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3.08 AVERAGE
3.08 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-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
First impressions:
Marquis de Sade...you are one crazy m*****f*****.
So I had learned about Marquis de Sade, or at least first heard of him after watching the movie Quills and I immediately became really interested. Yes, his works are incredibly graphic and really go off the deep end, but he was added to my bucket list of authors I wanted to read just for the sake of reading.
After doing a little research I chose Justine, a classic, and one of his more famous stories to give a try at but it was a failure. I got either really bored or completely confused. It took me up until a couple of weeks ago to finally get his prose which is a bunch of active narration and then about 10 pages of speeches/sermons articulating his ideals. Ah ha! So away I went onto this journey, knowing that this was going to be one heck of a messed up story but curiosity is a powerful thing....
To start things off, before I really get into my opinion on Justine, a quick summary and yes this will contain spoilers, but I include them so everyone can understand where the heck I'm coming from here.
Justine takes place in 17th or 18th century France and revolves around two sisters, Juliet and Justine. Both orphaned just a few years before they could be married off split their inheritance and separate ways due to their highly contrasting ideals. Juliet believes that to get what you want, you must be willing to do anything. Justine on the other hand believes that as long as you maintain perfect virtue, God will reward you with a perfect life. The sisters separate and Juliet immediately gives her inheritance to a Madame of a brothel where over the years she becomes famous for her skills and discretion. She marries several times and her fortune multiplies as each husband 'mysteriously' dies soon after the wedding and she gains their inheritances. However she soon meets her match in her mid thirties and both decide to have a fun trip around the country side when they pull up to an inn and see the most beautiful young woman bound in handcuffs and off to Paris to be hanged. Curiosity ignites in Juliet and she pays the jailers to stay the night at the inn to rest so that they can hear the girl's story.
Shyly the girl introduces herself as Therese and tells them straightaway she will not reveal her lineage or the circumstances of her childhood but would rather begin when she became orphaned and her fate with vice began when she was at the age of 15. Her first employer she explains, hired her as a maid and took her in due to pity and on recommendation of a family friend. Soon though, Therese learns that her employer is robbing people and is asked to join. Refusing out of her love of virtue she is fired and blamed for the robberies that had occurred at the residence. On the run she is taken in by a group of bandits whom ask her to join them or die. Again she explains she cannot due to her virtue and they say she must stay with them since she knows who they are. An orgy then takes place but gets to keep her virginity after pleading mercy to the thieves. Yay?
The next day, the thieves return to their lair bringing a young man with them whom they had just robbed. Nursing the man, Therese and him run away in the night where he promises to hire her as a maid after hearing of her misfortunes. But the next day he hits her over the head, rapes her and flees with all of her money and clothes.
Walking aimlessly in the woods she encounters two male lovers, the richer of the two hiring her as a maid in trade for her silence on his debaucheries. For two years she works for this Lord Asshole (no pun intended) where he confides he will poison his aunt to get his inheritance sooner. Following her sense of virtue she confesses the plan to the aunt, but it is too late. She is soon after poisoned and the blame once more put onto Therese where she must run away into the woods. The Lord however soon catches up to her and makes his dogs torture her for an hour until she faints from the bites. Leaving her for dead, Therese awakens and travels to the nearest town and seeks a doctor. The doctor however is also crazy messed up for after healing her, she finds out he is really into BDSM with kids, including his daughter.
Again she tries to rescue the victim of vice, the daughter, and again fails. Therese again runs away and on her travels seeks a monastery to confess everything that had happened to her. A women in the woods directs the way to the closest one and it isn't until nightfall Therese finds the place. An older monk takes her confession and after questioning whether anyone knew she was there or if she had any relatives, kidnaps her and takes her into a hidden prison near the monastery where four monks keep 32 women as prisoners for their every whim.
Therese is raped and tortured by all four monks for a year before breaking out and immediately getting kidnapped AGAIN. This time by two young men who take her to a Count's chateau to be a maid for his ailing wife. Therese agrees, just happy to be away from the monastery, before she learns that the reason no maid stays around long is because the Count loves to bleed people. Yes, bleed people. Every four days he bleeds his wife close to death for his enjoyment. Hence why he goes through so many over the years.
Again Therese barely escapes but is then kidnapped YET AGAIN but this time by coin counter-fitters who torture and rape her for a year. Eventually though they get caught, Therese gets arrested but let go since the judge believes her pitiful story. Some more harrowing things happen including a proposal and then instant poisoning before Therese ends up trying to save a baby from a fire, trips and the baby falls into it. She then gets charged for the murder of the baby and ends up arrested, yet again, and on her way to Paris for the execution.
