The Legacy of Cain is an unfinished cycle of novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

s by the 19th century Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian writer and journalist, who gained renown for his romantic stories of Galician life. The term masochism is derived from his name....

. His original plan was to group various novellas into 6 volumes, each of which was titled according to its central theme; those are "Love", "Property", "State", "War", "Work", and "Death". Only the first two volumes, "Love" (1870) and "Property" (1877) were completed. By the middle of 1880s Masoch abandoned the grandiose idea of The Legacy of Cain, although some of the novellas intended for the cycle had been published.

The first volume, Love, begins with the prologue short story The Wanderer in which a hunter off in the dense forest meets a strannik (wandering ascetic), whose passionate speech reveals his philosophy where Cain is responsible for having unleashed into the world the six "evils" that title each volume of the cycle. Love also contains the novella Venus in Furs

Venus in Furs

Venus in Furs is a novella by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the best known of his works. The novel was part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called Legacy of Cain. Venus in Furs was part of Love, the first volume of the series...

that eventually became Sacher-Masoch's most famous work.

Below is given the original content of the cycle as it was planned by Sacher-Masoch. The right column shows original German titles and the left column - their translations into English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.

The Legacy of Cain

Volume 1: LOVE Prologue: The Wanderer 1. Don Juan of Kolomea 2. The Man Who Re-Enlisted (1869) 3. Moonlight (1868) 4. Venus in Furs Venus in Furs Venus in Furs is a novella by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the best known of his works. The novel was part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called Legacy of Cain. Venus in Furs was part of Love, the first volume of the series... (1869) 5. Plato's Love (1870) 6. Marcella (1870)	TEIL 1.: DIE LIEBE Prolog: Der Wanderer 1. Don Juan von Kolomea 2. Der Kapitulent 3. Mondnacht 4. Venus im Pelz 5. Die Liebe des Plato 6. Marzella oder das Märchen vom Glück
Volume 2: PROPERTY 1. People's Court 2. Haidamaka (1877) 3. Hasara Raba 4. A Testament (1875?) 5. Basil Hymen (1875?) 6. The Paradise on the Dniester.	TEIL 2.: DAS EIGENTUM 1. Das Volksgericht 2. Der Hajdamak 3. Hasara Raba 4. Ein Testament 5. Basil Hymen 6. Das Paradies am Dniester.
Volume 3: STATE 1. Ilau	TEIL 3.: DER STAAT 1. Ilau
Volume 4: WAR	TEIL 4.: DER KRIEG
Volume 5: WORK 1. The Old Castellan (1882)	TEIL 5.: DIE ARBEIT 1. Der alte Castellan
Volume 6: DEATH 1. Frau von Soldan (1882) 2. The Jewish Raphael (1882) 3. The Godmother (1883) Epilogue: The Night Before Christmas [not written]	TEIL 6.: DER TOD 1. Frau von Soldan (1882) 2. Der Judenraphael (1882) 3. Die Gottesmutter (1883)

External links

• French translation of four books of Love