Take a photo of a barcode or cover
2.61 AVERAGE
2.61 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
trauma/20
âmes sensible s'abstenir !!
j'en ai fait des cauchemars au cours de ma lecture.
L'écriture est très fluide ce qui rend la lecture facile malgré les thèmes abordés. Ce n'était pas une expérience appréciable mais, ne m'ayant pas laissée de marbre et m'ayant profondement interrogée et transformée, cela en fait incontestablement une oeuvre d'art et une lecture essentielle pour certains (et traumatisante pour d'autres).
âmes sensible s'abstenir !!
j'en ai fait des cauchemars au cours de ma lecture.
L'écriture est très fluide ce qui rend la lecture facile malgré les thèmes abordés. Ce n'était pas une expérience appréciable mais, ne m'ayant pas laissée de marbre et m'ayant profondement interrogée et transformée, cela en fait incontestablement une oeuvre d'art et une lecture essentielle pour certains (et traumatisante pour d'autres).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy
I am not a prude. I am not the type of person who will hesitate from delving into works others might find dark. One of my favorite novels is the Exorcist, commonly regarded as one of the most terrifying books ever written. I have pictures on the push-pin board in front of me while I write this containing images from Silent Hill, Audition, and other really gruesome stuff...of course, next to that I have pictures from It's a Wonderful Life and Aladdin, but that's not the point! Point is, I have no issue with things people might think are a little unorthodox.
This is not unorthodox. This is sadist porn.
Let me elaborate. The term "torture porn" has been applied to many works people dismiss as just gory or too violent. This is literal pornography in its most literal sense. The work itself exists to demonstrate violence for violence's sake, with the plot--if you can call it a plot--existing just to bring the audience to the next act of sexual sadism. These acts of sadism are grotesque, to the point where, if I were to bring up these acts in front of polite company, they'd put me away.
However, that's not why this book is rotten. After all, it's supposed to be horrifying. It's supposed to be repugnant. That's what I thought when I read this book--after seeing the Pier Pasolini film based on said book. The movie is often regarded as the most disturbing thing many people have ever seen, but the film is merciful to its audience compared to the book. One could argue that seeing these acts is far worse than reading about them, since one can just turn their mind off and blindly glance over the grotesque details. However, the film does something that the book does not.
It realizes its antagonists are evil.
The book's most disturbing quality isn't that it shows disturbing material for the sake of it so much as that it does it AND ACTS LIKE IT'S A GOOD THING. I initially thought it was a satire of some sort, but then realized, after looking into de Sade's other work, this couldn't be the case. This was just a list of the man's sexual fantasies, each one more screwed up than the last. The loving detail put into this book is enough to make someone cry on the inside.
And yet, upon reading this book, it cannot be forgotten. It's magnetizing, and remains buried inside of your head for YEARS to come. I've thankfully used it as mild inspiration for my writing. Whenever I need to hate one of my characters, I just think of how much I hate the villains in this book. The desired effect comes shortly.
This is not unorthodox. This is sadist porn.
Let me elaborate. The term "torture porn" has been applied to many works people dismiss as just gory or too violent. This is literal pornography in its most literal sense. The work itself exists to demonstrate violence for violence's sake, with the plot--if you can call it a plot--existing just to bring the audience to the next act of sexual sadism. These acts of sadism are grotesque, to the point where, if I were to bring up these acts in front of polite company, they'd put me away.
However, that's not why this book is rotten. After all, it's supposed to be horrifying. It's supposed to be repugnant. That's what I thought when I read this book--after seeing the Pier Pasolini film based on said book. The movie is often regarded as the most disturbing thing many people have ever seen, but the film is merciful to its audience compared to the book. One could argue that seeing these acts is far worse than reading about them, since one can just turn their mind off and blindly glance over the grotesque details. However, the film does something that the book does not.
It realizes its antagonists are evil.
The book's most disturbing quality isn't that it shows disturbing material for the sake of it so much as that it does it AND ACTS LIKE IT'S A GOOD THING. I initially thought it was a satire of some sort, but then realized, after looking into de Sade's other work, this couldn't be the case. This was just a list of the man's sexual fantasies, each one more screwed up than the last. The loving detail put into this book is enough to make someone cry on the inside.
