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A review by jan99
The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade
dark
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? No
1.75
4 libertines (that's what De Sade calls the people engaging in a kind of cruel and sex-focused hedonism) abduct a bunch of children to castle to have a 4 month long celebration of libertinage , which will end in the death of most of the children as well as most of the staff brought there . 4 Storytellers tell 150 stories about sexual preferences (passions), which include blasphemy, rape, incest, murder, necrophilia, etc.
The sexual acts are mostly described unemotionally and seem to mostly be just a list of bizarre sexual fetishes (the last 3 chapters where not finished and are thus quite literally just lists). Any sort of reflection about the happenings in the castle or in the stories are rarely found and thus if one is not to disturbed by the explicit descriptions (and maybe one who can only barely tolerate those and keep on reading is the perfect reader for this book), then the main problem of this book is just, that it is extremely boring.
Lastly in other reviews I have read, that the flaws of the characters where a main focus of the book. That is not really true. While the main focus of the book are thoughts and actions, that would seem to us quite flawed, the book does not share that moral evaluation and just describes them at best neutrally or even encourages the philosophy of the 4 protagonists.
The sexual acts are mostly described unemotionally and seem to mostly be just a list of bizarre sexual fetishes (the last 3 chapters where not finished and are thus quite literally just lists). Any sort of reflection about the happenings in the castle or in the stories are rarely found and thus if one is not to disturbed by the explicit descriptions (and maybe one who can only barely tolerate those and keep on reading is the perfect reader for this book), then the main problem of this book is just, that it is extremely boring.
Lastly in other reviews I have read, that the flaws of the characters where a main focus of the book. That is not really true. While the main focus of the book are thoughts and actions, that would seem to us quite flawed, the book does not share that moral evaluation and just describes them at best neutrally or even encourages the philosophy of the 4 protagonists.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Murder
Minor: Pregnancy