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3.08 AVERAGE
3.08 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Couldn’t read more than like ten pages at a time it made me like physically sick. Truly fucked.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A bunch of perverts monologuing at their victims. Moral of the story: You might as well give it up willingly, ladies, because they're going to get it one way or another.
Contains Explicit Content Discretion is Advised
I should probably relate to you dear reader how I came to read Justine. About a decade ago I came across a film called Quills that was loosely based on the last years of the Marquis De Sade’s life. The film was fantastic despite the historical liberties taken and I became interested in finding out more about the Marquis and his body of work. The only piece of literature written by the Marquis featured in the film was the book Justine. The brief mentions of book by characters of the film gave me the impression that Justine was an especially kinky dirty book. As it turns out that wasn’t the case.
Justine is known as one of the infamous works written by the Marquis De Sade for good reason. It goes without saying that a person from the 1700s and myself from 2019 wouldn’t remotely agree on big moral issues but one thing we would agree on is that this book is worth getting upset over. The plot concerns a teenage French girl named Justine who has been orphaned and cast out into the street. She parts with her sister Juliette immediately because Juliette would like to join the world’s oldest profession to avoid starvation and Justine endeavors to be virtuous no matter the cost. Over the course of the next fifteen years Justine proceeds to run afoul of every depraved sadistic fetishistic pervert in the country of France.
The novel consists of Justine being employed and/or imprisoned by a man or men (who are all walking talking arguments for human extinction) who proceed to violate Justine in pretty much every way imaginable. I would describe these sections of the book as pornographic only in the technical sense because I honestly can’t conceive of human with a working ethical compass being aroused by them. Almost every segment consists of rape and/or sexual assault in addition to an especially brutal type of sadism. Please understand that this book doesn’t even slightly conform to even the most extreme forms of BDSM because that practice is all about the consent of both parties and any damage done by spanking, riding crops, or other implements amounts to some slight redness of the skin with no lasting harm. Justine is brutally beaten on multiple occasions with nearly fatal consequences. These interludes often include the pervert/sadist of the chapter lecturing Justine on philosophical arguments which mirror those of the Marquis De Sade. What’s incredibly vexing to me about these lectures is that some of the time I find my self being in perfect agreement with Sade. For instance, Sade points out that Nature doesn’t share 1700s French Societies’ disgust with homosexuality and anal sex and doesn’t have our hang ups concerning virginity and therefore neither should we. Sade also has several pointed criticisms to make about religion which I happen to agree with. However, Sade also makes several of these arguments based on half-truths and faulty logic which amount to the following:
*The Church and State kill people to further their own ends. Why shouldn’t I be allowed too?
*A person should follow their nature. A murderer is only following his nature by killing.
Needless to say, I don’t agree.
The novel’s thematic through line seems to be that following virtue is self-defeating and pointless while following vice is beneficial and natural. While I would never agree with that assessment, if an author genuinely wanted to write a novel with that message, he should feel free to do so provided he meets two requirements. Firstly, the story should support your theme. Secondly, your thematic through line should be present throughout the whole work. Sade fulfills neither of these requirements. Sade would like to reader to think that Justine’s misfortunes are due to her being virtuous when in reality her troubles are due to her being unlucky (I’ve run over black cats that were luckier than this woman) and her being plain stupid. On at least two occasions Justine calls out sexual abusers for their behavior and is immediately assured by said abuser that said abuse will not continue for whatever reason. Guess what happens. At one point in the novel Justine is forced to participate in a murderous rogue’s multiple auto erotic asphyxia sessions when she is commanded to cut the rope and revive him once he’s “finished”. This is the same man that’s explicitly said he has killed eighty women that were formerly in Justine’s shoes and intendeds to do the same to her once Justine is of no more use to him. If Justine just did nothing she could escape from a horrible situation and rid the world of a scumbag. She didn’t put the rope around the guy’s neck and make him step off the stool, he did both voluntarily. Justine isn’t culpable in the slightest. But she cuts him down every time anyway. Justine is dangerously naïve at best and possibly mentally defective at worst because throughout her Job like torment over the course of the book she is either unwilling or unable to learn from her own mistakes. If you’ve relied on the suspect-at-best kindness of strangers for the umpteenth time and it results in horrible outcome for you, after a certain point you’re partly to blame.
