Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue (Wordsworth Classic Erotica) [Paperback]

Marquise de Sade (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1999

This work is the most celebrated of the novels of the Marquis de Sade. Execrated by de Sade's contemporaries, it is a novel of depth and psychological insight. It tells the tale of the virtuous Justine, who, forced to make her way in the world suffers frightful humiliations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd. (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853266353
• ISBN-13: 978-1853266355
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,910,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Justine, a desperate try of scandal., January 13, 2001

By 

daniel (Spain.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue (Wordsworth Classic Erotica) (Paperback)

I've read this book without any prior knowlogde of its content. Only background information on Sade as anyone else could have. It has surprised me the low level philosophy that he tries to work with (I have to admit that some paragraphs were too much for me so I put in practice my rudiments of quick reading methods, basically jumping words). What I find most interesting about the book is the fact that his author has passed to the history of literature just by scandalizing. This is perhaps his best contribution. For the rest a lot of sexual content with the 'morbo' of being reported by a virteous young girl. I have the feeling that some of the content of the book could be forbidden in our times with charges of pederastia if it wouldn't be a classic. Another paradox, as much of the sex-related issues in our times.

1 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story For A True Anheodonist, February 25, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (Canton, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue (Wordsworth Classic Erotica) (Paperback)

De Sade thank you! Most people over look the CONTENT of this book and try to read a whole lot into it and end up getting nothing out of it. You must read this book for FACE value in order to leave it with two lips curled in a smile and covered in delight. The mental pain the man in the book faces is that of which not many people know. Plus this book is delightful if you consider yourself to be an anhedonist like myself. Great plot, well developed characters, and a tint of a tone of S&M.

8 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Misfortunes of Virtue, June 7, 2000

By 

"gsibbery" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue (Wordsworth Classic Erotica) (Paperback)

Ths story of two sisters, one who is highly "virtuous" and the other who is something of an opportunist, Sade does his best to show that traditional Christian virtue doesn't pay. he fails miserably, of course, since there is little in the way of genuine critique in this glorification of abasement. Sade was not really a sadist, strange to say -- his "sadistic writings" were more a reaction against the conservative era in which he lived. His own sexual practices for the most part would not be condemned today. But while in prison, he did his best to shock the establishment with works such as this as the only form of revenge he could take out on his society. Sade was not intelligent enough to see that his wild phantasies were due largely to the repression of a fairly powerful, although normal sexuality, and that the primary attarction that he got from his imaginary sadism was that of what LaVey calls the "law of the forbidden". Sade was interested in such sadistic stories mostly because he knew that he shouldn't be and that it would outrage his contemporaries. Since most of his work are merely reactions rather than genuine explorations of his own mind, it is difficult to take them seriously. The worst part about the book is the puerile attempts at a philosophy which would justify any sort of corrupt behaviour. He tends to make his theives, rapists and murderers into pseudo-philosphers who do what they do, not out of an emotional enslavement to genuine sadistical practices nor out of a hatred of others in general (he has obviously no insight into the workings of the criminal mind whatsoever), but as the result of a logical intellectual process, much like Wilson does with hs killer in "Ritual In The Dark". And nnone becomes a sadist as the result of any intellectual process or philosophy. The philosophy comes afterwards, as a means of justifying behaviour which is at its root destructive. It seems a pity that a man who had the opportunity to spend so much time a alone and was given the chance to analyse himself, his motivations and ideas so thoroughly had so little knowlege of himself or his society.