance of Schonberg's string sextet Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night), which has Nada shedding unobserved tears by the end. The sextet is programmatic, based on a poem by Dehmel which portrays a couple, lovers, walking through woodland under a cold moon, as the woman confesses to her lover that she is carrying a child which is not his; his forgiveness is what transfigures the night. The emotional effect is understandable and significant, and the detail well done.
The 'radical irony' revolves around the question of the eponymous masochist. Sacher-Masoch is observed at length by Nada through her childhood and early maturity, with all his faults and strengths, but there are hints that the masochist is Nada herself, apparently locked into socially determined relationships as an outsider, dependent on her husband. There is a scene late in the novel in which her exasperated husband attempts rape, leading to a scuffle between them which is ambiguously sexual, after which she agrees to forego the divorce she was seeking and continue as his wife. However, the novel makes clear that Masoch himself, in his relationships with the 'women in furs' by whom he is whipped, is very much in control, the women carefully selected by him, provided by him with the furs - he is in charge, as he is in his marriages. And the same is true of Nada - she gets what she wants out of the non-divorce deal: financial support and independent solitude. Previously, she had embarked on an adulterous relationship with a Jewish journalist with trepidation but no scruples, had agreed to analysis by Freud but retains her scepticism of his judgments, and ends the analysis when she decides to. It seems from the novel that that highly sexualized society, as portrayed by the paintings of Klimt, the writings of Schnitzler, in the atmosphere that made Vienna 'the laboratory for the end of the world', was open to exploitation by both sexes; that her belated coming of age was possible - but leaves her in voluntary exile in Trieste, on the very edge of empire, and the edge of irony.
Marjorie Perloff, in her study of Austrian Modernism 'Edge of Irony' argues that it was distinct from the Modernisms of Germany, France, Italy and Anglo-America; formally traditional but with a radical irony resulting from the peculiar stress of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire, the sense of estrangement and loss, homelessness, at its collapse - and sensed well before it, it was shaped by writers from the geographical fringes, whose first languages were not German but for whom Austro-German was a linguistic home. So its appropriate that this novel of High Viennese Modernism should come from a Slovenian poet, from what would have been the margins of the Habsburg Empire, and that her narrator, Nada (Nadezhda) should likewise be found, literally, on the margins, only later taken by her husband to Vienna itself, her adoptive father being exiled from city.
The portrait of Vienna given is convincing, the details spot on. An example: after spending the afternoon with her lover in the Hotel Masoch, Nada arrives home to find her husband impatiently waiting for her to accompany him to a concert. It's a performance of Schonberg's string sextet Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night), which has Nada shedding unobserved tears by the end. The sextet is programmatic, based on a poem by Dehmel which portrays a couple, lovers, walking through woodland under a cold moon, as the woman confesses to her lover that she is carrying a child which is not his; his forgiveness is what transfigures the night. The emotional effect is understandable and significant, and the detail well done.
The 'radical irony' revolves around the question of the eponymous masochist. Sacher-Masoch is observed at length by Nada through her childhood and early maturity, with all his faults and strengths, but there are hints that the masochist is Nada herself, apparently locked into socially determined relationships as an outsider, dependent on her husband. There is a scene late in the novel in which her exasperated husband attempts rape, leading to a scuffle between them which is ambiguously sexual, after which she agrees to forego the divorce she was seeking and continue as his wife. However, the novel makes clear that Masoch himself, in his relationships with the 'women in furs' by whom he is whipped, is very much in control, the women carefully selected by him, provided by him with the furs - he is in charge, as he is in his marriages. And the same is true of Nada - she gets what she wants out of the non-divorce deal: financial support and independent solitude. Previously, she had embarked on an adulterous relationship with a Jewish journalist with trepidation but no scruples, had agreed to analysis by Freud but retains her scepticism of his judgments, and ends the analysis when she decides to. It seems from the novel that that highly sexualized society, as portrayed by the paintings of Klimt, the writings of Schnitzler, in the atmosphere that made Vienna 'the laboratory for the end of the world', was open to exploitation by both sexes; that her belated coming of age was possible - but leaves her in voluntary exile in Trieste, on the very edge of empire, and the edge of irony.