What compounds the first issue is that Sade chickens out on his own theme. The book climaxes in a courtroom with Justine framed for murder. She relates her entire misbegotten story to the court and wouldn’t you know it, the judge’s mistress who happens to be in the courtroom is Justine’s sister Juliette. Justine is found innocent on all counts thanks to her sister and is taken in by Juliette and the judge who both intend to give her the most comfortable life possible in an attempt to make up for some of her suffering. Shortly thereafter Justine is literally hit by lightning. But don’t feel too bad, I’m pretty sure dying was the nicest thing that ever happened to this woman. If the book ended right there with Justine’s death or ended even earlier with Justine being put to death for murder she didn’t commit, Sade’s thematic through line would be intact. But the story goes on for another page with Juliette and the judge being moved by her Justine’s death, renouncing their sinful ways, and joining religious orders. The last paragraph of the book even talks of goodness being rewarded, evil punished, and that it’s never to late to repent. Even if I didn’t know that Sade was an avowed atheist or that the rest of his fictional works (except for Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man) practically drip with Hedonistic Nihilism, I still wouldn’t buy Sade’s supposed message at the end of the book. He enjoys portraying the violence that befalls Justine and the atheistic villain’s intellectual browbeating of her a bit too much for me to find any believability in his ending. Justine and its sequel/parallel Juliette were published anonymously by Sade because he rightly feared reprisal from the censors at the time. This tacked on ending smells to me like a last-ditch effort to claim the book had a good message. Considering Sade was arrested for writing both books and locked in an asylum for the rest of his life, I’m guessing it didn’t work.
Something else that rubs me the wrong way about Justine is that I’ve read a somewhat similar book that is infinitely better, Voltaire’s Candide. The novel follows the titular Candide and his friends on a similar Job like journey to Justine. The book was written solely to mock Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s claim that the world we live in is “the best of all possible worlds”. Throughout the story Candide and company go through horrible disaster after horrible disaster in a chaotic unforgiving world and by the time the book ends Leibniz’s philosophical claim is utterly shattered. But what makes Candide superior overall isn’t only the genuine humor and likable characters but the superior flow of the story. Candide and his friends get into various forms trouble at every corner but somehow always manage to find a way out of it with brief respites after every encounter. As opposed to Justine, where the heroine only to find herself in danger almost immediately after which leaves no room for the reader to breath. Said danger is also always the same. Justine runs into a creepy pervert. Whereas Candide’s protagonists encounter an earthquake, religious zealots, a storm at sea, pirates, cannibalism, and more. The variety is exceedingly more entertaining. Voltaire also keeps his theme throughout the entire book by mocking Leibniz’s philosophy at every possible opportunity and having Candide abandon the philosophy himself by the stories end. Although it’s up for debate what philosophy/ideology Voltaire thinks the protagonists should follow if any, the theme of the book is kept intact.
Justine is never boring and mercifully short but it isn't a good book. Justine has joined the pantheon of the worst books I’ve ever read. This book is for the morbidly curious only.
I should probably relate to you dear reader how I came to read Justine. About a decade ago I came across a film called Quills that was loosely based on the last years of the Marquis De Sade’s life. The film was fantastic despite the historical liberties taken and I became interested in finding out more about the Marquis and his body of work. The only piece of literature written by the Marquis featured in the film was the book Justine. The brief mentions of book by characters of the film gave me the impression that Justine was an especially kinky dirty book. As it turns out that wasn’t the case.
