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jess_mango's review against another edition
3.0
Counts towards the Book Riot Read Harder 2019 Challenge Task #20: A book written in prison.
This novella was written in 1787, whilst the author was imprisoned for two weeks in the Bastille.
This novella was written in 1787, whilst the author was imprisoned for two weeks in the Bastille.
mirsinii's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
heshe's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
gavgav's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
n1nareads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
i feel sick.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Violence
sarahrlm's review against another edition
1.0
« La monotonie, au contraire, il la recherche, et systématiquement, en accumulant les épisodes dont il sent bien à quel point ils sont identiques. (…) Ce goût de la répétition est peut-être une des manifestations de la vocation pédagogique de l’écrivain ; elle exprime une volonté de déplaire, d’opérer sur le lecteur, un lavage de cerveau, ou même de susciter son écœurement. (…) Sade se répète, et pourtant, chaque fois, il veut tout dire ; pousser le langage jusqu’à ses limites les plus extrêmes, jusqu’à l’intolérable, l’indicible. D’où cette nomenclature minutieuse, ces descriptions scrupuleuses des attitudes érotiques ou des supplices. » (Béatrice Didier, Édition Livre de Poche)
Interminable répétition des memes supplices, des memes actions, et du même schéma narratif, Justine est un roman particulièrement source de souffrances pour le lecteur. La structure du récit est la même sur 300 pages : l’héroïne subit des supplices car elle tombe dans le piège du libertin bourreau à cause de son manque d’éducation et sa naïveté, description des supplices interminable, indigeste voire illisible par moments, puis vient le dialogue immoral du libertin en question qui permet à Sade d’exposer son anti-moralisme total et son athéisme violent. Ce roman est en lui même un supplice à lire: il est vraiment difficile de lire certains passages car l’auteur choisit délibérément de tout nous décrire. Cette structure narrative très répétitive était également lourde et tres peu réaliste par ailleurs.
Évidemment, lire Sade est important car c’est un monument de notre histoire littéraire, et il a influencé un grand nombre d’écrivains qui vont arriver par la suite. Figure de la transgression, de la violence, de l’athéisme à toute épreuve et de la révolution, il reste, malgré tout, un pilier de la littérature mondiale. J’ai été néanmoins déçue de l’aspect purement littéraire du texte, il n’y a quasiment rien à en tirer, le style est indigeste, on ne s’attache pas au personnage de Justine, le roman est juste un prétexte pour Sade pour présenter sa théorie d’une anti-société basée sur la violence libérée de tous les carcans moraux et religieux.
L’expérience de lecture a été catastrophique pour moi, j’ai sauté énormément de passages, je n’étais pas du tout impliquée dans l’histoire.
Interminable répétition des memes supplices, des memes actions, et du même schéma narratif, Justine est un roman particulièrement source de souffrances pour le lecteur. La structure du récit est la même sur 300 pages : l’héroïne subit des supplices car elle tombe dans le piège du libertin bourreau à cause de son manque d’éducation et sa naïveté, description des supplices interminable, indigeste voire illisible par moments, puis vient le dialogue immoral du libertin en question qui permet à Sade d’exposer son anti-moralisme total et son athéisme violent. Ce roman est en lui même un supplice à lire: il est vraiment difficile de lire certains passages car l’auteur choisit délibérément de tout nous décrire. Cette structure narrative très répétitive était également lourde et tres peu réaliste par ailleurs.
Évidemment, lire Sade est important car c’est un monument de notre histoire littéraire, et il a influencé un grand nombre d’écrivains qui vont arriver par la suite. Figure de la transgression, de la violence, de l’athéisme à toute épreuve et de la révolution, il reste, malgré tout, un pilier de la littérature mondiale. J’ai été néanmoins déçue de l’aspect purement littéraire du texte, il n’y a quasiment rien à en tirer, le style est indigeste, on ne s’attache pas au personnage de Justine, le roman est juste un prétexte pour Sade pour présenter sa théorie d’une anti-société basée sur la violence libérée de tous les carcans moraux et religieux.
L’expérience de lecture a été catastrophique pour moi, j’ai sauté énormément de passages, je n’étais pas du tout impliquée dans l’histoire.
franklyfrank's review against another edition
3.0
This was a really tough book to rate. I may have to cleanse my brain after reading his books. Just wow. I was reviled to amazed at the treatment of Justine.
generalheff's review against another edition
1.0
An atrocious book, I cannot overstate how much this is to be avoided. From the action to the message, the plot to the characters, this book has nothing to redeem it whatsoever.
