Mistress Talia: a sadistic domme

My Darling Dominatrix by Grant Antrews is considered by many to be a classic fem domme fantasy.

The story takes place in Washington D.C. during the Reagan administration. Ned Ramsell is a young, successful, recently divorced Vietnam veteran who notices a breathtaking lady on a bench while jogging in the park one day. He begins watching for her and notices she often meets men who bring her envelopes, sometimes even kneeling to kiss her shoes. Eventually, he gets up the nerve to approach her and ask her out and thus the adventure begins.

As Ned gets to know Lady Jane, he discovers she has vast inherited wealth, that she is an accomplished painter and a peace activist, and that she is a bit kinky as well. As he falls in love with her, our vanilla hero is gradually led into the unknown world of submission, introduced to spanking, hand-laundering of lingeries, kneeling in public, and severe flagellation. And eventually, Jane confesses that she's a professional dominatrix.

I get the feeling that the author is a hard-core sissy and expect this book to be particularly enjoyable to those who are similarly inclined. Although Ned experiences little sissification, never progressing much beyond wearing panties and menstrual pads, the book is full of rich descriptions of Lady Jane's clothing and makeup. Easily one third of the book is lush descriptions of leather and lace, glorious fabrics, and incredible cosmetics.

While the author seems more knowledgeable about feminine things than most women, he seems inexperienced at actual submission.

The book was recommended to me by a submissive I like very much who enjoyed it tremendously, so I really wanted to like it, but I found it difficult. Lady Jane came off as a rather unbalanced person, and I suppose that is fine since the author was trying to portray a specific dominatrix rather than a stereotype. However, her neuroses leads her to behave irresponsibly in scene and I can't say I'm fond of BDSM being represented in this manner.

The story is very much a submissive male fantasy in that much of it seems unrealistically over-the-top: Lady Jane is drop-dead gorgeous, their love is profound, the submissive challenges are intense, the humiliation extreme, the bondage and corporal scenes severe.

Apparently, the author tried to achieve realism by including two terrible scenes, one in the middle of the book and one shortly after it's climax, but these scenes are so horrific that they seem as fantastical as the good bits.

I found myself having very mixed feelings about My Darling Dominatrix, though suspect some of you would greatly enjoy it as escapist fiction.