Justine is known as one of the infamous works written by the Marquis De Sade for good reason. It goes without saying that a person from the 1700s and myself from 2019 wouldn’t remotely agree on big moral issues but one thing we would agree on is that this book is worth getting upset over. The plot concerns a teenage French girl named Justine who has been orphaned and cast out into the street. She parts with her sister Juliette immediately because Juliette would like to join the world’s oldest profession to avoid starvation and Justine endeavors to be virtuous no matter the cost. Over the course of the next fifteen years Justine proceeds to run afoul of every depraved sadistic fetishistic pervert in the country of France.
The novel consists of Justine being employed and/or imprisoned by a man or men (who are all walking talking arguments for human extinction) who proceed to violate Justine in pretty much every way imaginable. I would describe these sections of the book as pornographic only in the technical sense because I honestly can’t conceive of human with a working ethical compass being aroused by them. Almost every segment consists of rape and/or sexual assault in addition to an especially brutal type of sadism. Please understand that this book doesn’t even slightly conform to even the most extreme forms of BDSM because that practice is all about the consent of both parties and any damage done by spanking, riding crops, or other implements amounts to some slight redness of the skin with no lasting harm. Justine is brutally beaten on multiple occasions with nearly fatal consequences. These interludes often include the pervert/sadist of the chapter lecturing Justine on philosophical arguments which mirror those of the Marquis De Sade. What’s incredibly vexing to me about these lectures is that some of the time I find my self being in perfect agreement with Sade. For instance, Sade points out that Nature doesn’t share 1700s French Societies’ disgust with homosexuality and anal sex and doesn’t have our hang ups concerning virginity and therefore neither should we. Sade also has several pointed criticisms to make about religion which I happen to agree with. However, Sade also makes several of these arguments based on half-truths and faulty logic which amount to the following:
*The Church and State kill people to further their own ends. Why shouldn’t I be allowed too?
*A person should follow their nature. A murderer is only following his nature by killing.
Needless to say, I don’t agree.
The novel’s thematic through line seems to be that following virtue is self-defeating and pointless while following vice is beneficial and natural. While I would never agree with that assessment, if an author genuinely wanted to write a novel with that message, he should feel free to do so provided he meets two requirements. Firstly, the story should support your theme. Secondly, your thematic through line should be present throughout the whole work. Sade fulfills neither of these requirements. Sade would like to reader to think that Justine’s misfortunes are due to her being virtuous when in reality her troubles are due to her being unlucky (I’ve run over black cats that were luckier than this woman) and her being plain stupid. On at least two occasions Justine calls out sexual abusers for their behavior and is immediately assured by said abuser that said abuse will not continue for whatever reason. Guess what happens. At one point in the novel Justine is forced to participate in a murderous rogue’s multiple auto erotic asphyxia sessions when she is commanded to cut the rope and revive him once he’s “finished”. This is the same man that’s explicitly said he has killed eighty women that were formerly in Justine’s shoes and intendeds to do the same to her once Justine is of no more use to him. If Justine just did nothing she could escape from a horrible situation and rid the world of a scumbag. She didn’t put the rope around the guy’s neck and make him step off the stool, he did both voluntarily. Justine isn’t culpable in the slightest. But she cuts him down every time anyway. Justine is dangerously naïve at best and possibly mentally defective at worst because throughout her Job like torment over the course of the book she is either unwilling or unable to learn from her own mistakes. If you’ve relied on the suspect-at-best kindness of strangers for the umpteenth time and it results in horrible outcome for you, after a certain point you’re partly to blame.
