4.0 out of 5 stars
Justine - The misogyny of M. de Sade, July 26, 2008
This review is from: Justine (Paperback)
In 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the Marquis de Sade imprisoned without trial, in part for his publication of this slender volume of depraved brutality, "JUSTINE - The Misfortunes of Virtue." Sade was eventually banished from a standard prison to a virtual dungeon, after being accused of attempts to seduce young male prisoners. Legend has it that the warped Marquis, while isolated in the harsh fortress of Bicêtre, recorded on scraps of paper his most vile thoughts and fantasies. These were supposedly found later, stashed behind a loose brick in his cell and were either suppressed or destroyed outright.
The man who the word "sadism" was named for tells in "Justine" a blunt and twisted parable of two sisters, one with loose morals, and the other (Justine) who treasures above all else her unsullied maidenhood. The two girls become separated and Justine soon descends into a nightmare spiral of abuse and horrendous victimization that leave her near story's end lying in a gutter, close to death. But then, in a calculatedly mocking irony, Sade reunites the long-separated siblings.
Juliette, whose escapades had eventually led to a noble marriage, takes in her emaciated sister, and tenderly nurses Justine's broken body and spirit. Some time later, Justine is seated on a porch, watching a gentle rain fall. She feels stronger, optimistic about the future, and content in the knowledge that through all her travails she'd never abandoned her personal standards. And then suddenly.......
It's a denouement you won't soon forget.
In his vividly explicit 1200 page opus
JULIETTE, Sade expounds on the theory that doing evil and being immoral will surely lead to all things good.
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