Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s most famous work, Venus in Furs, centers on a man who willingly submits to a dominant woman, often adorned in luxurious furs—a symbol of power and authority within the story. The novel’s themes closely mirrored Masoch’s own fantasies, which he occasionally enacted in real life. One well-known episode involved Fanny Pistor, with whom he reportedly signed a contract in 1869, agreeing to serve as her subordinate for six months. As part of the arrangement, she was to treat him as a servant and frequently wear furs, particularly when asserting authority. On a trip to Italy, Masoch even adopted the alias “Gregor,” traveling as her servant while she enjoyed more comfortable accommodations, reflecting the dynamic portrayed in his fiction. Due to the notoriety of both his writings and personal lifestyle, the psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing later coined the term “masochism” in the 1880s to describe the tendency to derive pleasure from submission or humiliation, naming it after Masoch himself—though Masoch did not approve of the label.