What compounds the first issue is that Sade chickens out on his own theme. The book climaxes in a courtroom with Justine framed for murder. She relates her entire misbegotten story to the court and wouldn’t you know it, the judge’s mistress who happens to be in the courtroom is Justine’s sister Juliette. Justine is found innocent on all counts thanks to her sister and is taken in by Juliette and the judge who both intend to give her the most comfortable life possible in an attempt to make up for some of her suffering. Shortly thereafter Justine is literally hit by lightning. But don’t feel too bad, I’m pretty sure dying was the nicest thing that ever happened to this woman. If the book ended right there with Justine’s death or ended even earlier with Justine being put to death for murder she didn’t commit, Sade’s thematic through line would be intact. But the story goes on for another page with Juliette and the judge being moved by her Justine’s death, renouncing their sinful ways, and joining religious orders. The last paragraph of the book even talks of goodness being rewarded, evil punished, and that it’s never to late to repent. Even if I didn’t know that Sade was an avowed atheist or that the rest of his fictional works (except for Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man) practically drip with Hedonistic Nihilism, I still wouldn’t buy Sade’s supposed message at the end of the book. He enjoys portraying the violence that befalls Justine and the atheistic villain’s intellectual browbeating of her a bit too much for me to find any believability in his ending. Justine and its sequel/parallel Juliette were published anonymously by Sade because he rightly feared reprisal from the censors at the time. This tacked on ending smells to me like a last-ditch effort to claim the book had a good message. Considering Sade was arrested for writing both books and locked in an asylum for the rest of his life, I’m guessing it didn’t work.
Something else that rubs me the wrong way about Justine is that I’ve read a somewhat similar book that is infinitely better, Voltaire’s Candide. The novel follows the titular Candide and his friends on a similar Job like journey to Justine. The book was written solely to mock Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s claim that the world we live in is “the best of all possible worlds”. Throughout the story Candide and company go through horrible disaster after horrible disaster in a chaotic unforgiving world and by the time the book ends Leibniz’s philosophical claim is utterly shattered. But what makes Candide superior overall isn’t only the genuine humor and likable characters but the superior flow of the story. Candide and his friends get into various forms trouble at every corner but somehow always manage to find a way out of it with brief respites after every encounter. As opposed to Justine, where the heroine only to find herself in danger almost immediately after which leaves no room for the reader to breath. Said danger is also always the same. Justine runs into a creepy pervert. Whereas Candide’s protagonists encounter an earthquake, religious zealots, a storm at sea, pirates, cannibalism, and more. The variety is exceedingly more entertaining. Voltaire also keeps his theme throughout the entire book by mocking Leibniz’s philosophy at every possible opportunity and having Candide abandon the philosophy himself by the stories end. Although it’s up for debate what philosophy/ideology Voltaire thinks the protagonists should follow if any, the theme of the book is kept intact.
Justine is never boring and mercifully short but it isn't a good book. Justine has joined the pantheon of the worst books I’ve ever read. This book is for the morbidly curious only.
I don't know how to rate this book. It was really hard to get through emotionally, I had to keep having breaks to process. Ill never read it again. It's a clear message into the mind of the monster that wrote it. I'll say this, it's interesting in the way serial killer documentaries are interesting, to glimpse into the mind of unimaginable ways of thinking.
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Not for the faint of heart but if you get through you might be moved
ok de sade is the original edgy atheist. confusing, boring, disgusting, but funny at times. interesting historically and culturally as a satire on religious control of the lower classes, class relations, gender relations, and pre-revolution france. the rest deserves no less than 1,000,000,000,000 lashings, which i believe napoleon delivered himself
adventurous
fast-paced
Kudos to Marquis de Sade for inventing the airport trash novel before airplanes were invented.
It’s funny this is advertised as a ‘Forbidden Classic’, presenting itself as a titillating read like the Shades of Grey trilogy, whereas it’s closer to 120 Days of Sodom.
Is it erotic? Eh. I did really enjoy it’s absurdly bleak tone. Funny this was published in 1787 and has an insane pace. Modern prestige TV slop like The White Lotus could learn a thing or two instead of dragging out tepid storylines for 6 hours.
Laughed very hard when she yeeted the baby in the fire and got shot by a bolt of lightening.
It’s funny this is advertised as a ‘Forbidden Classic’, presenting itself as a titillating read like the Shades of Grey trilogy, whereas it’s closer to 120 Days of Sodom.
Is it erotic? Eh. I did really enjoy it’s absurdly bleak tone. Funny this was published in 1787 and has an insane pace. Modern prestige TV slop like The White Lotus could learn a thing or two instead of dragging out tepid storylines for 6 hours.
Laughed very hard when she yeeted the baby in the fire and got shot by a bolt of lightening.