The novel follows Justine - a personification of virtue - as she describes her life to her sister Juliette. The siblings were separated in their teens. Juliette, as we briefly hear in the novel's opening, took advantage of everyone, stole and murdered, and ended up doing rather well. Justine, as we are told for the rest of the book, attempted to live an honourable life but is thrown from one unimaginable situation of sexual exploitation and cruelty to another up to the present encounter with Juliette.
The book is, then, just a catalogue of descriptions of the ritualistic rape, torture and murder of (mostly) women by (mostly) men - interspersed with the various antagonists tediously and pedantically explaining to Justine why their despicable antics are justified.
So let's take these two features. First, the action of the novel. Justine somehow manages to fall into the arms of (what I truly hope are) one in a billion men, more evil and cruel than most any person who has ever lived. She describes being incarcerated in a monastery, for example, with 14 other women (as young as 12 - yes paedophilia is a strong theme in this book) who must serve in every way four monks, including taking part in orgies where they are repeatedly raped, beaten, subjected to bizarre tortures (think: standing on stools until so weak they fall onto a bed of thorns) and much more besides. These scenes are, in short, gratuitous and exceptionally unpleasant to read. The effect of them also lessens: one awful such scene in a novel would be shocking and possibly serve a purpose. Almost a whole book of them leaves the reader feeling numb. Moreover, so many such scenes make it plain that we are listening to Sade's fantasies more than reading a work of fiction meant for wider consumption.
Speaking of which: it is impossible not to think of Sade when reading this. Of course, novels about awful things don't necessarily incriminate the author. But a short bit of reading about Sade throws up some fairly relevant facts. He spent 30 of his 74 years in prison - primarily for crimes like whipping prostitutes, cutting and pouring hot wax on a widow and drugging women. Given all this, it is impossible not to feel uncomfortable reading what are already deeply unpleasant scenes when you are conscious that Sade would have largely enjoyed the tales of torture and rape. Sade also clearly shares the searing misogyny that almost explodes off of every page; he endorsed 'sexual communism' where women are treated as property and must be receptive to all sexual advances. The many instances of women being shared amongst men clearly highlights Sade's interest in such a dystopia world.
The second aspect of the novel is the many lectures given to Justine by people when she attempts to point out their awful behaviour. These are pseudo-philosophic attempts to justify (presumably) Sade's own passions. These justifications usually follow the same pattern: nature has made me (the rapist currently torturing you) like this, nothing nature does is unnatural therefore me indulging my fantasies is OK. Beyond this, the book rails against Christianity - it is no coincidence that four of the villains are monks. And it is routinely made clear that Justine's desperate attempts to be good are ridiculous: those who follow the way of vice prosper; those who hew to a Christian definition of virtue suffer.
But as John Gray pointed out in his treatise on Atheism ([b:Seven Types of Atheism|36482672|Seven Types of Atheism|John N. Gray|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561468449l/36482672._SY75_.jpg|58193250]), at the same time as Sade is pointing out all he finds absurd with religion he is at the same time simply imbuing Nature with good and evil, vice and virtue, and purpose. In other words, he has grafted his own just-as-arbitrary set of aims and morals onto Nature and then opted to live by them, precisely what he criticises Christianity for in Justine. So not only are his philosophical asides poor attempts to gloss his monstrous fantasies, they are not even consistent criticisms of religion.
So much for the action and the message. What of the characters or the plot? I think this is the final nail in the coffin. This book is utterly dull. Yes it's full of unimaginably awful sexual encounters and yes it (for late 18th century France) would have been profoundly scandalous for its blistering invective against religion - all of which should at least have rendered the book in some way interesting. But at its core, the book is a monotonous and emotionally deadening series of perverse fantasies pockmarked with tedious monologues.
As for characters: What characters? Justine merely serves as a narrator's device to give us all the grisly details of the sexual exploitation on offer. What character she has is faintly ridiculous: if the world were even remotely as dangerous as this one is - that is, every person you encounter abducts, imprisons and serially rapes and tortures you - then the only logical thing to do would be to never approach anyone, offer anyone help or believe anyone was good. But Justine learns nothing. This is, of course, all part of Sade's point on the stupidity of Christian virtue, but this totally eliminates any chance of rending Justine - or anyone else for that matter - believable or engaging.
This is, all in all, a 260 page justification of Sade's deranged mind and a deeply unpleasant and upsetting read. Only read if you really do not value your time or happiness.
The novel follows Justine - a personification of virtue - as she describes her life to her sister Juliette. The siblings were separated in their teens. Juliette, as we briefly hear in the novel's opening, took advantage of everyone, stole and murdered, and ended up doing rather well. Justine, as we are told for the rest of the book, attempted to live an honourable life but is thrown from one unimaginable situation of sexual exploitation and cruelty to another up to the present encounter with Juliette.