And yet, upon reading this book, it cannot be forgotten. It's magnetizing, and remains buried inside of your head for YEARS to come. I've thankfully used it as mild inspiration for my writing. Whenever I need to hate one of my characters, I just think of how much I hate the villains in this book. The desired effect comes shortly.
Describing a dick as a "little anchovy" sent me west tbh
The schadenfreude of Giovanni Boccaccio's 'The Decameron' meets the hell-bound satire and debauchery of Dante Alighieri's 'The Divine Comedy'.
The 120 days' unfinished nature (a majority of the story surviving as Sade's notes to himself for later extension) transforms the impact that further description might have had in light of a modern reading. The lists of libertine atrocities in Parts 2 through 4 draw parallels with news headlines, the matter-of-fact mundanity with which they are described matching that of a jaded presenter. Not unlike the various crimes of Roberto Bolano's '2666', the shock factor comes first before the realisation that, actually, most of what's being described is on par with the sugar coated horrors found in abundance within our everyday entertainment and education.
Therein lies the satire: Sade goes as far as to self-censor curse words and blasphemies in parts, implying with humour that these (at the time) were seen as far more provocative than other appalling acts on the very same page.
It's easy to dismiss the time in which it was written as grounds for letting one's guard down but, be warned, it really is a test to get through both due to the content and the writing style.
The formatting is practically non-existent with no paragraph spacing or indentations for dialogue to indicate new speakers. It's immediately apparent this wasn't a stylistic choice given the unfinished nature of the book; subsequent errata and years of censorship, restoration and translation.
Taking a page from Roger Ebert's book yet again, I won't be giving this a star rating as the realm of The 120 Days is one that is devoid of shine. There is no hope and no reward at the end, in keeping with its libertine and nihilistic philosophy.
Despite this, there are definitely hints of influence here improved upon later in the genres of horror and comedy; the firework woman being beat-for-beat reimagined in Thomas Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' to form one of the more poignant endings in fiction; the 'Saw' movies reflecting the twisted murder games in Part 4 (or indeed the entire subgenre of the slasher horror films); Salut, je suis le Marquis de Sade et bienvenue chez 'Jackass'! Johnny Knoxville and company's outrageous stunts and gross out humour mirror the more ridiculous "pleasures" in the book; even the entire trope of main-character-jumps/falls-from-a-great-height-only-to-conveniently-land-on-something-soft-to-break-his/her-fall found in countless later adventure stories may have been popularised here.
Throughout this book I shed a few tears, laughed when I shouldn't have, rolled my eyes, threw up in my mouth a little bit (Augustine's death, if you know then you know. If you don't then you're better off not knowing), lost all faith in humanity and am currently trying to find it again.
Wouldn't recommend to anybody who isn't either morbidly curious or chronically bored (or both). That being said, I'd rather be stuck with this than a middle-of-the-road story that I would've given 2 stars while wishing I had the time I'd taken to read it back.
P.s. Time travel idea: What if Minecraft was left in the Marquis de Sade's prison cell? Given how creative some of the dungeons in this book are, I like to think he'd have had quite a bit of fun with the old redstone powder.
The 120 days' unfinished nature (a majority of the story surviving as Sade's notes to himself for later extension) transforms the impact that further description might have had in light of a modern reading. The lists of libertine atrocities in Parts 2 through 4 draw parallels with news headlines, the matter-of-fact mundanity with which they are described matching that of a jaded presenter. Not unlike the various crimes of Roberto Bolano's '2666', the shock factor comes first before the realisation that, actually, most of what's being described is on par with the sugar coated horrors found in abundance within our everyday entertainment and education.
Therein lies the satire: Sade goes as far as to self-censor curse words and blasphemies in parts, implying with humour that these (at the time) were seen as far more provocative than other appalling acts on the very same page.
It's easy to dismiss the time in which it was written as grounds for letting one's guard down but, be warned, it really is a test to get through both due to the content and the writing style.
The formatting is practically non-existent with no paragraph spacing or indentations for dialogue to indicate new speakers. It's immediately apparent this wasn't a stylistic choice given the unfinished nature of the book; subsequent errata and years of censorship, restoration and translation.
