Epic, excessive, bleak, darkly comic, and disturbingly beautiful. The companion volume to DAF Sade's "Justine." The subtitle of the book is "The Triumph of Vice" -- not to be confused with the memoirs of Rev. Ted Haggard and Sen. Larry Craig -- so it warns you right on the title page. Not for the faint-hearted, easily-bored, or sanctimoniously prim.

The story follows the ups and down of Juliette, sister of Justine, from her formative years in a very depraved convent to a very depraved aristocracy and even into the arms of a very depraved Pope. Every sexual combination you could imagine or not dare to imagine is enacted. Hey, Ayn Rand fans, like long speeches about freedom and free enterprise? Give this book a shot. Seriously. