The Ties That Bind [Paperback]

This book magically recounts the adventures of a real-life s/m practitioner. Each page is filled with irresistable scenes. Like "The Story of O," this book is great entertainment and fodder for the imagination. But unlike "The Story of O," "Ties that Bind" is more realistic. The characters lived out sexual fantasies from time to time, but did not live in a s/m utopia not possible on earth. Readers be warned: this book is not for those who do not appreciate the special entity that is s/m.

I'd read Ties that Bind back in 1997 and never forgot it. Today, I'v read it again and find myself in awe of Ms.Duries devotion to both her Master and His/her lifestyle.
I can say I found myself wondering about His love for her, as I believe Ms.Duries existed as nothing more than an object in her Master's eyes. We will never know since Vanessa Duries died in a car crash on Dec. 13, 1993.
For the reader seeking BDSM erotica, I am certain Ties that Bind will not disappoint. For those interested in learning more about the BDSM lifestyle, this book reads as an autobiograpical novel and does not afford us any information to guide us through the often misunderstood corridors of BDSM.
Ms.Duries surprises, shocks, and amazes the reader with her vivid depictions of weekend parties she attends with her Master, but at no time, from beginning to end does she ever bore us.

After enduring years of corporal punishment by her father, a young and very much beautifull Vanessa realizes that `Not having the nature of an Amazon, not knowing how to oppose violence with cruelty, I learnt to dominate those who used me by making the offering of my submission both mystical and ambiguous' ...... and thus is born a female slave into the somewhat secretive world of S&M in France in the 1990's.

Right from the first chapter, `The Revelation' , the author introduces us to Pierre, her much `loved' master whom she meets at the age of twenty. In the book, without delving into any of the details of their introduction we find a young Vanessa, although apprehensive about her secret feelings, completely accept and resign herself to her `slave' state of mind and body when she visits Pierre at his countryside mansion. Although Pierre is her master, the author maintains an absolute dedication to her feelings, emotions, thrills and fears as she is introduced and educated into the true and dedicated sadomasochistic lifestyle of a slave master relationship.

This is, in effect, the mastery of this wonderful young author and the point at which other S&M books totally fall apart since it's pretty well impossible for either the master or the slave to completely comprehend and, honestly write about, the erotic mindset of the other. With the precision of a whip Vanessa intricately describes her slave education in the hands of not only her master but also, of course, a small and very much secretive group of other masters and slaves, both male and female.

Vanessa unabashedly describes her relationship with an awe that she is living the life of total sexual and physical abandon with her much loved master. In her own words, `Pierre ia and organizer beyond compare. Since sharing his life . we schedule usually quite eventful weekends throughout the year. When we return, on Sunday evenings, I often find myself in a state close to exhaustion. Pierre is no less tired than me. The role of the master is exhausting, because, while the slave only submits, the master must decide, organize, prepare and take action, all the while watching over the physical and psychic state of the slave that he has decided to honor through tests and humiliation.'

One very sad note, unfortunately, Vanessa Duries died in a traffic accident in 1993 about seven months after the publishing of this masterwork, truly a loss from a very much talented writer.

Finally, the book has an introduction by Marie Isabel Pita one of today's hottest writers of contemporary erotica, and an afterword by Maxim Jakubowski where he briefly describes the discovery of the lost French edition of this book and his investigation into the last years of life of the author.