The book is, then, just a catalogue of descriptions of the ritualistic rape, torture and murder of (mostly) women by (mostly) men - interspersed with the various antagonists tediously and pedantically explaining to Justine why their despicable antics are justified.
So let's take these two features. First, the action of the novel. Justine somehow manages to fall into the arms of (what I truly hope are) one in a billion men, more evil and cruel than most any person who has ever lived. She describes being incarcerated in a monastery, for example, with 14 other women (as young as 12 - yes paedophilia is a strong theme in this book) who must serve in every way four monks, including taking part in orgies where they are repeatedly raped, beaten, subjected to bizarre tortures (think: standing on stools until so weak they fall onto a bed of thorns) and much more besides. These scenes are, in short, gratuitous and exceptionally unpleasant to read. The effect of them also lessens: one awful such scene in a novel would be shocking and possibly serve a purpose. Almost a whole book of them leaves the reader feeling numb. Moreover, so many such scenes make it plain that we are listening to Sade's fantasies more than reading a work of fiction meant for wider consumption.
Speaking of which: it is impossible not to think of Sade when reading this. Of course, novels about awful things don't necessarily incriminate the author. But a short bit of reading about Sade throws up some fairly relevant facts. He spent 30 of his 74 years in prison - primarily for crimes like whipping prostitutes, cutting and pouring hot wax on a widow and drugging women. Given all this, it is impossible not to feel uncomfortable reading what are already deeply unpleasant scenes when you are conscious that Sade would have largely enjoyed the tales of torture and rape. Sade also clearly shares the searing misogyny that almost explodes off of every page; he endorsed 'sexual communism' where women are treated as property and must be receptive to all sexual advances. The many instances of women being shared amongst men clearly highlights Sade's interest in such a dystopia world.
The second aspect of the novel is the many lectures given to Justine by people when she attempts to point out their awful behaviour. These are pseudo-philosophic attempts to justify (presumably) Sade's own passions. These justifications usually follow the same pattern: nature has made me (the rapist currently torturing you) like this, nothing nature does is unnatural therefore me indulging my fantasies is OK. Beyond this, the book rails against Christianity - it is no coincidence that four of the villains are monks. And it is routinely made clear that Justine's desperate attempts to be good are ridiculous: those who follow the way of vice prosper; those who hew to a Christian definition of virtue suffer.
But as John Gray pointed out in his treatise on Atheism ([b:Seven Types of Atheism|36482672|Seven Types of Atheism|John N. Gray|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561468449l/36482672._SY75_.jpg|58193250]), at the same time as Sade is pointing out all he finds absurd with religion he is at the same time simply imbuing Nature with good and evil, vice and virtue, and purpose. In other words, he has grafted his own just-as-arbitrary set of aims and morals onto Nature and then opted to live by them, precisely what he criticises Christianity for in Justine. So not only are his philosophical asides poor attempts to gloss his monstrous fantasies, they are not even consistent criticisms of religion.
So much for the action and the message. What of the characters or the plot? I think this is the final nail in the coffin. This book is utterly dull. Yes it's full of unimaginably awful sexual encounters and yes it (for late 18th century France) would have been profoundly scandalous for its blistering invective against religion - all of which should at least have rendered the book in some way interesting. But at its core, the book is a monotonous and emotionally deadening series of perverse fantasies pockmarked with tedious monologues.
As for characters: What characters? Justine merely serves as a narrator's device to give us all the grisly details of the sexual exploitation on offer. What character she has is faintly ridiculous: if the world were even remotely as dangerous as this one is - that is, every person you encounter abducts, imprisons and serially rapes and tortures you - then the only logical thing to do would be to never approach anyone, offer anyone help or believe anyone was good. But Justine learns nothing. This is, of course, all part of Sade's point on the stupidity of Christian virtue, but this totally eliminates any chance of rending Justine - or anyone else for that matter - believable or engaging.
This is, all in all, a 260 page justification of Sade's deranged mind and a deeply unpleasant and upsetting read. Only read if you really do not value your time or happiness.
hamaonoverdrive's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This is... an experience. Some of the fun of reading older works is to see how parts of the human experience have remained the same across time and cultures, and quite frankly a lot of the scenes in this book wouldn't feel out of place in some R18[G] doujin. What you wouldn't see in those works, however, is the philosophical tirades that De Sade sandwiches between each scene. De Sade uses the many characters that the protagonist encounters as mouthpieces for libertineism, preaching the value of behaving selfishly in a world where there is no innate reward for the virtuous. All-in-all, very edgy.
I'm glad I read it, but at the same time I feel like you could cut 25-50% of the middle of the book with absolutely no loss. Bad things can happen to good people, we get it.
I'm glad I read it, but at the same time I feel like you could cut 25-50% of the middle of the book with absolutely no loss. Bad things can happen to good people, we get it.