Editing Story of O (section)

== Hidden identities ==
The book's author [[Anne Desclos]] used a pen name, then later used another pen name, before finally, just before her death, revealing her true identity. Her lover, Jean Paulhan, wrote the preface as if the author were unknown to him.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

According to [[Geraldine Bedell]], writing in 2004,<ref name="Bedell" /> "Pauline Réage, the author, was a pseudonym, and many people thought that the book could only have been written by a man. The writer's true identity was not revealed until ten years ago, when, in an interview with John de St. Jorre, a British journalist and sometime foreign correspondent of ''The Observer'', an impeccably dressed 86-year-old intellectual called Dominique Aury acknowledged that the fantasies of castles, masks and debauchery were hers." According to several other sources, however, Dominique Aury was itself a pseudonym of [[Anne Desclos]], born 23 September 1907 in [[Rochefort-sur-Mer]], France, and deceased 26 April 1998 (at age 90) in Paris.

The Grove Press edition (U.S., 1965) was translated by editor [[Richard Seaver]] (who had lived in France for many years) under the pseudonym Sabine d'Estrée.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A651070
|orig-year=13 November 2001
|date=3 November 2006
|title=The True Story of 'The Story of O' by Pauline Reage
|publisher=[[h2g2]]
|access-date=2012-11-15
}}</ref>{{unreliable source? |date=November 2012}}<ref>{{Cite news|title = Richard Seaver, Publisher, Dies at 82|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/arts/07seaver.html|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 7 January 2009|access-date = 18 June 2015|issn = 0362-4331|first = Bruce|last = Weber}}</ref>

=== Jean Paulhan ===
[[Jean Paulhan]], the author's lover and the person to whom she wrote ''Story of O'' in the form of love letters, wrote the preface, "Happiness in Slavery". Paulhan admired the [[Marquis de Sade]]'s work and told Desclos that a woman could not write like Sade. Desclos took this as a challenge and wrote the book. Paulhan was so impressed that he sent it to a publisher.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.guernicamag.com/features/ciuraru_6_15_11/|title=The Story of the Story of O|first=Carmela|last=Ciuraru|date=11 June 2011|work=[[Guernica (magazine)|Guernica]]|access-date=31 December 2013}}</ref> In the preface, he goes out of his way to appear as if he does not know who wrote it. In one part he says, "But from the beginning to end, the story of O is managed rather like some brilliant feat. It reminds you more of a speech than of a mere effusion; of a letter rather than a secret diary. But to whom is the letter addressed? Whom is the speech trying to convince? Whom can we ask? I don't even know who you are. That you are a woman I have little doubt."<ref>
{{cite book
|title=''Story of O''
|publisher=Ballantine Books
|page=xxiv
}}</ref> Paulhan also explains his own belief that the themes in the book depict the true nature of women. At times, the preface (when read with the knowledge of the relationship between Paulhan and the author), seems to be a continuation of the conversation between them.

In an interview<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKI51n69P6Y Interview] YouTube min 10:00</ref> Paulhan explained that O, in a religious-like obsession, was seeking the loss of responsibility for her body and mind much like many religious women seek to surrender themselves to the mercy of God. In both cases it is the joy of destruction. Paulhan was also quoted: "To be killed by someone you love strikes me as the epitome of ecstasy". Discussing the ending, Paulhan states, "I too was surprised by the end. And nothing you can say will convince me that it is the real end. That in reality (so to speak) your heroine convinces Sir Stephen to consent to her death."{{citation needed |date=November 2012}}

One critic has seen Paulhan's essay as consistent with other themes in his work, including his interest in erotica, his "mystification" of love and sexual relationships, and a view of women that is arguably [[sexist]].<ref>
{{cite book
|last=Syrotinski
|first=Michael
|title=Defying Gravity: Jean Paulhan's Interventions in Twentieth-Century French Intellectual History
|publisher=SUNY Press
|year=1998
|pages=74–75
}}</ref>