Throughout all of the Juliet begins to guess who Therese really is and both figure out that she is Justine! Her sister! Much rejoicing commences and Juliet vows to save Justine from all of her troubles and over the months nurses her back to health. However Therese soon gets depressed knowing that some calamity will soon befall her and sure enough she gets struck by lightening. The end.
Okay! Now that we have gotten through all the nitty-and-gritty here is my opinion. What a load of garbage. Seriously why is this still in print anymore? Its like the Kardashians, famous for being famous and just as pathetic and sad. Basically the Marquis tried his hardest to not only gross out his audience but piss them off. The whole story's premise is basically that there cannot be good in the world without evil, therefore it is better to be evil to provide for the good.
Whatever. Did not like, really just finished the darn thing because I never really want to give up on a book. So many times Justine should have died but didn't and so many times she was just soo brainless. I mean if you keep getting kidnapped on your nightly walks, maybe...just maybe you SHOULDN'T take nightly walks!! Daytime girl. DAYTIME. Ugh. Waste of time but hey I crossed it off on my bucket list.
Don't really recommend for anyone unless you are just really curious what the heck it is after seeing the movie Quills. It's not often that I give such a bad review for a book because I try to look at both the pros and cons, but being a sh*tty story for the sake of being sh*tty story does not make it a good story. It makes it sh*tty. There I said it.
Boom! I'm out.
Marquis de Sade...you are one crazy m*****f*****.
So I had learned about Marquis de Sade, or at least first heard of him after watching the movie Quills and I immediately became really interested. Yes, his works are incredibly graphic and really go off the deep end, but he was added to my bucket list of authors I wanted to read just for the sake of reading.
After doing a little research I chose Justine, a classic, and one of his more famous stories to give a try at but it was a failure. I got either really bored or completely confused. It took me up until a couple of weeks ago to finally get his prose which is a bunch of active narration and then about 10 pages of speeches/sermons articulating his ideals. Ah ha! So away I went onto this journey, knowing that this was going to be one heck of a messed up story but curiosity is a powerful thing....
To start things off, before I really get into my opinion on Justine, a quick summary and yes this will contain spoilers, but I include them so everyone can understand where the heck I'm coming from here.
Spoiler
Justine takes place in 17th or 18th century France and revolves around two sisters, Juliet and Justine. Both orphaned just a few years before they could be married off split their inheritance and separate ways due to their highly contrasting ideals. Juliet believes that to get what you want, you must be willing to do anything. Justine on the other hand believes that as long as you maintain perfect virtue, God will reward you with a perfect life. The sisters separate and Juliet immediately gives her inheritance to a Madame of a brothel where over the years she becomes famous for her skills and discretion. She marries several times and her fortune multiplies as each husband 'mysteriously' dies soon after the wedding and she gains their inheritances. However she soon meets her match in her mid thirties and both decide to have a fun trip around the country side when they pull up to an inn and see the most beautiful young woman bound in handcuffs and off to Paris to be hanged. Curiosity ignites in Juliet and she pays the jailers to stay the night at the inn to rest so that they can hear the girl's story.
Shyly the girl introduces herself as Therese and tells them straightaway she will not reveal her lineage or the circumstances of her childhood but would rather begin when she became orphaned and her fate with vice began when she was at the age of 15. Her first employer she explains, hired her as a maid and took her in due to pity and on recommendation of a family friend. Soon though, Therese learns that her employer is robbing people and is asked to join. Refusing out of her love of virtue she is fired and blamed for the robberies that had occurred at the residence. On the run she is taken in by a group of bandits whom ask her to join them or die. Again she explains she cannot due to her virtue and they say she must stay with them since she knows who they are. An orgy then takes place but gets to keep her virginity after pleading mercy to the thieves. Yay?
The next day, the thieves return to their lair bringing a young man with them whom they had just robbed. Nursing the man, Therese and him run away in the night where he promises to hire her as a maid after hearing of her misfortunes. But the next day he hits her over the head, rapes her and flees with all of her money and clothes.
Walking aimlessly in the woods she encounters two male lovers, the richer of the two hiring her as a maid in trade for her silence on his debaucheries. For two years she works for this Lord Asshole (no pun intended) where he confides he will poison his aunt to get his inheritance sooner. Following her sense of virtue she confesses the plan to the aunt, but it is too late. She is soon after poisoned and the blame once more put onto Therese where she must run away into the woods. The Lord however soon catches up to her and makes his dogs torture her for an hour until she faints from the bites. Leaving her for dead, Therese awakens and travels to the nearest town and seeks a doctor. The doctor however is also crazy messed up for after healing her, she finds out he is really into BDSM with kids, including his daughter.
Again she tries to rescue the victim of vice, the daughter, and again fails. Therese again runs away and on her travels seeks a monastery to confess everything that had happened to her. A women in the woods directs the way to the closest one and it isn't until nightfall Therese finds the place. An older monk takes her confession and after questioning whether anyone knew she was there or if she had any relatives, kidnaps her and takes her into a hidden prison near the monastery where four monks keep 32 women as prisoners for their every whim.
