Opening lines of "Venus in Furs" (1870) - My company was charming. Opposite me by the massive Renaissance fireplace sat Venus; she was
not a casual woman of the half-world, who under this pseudonym wages war against the enemy sex, like Mademoiselle Cleopatra, but the real,
true goddess of love.
Initial quotation of "Venus in Furs" (1870) - "But the Almighty Lord hath struck him, and hath delivered him into the hands of a woman." / The Vulgate, Judith, xvi. 7.