January 22, 2021
Like a lot of people who gravitate towards alternative music, the name Leopold von Sacher-Masoch is synonymous with The Velevet Underground’s Venus in Furs , which is based on the book of the same name by said author, which is a semi-autobiographical account of being a sexual slave, which gave birth to the term Masochist. However, to clear things Sacher-Masoch did not like the term and although he had his fetishes he championed Ukrainian folklore, women’s rights and was against antisemitism.
Katja Perat’s The masochist, is not a biography of him, but his spirit looms in the book through a fictional character. Here Katja Perat creates an adopted daughter, Nadezhda, who Sacher-Masoch finds in a forest as a girl and his story is told by her. At the same time this is more Nadezhda’s tale and Sacher-Masoch is both a main character and bystander in the book.
Nadezhda first speaks about her love/hate relationship with her step-father, mostly due to his infidelities. Later on she marries Maximilian, whom she does not love and has an affair with Jakob, whom she does love. Thus her life is now mirroring her father’s. Eventually this leads to a duel between Jakob and Maximilian. With consequences. Along the journey Nadezhda encounters a lot of famous characters at the time Mahler, Klimt,Princess Thurn und Taxis (as a Crying of Lot 49 fan, I did enjoy reading about her) and she even goes to Freud to be analysed.
The ultimate message of the book is about true love. What is it? does it involve unhappiness, how does one achieve it? are there risks involved? hence the reason why Nadezhda seeks out Freud and her accidental meetings with Krafft-Ebing (the psychiatrist who coined the term masochist) which make her think the roots lie within her father but although their lives criss-cross she knows there’s something deeper. Finally Nadezhda realises what she has to do to achieve true love but there is a cost.
The Masochist may seem like a fun historical romp but I found it a rich complex novel. It’s full of symbolism and metaphor, plus a few twists thrown in which keep the reader guessing. It is a book that will remain with you long after reading it. The Masochist is unforgettable and also, a big thanks to Istros for pushing this English translation, the original language being Slovenian, out into a wider audience.
Katja Perat’s The masochist, is not a biography of him, but his spirit looms in the book through a fictional character. Here Katja Perat creates an adopted daughter, Nadezhda, who Sacher-Masoch finds in a forest as a girl and his story is told by her. At the same time this is more Nadezhda’s tale and Sacher-Masoch is both a main character and bystander in the book.
Nadezhda first speaks about her love/hate relationship with her step-father, mostly due to his infidelities. Later on she marries Maximilian, whom she does not love and has an affair with Jakob, whom she does love. Thus her life is now mirroring her father’s. Eventually this leads to a duel between Jakob and Maximilian. With consequences. Along the journey Nadezhda encounters a lot of famous characters at the time Mahler, Klimt,Princess Thurn und Taxis (as a Crying of Lot 49 fan, I did enjoy reading about her) and she even goes to Freud to be analysed.
The ultimate message of the book is about true love. What is it? does it involve unhappiness, how does one achieve it? are there risks involved? hence the reason why Nadezhda seeks out Freud and her accidental meetings with Krafft-Ebing (the psychiatrist who coined the term masochist) which make her think the roots lie within her father but although their lives criss-cross she knows there’s something deeper. Finally Nadezhda realises what she has to do to achieve true love but there is a cost.
The Masochist may seem like a fun historical romp but I found it a rich complex novel. It’s full of symbolism and metaphor, plus a few twists thrown in which keep the reader guessing. It is a book that will remain with you long after reading it. The Masochist is unforgettable and also, a big thanks to Istros for pushing this English translation, the original language being Slovenian, out into a wider audience.
December 13, 2019
Na prvem mestu je ta knjiga težavna za branje. Slog je težak, z dolgimi, zapletenimi povedmi.
Kar me je prav tako zmotilo, pravzaprav že na začetku knjige, je, kako angleški deluje jezik. Že v prvi povedi, če sem natančen. Uporaba besed in fraz je pogosto neprimerna in v slovenščini obstaja elegantnejše ubesedenje.
Še zadnja od solistični primakljajev, je odsotnost narekovajev v premem govoru. Zato je pogosto težko razločiti, kaj je kdo izgovoril, in kaj je del notranjega monologa.
Iz teh treh razlogov mora bralec mnogo povedi večkrat prebrati, da razumem, kaj je avtorica z njimi želela povedati. To pa prekine tok branja.