Therese is raped and tortured by all four monks for a year before breaking out and immediately getting kidnapped AGAIN. This time by two young men who take her to a Count's chateau to be a maid for his ailing wife. Therese agrees, just happy to be away from the monastery, before she learns that the reason no maid stays around long is because the Count loves to bleed people. Yes, bleed people. Every four days he bleeds his wife close to death for his enjoyment. Hence why he goes through so many over the years.
Again Therese barely escapes but is then kidnapped YET AGAIN but this time by coin counter-fitters who torture and rape her for a year. Eventually though they get caught, Therese gets arrested but let go since the judge believes her pitiful story. Some more harrowing things happen including a proposal and then instant poisoning before Therese ends up trying to save a baby from a fire, trips and the baby falls into it. She then gets charged for the murder of the baby and ends up arrested, yet again, and on her way to Paris for the execution.
Throughout all of the Juliet begins to guess who Therese really is and both figure out that she is Justine! Her sister! Much rejoicing commences and Juliet vows to save Justine from all of her troubles and over the months nurses her back to health. However Therese soon gets depressed knowing that some calamity will soon befall her and sure enough she gets struck by lightening. The end.
Okay! Now that we have gotten through all the nitty-and-gritty here is my opinion. What a load of garbage. Seriously why is this still in print anymore? Its like the Kardashians, famous for being famous and just as pathetic and sad. Basically the Marquis tried his hardest to not only gross out his audience but piss them off. The whole story's premise is basically that there cannot be good in the world without evil, therefore it is better to be evil to provide for the good.
Whatever. Did not like, really just finished the darn thing because I never really want to give up on a book. So many times Justine should have died but didn't and so many times she was just soo brainless. I mean if you keep getting kidnapped on your nightly walks, maybe...just maybe you SHOULDN'T take nightly walks!! Daytime girl. DAYTIME. Ugh. Waste of time but hey I crossed it off on my bucket list.
Don't really recommend for anyone unless you are just really curious what the heck it is after seeing the movie Quills. It's not often that I give such a bad review for a book because I try to look at both the pros and cons, but being a sh*tty story for the sake of being sh*tty story does not make it a good story. It makes it sh*tty. There I said it.
Boom! I'm out.
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a tragicomedy of errors on part of the MC, the titular Justine. The writing is average, par for the course for the time apart from the dubcon/what we would now call niche kink material involved. If you're in the mood for a train-wreck with a sex motif, this is your book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent, Abandonment
Unfortunately, I find I am unable to give a numerical and coherent rating and response to this book. For indeed, this is a cruel novel, that offers little respite for the reader, and little respite for Justine.
My opinion of this book went from "this is boring" to "I feel like I'm learning a lot about the 18th century France, and specifically what the new, trendy and discussed topics were when it comes to teology, philosophy and psychology"... and, finally, back to "boring".
But I couldn't quite make myself give it just 1 star. In some ways, this is a piece of history. It does give me some ideas on how certain things were at least depicted at the time. And the fact this was apparently banned... well, that seems like at least someone at the time took it seriously enough to feel threatened by it.
What annoys me the most is the following thought: what was the actual message of the book? It seemingly spells it out at the end, but the given answer doesn't make any sense. Is that the point, that it doesn't make sense? Was all this seemingly virtue-praising text written just to ridiculate virtue and the virtuous by showing the pointlessness of it all and still claim that all is going according to plan, that "there's still the afterlife, so we weren't proven wrong yet".
Will probably return to write something more, but this is my current mindset.
//Edit: I just realized there's another book called "Juliette" which is linked to this one, so I'll read that before judging Justine on it's own too harshly. Maybe this is just one half of the story.
But I couldn't quite make myself give it just 1 star. In some ways, this is a piece of history. It does give me some ideas on how certain things were at least depicted at the time. And the fact this was apparently banned... well, that seems like at least someone at the time took it seriously enough to feel threatened by it.
What annoys me the most is the following thought: what was the actual message of the book? It seemingly spells it out at the end, but the given answer doesn't make any sense. Is that the point, that it doesn't make sense? Was all this seemingly virtue-praising text written just to ridiculate virtue and the virtuous by showing the pointlessness of it all and still claim that all is going according to plan, that "there's still the afterlife, so we weren't proven wrong yet".
Will probably return to write something more, but this is my current mindset.
//Edit: I just realized there's another book called "Juliette" which is linked to this one, so I'll read that before judging Justine on it's own too harshly. Maybe this is just one half of the story.
Libro transgresor. No recomendable para lectores primerizos.
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated