Robert Fletcher

"Man is the one who desires, woman the one who is desired. This is woman's entire but decisive advantage." When a book becomes a classic, it must mean that there is something universal in the themes it deals with. I didn't expect to connect with a character who wants to be abused by a woman--if anything, I'd be on the other end of things--but I soon understood where he was coming from. There's a pain that comes with the presence of a gorgeous woman, an existential agony that is not intuitive and can never be quenched, and Severin's journey embodies that very well. Occasionally, he's even seen as noble for dealing with the feeling so head on. There is a painting in the book that the main character looks at, of Samson gazing lovingly at Delilah even as he's having his eyes burned out because she's betrayed him. That feeling is one I share deeply, the feeling of helplessness in the face of feminine beauty, in spite of everything and against reason. I never understood before reading this book that masochism (a term coined for the author of this book) was a physical embodiment of that universal feeling.