Roman je napisan kot notranji monolog glavne osebe, Nadežde. V prikazu le tega je avtorica uspela, saj protagonistkinja izpade kot resnična, dasiravno nadlezna, oseba.
Zgodba je koherentna in vsaj malo zanimiva.
Iz teh razlogov si delo zasluži oceno 2.
Kar me je prav tako zmotilo, pravzaprav že na začetku knjige, je, kako angleški deluje jezik. Že v prvi povedi, če sem natančen. Uporaba besed in fraz je pogosto neprimerna in v slovenščini obstaja elegantnejše ubesedenje.
Še zadnja od solistični primakljajev, je odsotnost narekovajev v premem govoru. Zato je pogosto težko razločiti, kaj je kdo izgovoril, in kaj je del notranjega monologa.
Iz teh treh razlogov mora bralec mnogo povedi večkrat prebrati, da razumem, kaj je avtorica z njimi želela povedati. To pa prekine tok branja.
Roman je napisan kot notranji monolog glavne osebe, Nadežde. V prikazu le tega je avtorica uspela, saj protagonistkinja izpade kot resnična, dasiravno nadlezna, oseba.
Zgodba je koherentna in vsaj malo zanimiva.
Iz teh razlogov si delo zasluži oceno 2.
July 19, 2023
The Masochist, written by Slovenian poet and essayist Katja Perat and translated into English by Michael Biggins, is recommended to our readers by Ljubljana UNESCO City of Literature.
A graduate of Philosophy and Comparative Literature, Perat is recognised as one of the leading poetic voices of her generation in Slovenia. Her debut novel, The Masochist displays the sort of brilliant yet somehow raw ambition that is at once compelling and demanding.
Compelling, because the first-person narrator Nadezhda is an honest and forthright character calling for immediate and undivided attention to her complex and often self-contradictory life.
Nadezhda is supposedly a “wild child” abandoned in a winter forest in 1874 and later found and adopted by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the Austrian writer whom history would remember as the original and most famous masochist.
As we follow Nadezhda’s journey of self-discovery – or rather, one of self-administered psychoanalysis of “who she has learned she truly is” as compared to “what she thinks she truly wants to be” – we get a glimpse of the early-20th century upper-class Vienna that was known for luminaries such as Gustav Klimt and his models Adele Bloch-Bauer and Emilie Flöge, Sigmund Freud, Gastav and Alina Mahler, Theodor Herzl, Rainer Maria Rilke, and even James Joyce.
While Nadezhda deconstructs our long-stereotyped perceptions of these historical figures, she also manages to challenge a series of deep-rooted “rules” of female thoughts and behaviours that have long been imposed by both men and women. Interestingly, it is Nadezhda’s observation of her self-imposed martyrdom under the tyranny of these “rules” that reminds her the most of her adopted father.
As a result, in her disappointing marriage and disastrous extramarital affair, Nadezhda recognises and embraces the fact that she is as much a hypocrite as those around her. This gives her peace, as well as freedom from the mysterious loss of her voice – a health crisis that nevertheless allows her to examine her life instead of merely experiencing it.
With that said – and as much as Nadezhda’s narrative is ultimately a rewarding read – The Masochist demands the sort of patient devotion that some readers have cited as a reason why they don’t read translated literature while others thoroughly and unyieldingly enjoys it.
While Biggins’s English translation exhibits a candidness that well reflects Nadezhda’s character – a witty and energetic woman who is not satisfied of being a product of her time and who has worked hard to earn peace with her tumultuous personal development and emotional maturation – it often contains long sentences requiring diligent care to decipher.
It is worth the efforts, though, as in the case of The Masochist the translation assists rather than hinders our understanding of the troubled mind that is Nadezhda. While any individual’s life story cannot and should not be allowed to be easy and entertaining, we are grateful for this opportunity to engage in a faithful exploration of a woman’s heart conditioned as much by her own desire for discipline as for liberation.
Note: This book review was originally published under the title “Demanding yet rewarding” by Ranges Trader Star Mail, March 14, 2023, P.16.
A graduate of Philosophy and Comparative Literature, Perat is recognised as one of the leading poetic voices of her generation in Slovenia. Her debut novel, The Masochist displays the sort of brilliant yet somehow raw ambition that is at once compelling and demanding.
