Eros, der Sinn meines Lebens
Eros, der Sinn meines Lebens is a book by Edith Kadivec (here spelled Cadivec) in German language. It was first published by Avalun-Verlag in Dresden in December 1931. It was Kadivec's third, and last, publication after her autobiographic Mein Schicksal. Bekenntnisse von Edith Cadwé (c. 1926) and its revision Bekenntnisse und Erlebnisse (July 1931).
Contents
Eros, der Sinn meines Lebens tells the story of two spankophile women, the author (Edith Kadivec) and a woman named Senta who lives in another country where a different language is spoken (the book never says where, but it might be Denmark, Norway or Finland).
It turns out that Senta is Edith's alter ego in practically all respects. Both women are the same age (50 at the time). Senta shares Edith's passion for spanking girls. As a pedagogue, she has the same strong pro-spanking views, while as a (secret) sadomasochist and fetishist, she also feels the same intense sexual arousal whenever she gets to bare a girl's bottom for a spanking, preferably a birching, or to watch such punishment as a witness. She confesses to Edith her innermost feelings and her most private activities, such as masturbation ("making a sacrifice to Eros").
Senta is in a position that grants her plenty of spanking opportunities: She is headmistress of a big state-run orphanage for girls. It is a very traditional institution and home to about one hundred orphan girls, aged, with a few exceptions, from 10 to 16. Whenever one of the girls is caught in a misdeed, such as lying, she is immediately led by her teacher to the headmistress where she is to receive a chastisement with the birch, as has been done since the days when the orphanage was founded in 1851. In this orphanage, the birch is the implement reserved to the headmistress. The birchings take place in the privacy of an adjoining room to the headmistress's office, where the delinquent girl is made to unbutton her drawers before she is strapped over a piece of furniture called Strafpuff (punishment pouffe) for a bare bottom birching.
Senta, who has learned of Edith's story, at once falls in deep love with Edith and the two women start a passionate exchange of love letters, with graphic descriptions of spankings, photographs, postcards, and parcels with special gifts, such as used birch rods. Senta, although very happy with her role as a spanker, also begins to fantasize about submitting to Edith as a spankee, to feel her dominance and to relive the feeling of being like a teenaged girl under strict maternal discipline again. She also makes plans to retire before long from her position, to move to Edith to live together happily for the rest of their lives and to perhaps adopt an orphan girl such that the couple might have a bottom on hand to birch from time to time.
The book
Eros, der Sinn meines Lebens is written as a series of letters from Senta to Edith, interspersed with first-person narration from the author. The letters are dated from April 1929 to May 1931, before the two finally meet. The book is completely focused on F/G spanking and F/F BDSM and lesbian love; no men and no boys appear in any mentionable role in it. The book's contents is on the repetitive side and seem to have served as a kind of writing therapy to the author. Kadivec, at the time, was out of prison, but her reputation and career as a teacher were shattered. She felt not understood and unloved in a society that had proved hostile to her living out her flagellant sadism by spanking helpless children under the pretext of pedagogic intent.
Like Kadivec's first publications, the book is perhaps best described as a kind of spanking novel that mixes fact and fiction but pretends to be non-fiction.
Reprints and translations
Eros, der Sinn meines Lebens was reprinted:
- by Gala Verlag, 1970 (hardcover)
- by Heyne Verlag, 1978 (paperback)
- by belleville, 1998 (hardcover). isbn 978-3-923646-83-8 (= isbn 3-923646-83-6)
- private reprints, undated (hardcover and paperback)
An English translation was published under the title Eros: The Meaning of My Life:
- by Grove Press, 1969 (hardcover).
- by Blue Moon Books, 1995 (paperback). isbn 1562010816
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root