Taking a page from Roger Ebert's book yet again, I won't be giving this a star rating as the realm of The 120 Days is one that is devoid of shine. There is no hope and no reward at the end, in keeping with its libertine and nihilistic philosophy.
Despite this, there are definitely hints of influence here improved upon later in the genres of horror and comedy; the firework woman being beat-for-beat reimagined in Thomas Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' to form one of the more poignant endings in fiction; the 'Saw' movies reflecting the twisted murder games in Part 4 (or indeed the entire subgenre of the slasher horror films); Salut, je suis le Marquis de Sade et bienvenue chez 'Jackass'! Johnny Knoxville and company's outrageous stunts and gross out humour mirror the more ridiculous "pleasures" in the book; even the entire trope of main-character-jumps/falls-from-a-great-height-only-to-conveniently-land-on-something-soft-to-break-his/her-fall found in countless later adventure stories may have been popularised here.
Throughout this book I shed a few tears, laughed when I shouldn't have, rolled my eyes, threw up in my mouth a little bit (Augustine's death, if you know then you know. If you don't then you're better off not knowing), lost all faith in humanity and am currently trying to find it again.
Wouldn't recommend to anybody who isn't either morbidly curious or chronically bored (or both). That being said, I'd rather be stuck with this than a middle-of-the-road story that I would've given 2 stars while wishing I had the time I'd taken to read it back.
P.s. Time travel idea: What if Minecraft was left in the Marquis de Sade's prison cell? Given how creative some of the dungeons in this book are, I like to think he'd have had quite a bit of fun with the old redstone powder.
slow-paced
*disclaimer: I read the first edition in French, I don't know how different it is from this one*
First of all, ew. Second of all, how the fuck does this book manage to be so gross and so boring at the same time? The introduction nearly killed me. He describes characters, then settings, the characters again, then something vaguely starts to happen and boom! Setting description again! And so on for pages and pages. AAAAAH! That being said, I didn't see the miscarriage cannibalism coming. That was pretty wild.
Since the book was never finished, the story moves much faster after the first storyteller finished her stories, as it's only an outline, and I honestly don't know if I'd have had the patience to finish it otherwise.
I'm sad I didn't like it more since I loved the movie. No offense to anyone who liked it, but this book is very much not ADHD friendly, at least for me
First of all, ew. Second of all, how the fuck does this book manage to be so gross and so boring at the same time? The introduction nearly killed me. He describes characters, then settings, the characters again, then something vaguely starts to happen and boom! Setting description again! And so on for pages and pages. AAAAAH! That being said, I didn't see the miscarriage cannibalism coming. That was pretty wild.
Since the book was never finished, the story moves much faster after the first storyteller finished her stories, as it's only an outline, and I honestly don't know if I'd have had the patience to finish it otherwise.
I'm sad I didn't like it more since I loved the movie. No offense to anyone who liked it, but this book is very much not ADHD friendly, at least for me
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reading this actively made me a worse person. And it took so long. Even skimming through large parts as I did, esp the last 100-140 pages or so. It's hateful, sure, but it's also so repetitive and dull it numbs the mind real fast. Hope de Sade is having a real miserable afterlife fr.
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I saw another review that started with "What the fuck did I just read?" and I think that about sums it up.
Yes, there's a philosophical aspect behind it, but if you want that, you can get the same lesson out of any of De Sade's other works, or honestly just read his wikipedia page. I came here because De Sade was mentioned in The Rebel, and there was more philosophical discussion in the couple paragraphs about 120 Days than there is in the actual book.
I liked the storytellers as characters, and it was interesting to see that even despite them appearing to have agency in their stories, they still ended up in these terrible situations.
Yes, there's a philosophical aspect behind it, but if you want that, you can get the same lesson out of any of De Sade's other works, or honestly just read his wikipedia page. I came here because De Sade was mentioned in The Rebel, and there was more philosophical discussion in the couple paragraphs about 120 Days than there is in the actual book.
I liked the storytellers as characters, and it was interesting to see that even despite them appearing to have agency in their stories, they still ended up in these terrible situations.
the writing gets monotonous the storyline is boring and none of the characters make it worth it to keep reading