Compelling, because the first-person narrator Nadezhda is an honest and forthright character calling for immediate and undivided attention to her complex and often self-contradictory life.
Nadezhda is supposedly a “wild child” abandoned in a winter forest in 1874 and later found and adopted by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the Austrian writer whom history would remember as the original and most famous masochist.
As we follow Nadezhda’s journey of self-discovery – or rather, one of self-administered psychoanalysis of “who she has learned she truly is” as compared to “what she thinks she truly wants to be” – we get a glimpse of the early-20th century upper-class Vienna that was known for luminaries such as Gustav Klimt and his models Adele Bloch-Bauer and Emilie Flöge, Sigmund Freud, Gastav and Alina Mahler, Theodor Herzl, Rainer Maria Rilke, and even James Joyce.
While Nadezhda deconstructs our long-stereotyped perceptions of these historical figures, she also manages to challenge a series of deep-rooted “rules” of female thoughts and behaviours that have long been imposed by both men and women. Interestingly, it is Nadezhda’s observation of her self-imposed martyrdom under the tyranny of these “rules” that reminds her the most of her adopted father.
As a result, in her disappointing marriage and disastrous extramarital affair, Nadezhda recognises and embraces the fact that she is as much a hypocrite as those around her. This gives her peace, as well as freedom from the mysterious loss of her voice – a health crisis that nevertheless allows her to examine her life instead of merely experiencing it.
With that said – and as much as Nadezhda’s narrative is ultimately a rewarding read – The Masochist demands the sort of patient devotion that some readers have cited as a reason why they don’t read translated literature while others thoroughly and unyieldingly enjoys it.
While Biggins’s English translation exhibits a candidness that well reflects Nadezhda’s character – a witty and energetic woman who is not satisfied of being a product of her time and who has worked hard to earn peace with her tumultuous personal development and emotional maturation – it often contains long sentences requiring diligent care to decipher.
It is worth the efforts, though, as in the case of The Masochist the translation assists rather than hinders our understanding of the troubled mind that is Nadezhda. While any individual’s life story cannot and should not be allowed to be easy and entertaining, we are grateful for this opportunity to engage in a faithful exploration of a woman’s heart conditioned as much by her own desire for discipline as for liberation.
Note: This book review was originally published under the title “Demanding yet rewarding” by Ranges Trader Star Mail, March 14, 2023, P.16.
August 3, 2025
«Volevo amare come gli uomini amano le donne. Essere io a scegliere, essere io ad assegnare al mio amante un valore che di per sé poteva anche non avere affatto, io ad ammirare la bellezza del suo corpo come se fosse un'opera esposta in una mostra, e ad attribuirle una dimensione metafisica».
La masochista è un romanzo storico, ambientato primariamente nella Vienna di fine Ottocento e narrato in prima persona da uno dei personaggi più coinvolgenti che mi siano capitati di recente. E' un libro brillante, mai noioso, mai banale pur nella banalità della trama: una donna orfana, la cui infanzia è dominata da un eccentrico e ingombrante padre adottivo, in gioventù sposa un uomo che non ama e lo tradisce (e va in terapia da Freud). Non c'è niente di particolarmente rivoluzionario, eppure la raffinatezza della scrittura e delle introspezioni che sgorgano in maniera spontanea all'interno della narrazione rendono questo libro uno dei migliori che abbia letto quest'anno.
Per altro, da non sottovalutare le punte di umorismo, che quando ci sono risultano sempre deliziose: . Mi ha spezzata a metà.
Molto di Katja Perat mi ha ricordato Alba de Céspedes e il complimento è implicito, ma forte.
La masochista è un romanzo storico, ambientato primariamente nella Vienna di fine Ottocento e narrato in prima persona da uno dei personaggi più coinvolgenti che mi siano capitati di recente. E' un libro brillante, mai noioso, mai banale pur nella banalità della trama: una donna orfana, la cui infanzia è dominata da un eccentrico e ingombrante padre adottivo, in gioventù sposa un uomo che non ama e lo tradisce (e va in terapia da Freud). Non c'è niente di particolarmente rivoluzionario, eppure la raffinatezza della scrittura e delle introspezioni che sgorgano in maniera spontanea all'interno della narrazione rendono questo libro uno dei migliori che abbia letto quest'anno.
Per altro, da non sottovalutare le punte di umorismo, che quando ci sono risultano sempre deliziose: . Mi ha spezzata a metà.
Molto di Katja Perat mi ha ricordato Alba de Céspedes e il complimento è implicito, ma forte.
March 9, 2021
Tr. Michael Biggins. Occasionally you come across a book and the mind boggles at how on earth the author has come up with the concept and this is one of those. Nada is the (fictitious) foundling daughter of the man whose writings gave us the word masochism (although it was not coined by him) and this is her story of life in and around fin-de-siecle Hapsburg Vienna. Alongside her father a number of other real life characters come and go through the book (most consistently Freud) and, although to truly appreciate it you will need a lot more knowledge of the philosophies of the time than me, I still really enjoyed it. Despite the fact that I know I was missing out on any depth, it was an accessible story and even reading it on a relatively superficial level, I still managed to learn a lot.
April 1, 2023
“Servi e guardiane di porci scopano, doveva pensare Maximilian, ma una signora, e in particolare la propria moglie, deve essere protetta con ogni mezzo disponibile dalla violenza dell'amore corporeo, se questo può ancora definirsi amore. Era come se espiasse per il resto della vita il giorno in cui a Lindheim aveva tratto vantaggio della mia innocenza, e ci scommetterei che non avesse mai riflettuto che era proprio il suo riserbo a causarmi dolore. Se gli avessi dimostrato che in realtà anche io lo desideravo, credevo allora, e ancora oggi dubito di essermi sbagliata, mi avrebbe sicuramente odiata.”
July 9, 2021
Prebrala se je hitro, napram nekaterim nerodnim stavčnim strukturam in pravzaprav težko vsebino. 3.5 zvezdic. Brati jo je bilo kot opazovati melanholičen film sprane barvne sheme, brez pravega dialoga, le večno naracijo. Na pol kot sanje, pol spomini in (čeprav je celota že zapolnjena) pol refleksija. S sporočilom, da duh ni v kontroli, saj se vede ali nevede uklanja strastem, ki z nami valujejo po kaosu življenja in navidezno jasnih odločitev.
July 19, 2024
Very appetizing, I might say, in which the sequence of language Katja chose led me from a judgmental point of view to an all too relatable sequence in wiring one must attend.
This novel was neither filling nor unfulfilling, and just about comforting enough to provide the right amount of company.
My only wish is that the book was longer so that I could spend some more time with the author through the eyes and language of Nada.
This novel was neither filling nor unfulfilling, and just about comforting enough to provide the right amount of company.
My only wish is that the book was longer so that I could spend some more time with the author through the eyes and language of Nada.
February 28, 2021
I loved the protagonist in the book and the writing was wonderful! I have strong links with Vienna and Trieste. Also, Slovenia where the author is from. I enjoyed her descriptions of these places. Especially Vienna, which although it is a beautiful place, has a dark under belly and there is also something quite melancholy about it too. I thought she captured this subtly but beautifully.
May 22, 2019
Manieristična Ema Bovary s strašansko pomembnim znanstvom z vsemi znanimi ljudmi na Dunaju na prelomu prejšnjega stoletja.
December 16, 2021
I thought it was very good, it is written as a fictionalised autobiography of the fictional adopted daughter of leopold sacher-masoch. liked the style from Perat
July 21, 2022
Ne da Katja ne piše dobro, samo ni bila zame. Je pa zanimiva scena dogajanja.
October 11, 2024
På svenska
November 3, 2023
3.5🌟
A very interesting novel filled with cameos from real life figures of the time including Freud, who acts as Nadia's physiotherapist.
I struggled to get fully into the story likely due to the run on sentences. However I enjoyed Nadia as a character, she is not what I would call loveable but following her along as she tried to understand herself and her relationships with other was very interesting.
Overall an interesting concept that was well paced and thoughtful.
A very interesting novel filled with cameos from real life figures of the time including Freud, who acts as Nadia's physiotherapist.
I struggled to get fully into the story likely due to the run on sentences. However I enjoyed Nadia as a character, she is not what I would call loveable but following her along as she tried to understand herself and her relationships with other was very interesting.
Overall an interesting concept that was well paced and thoughtful.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews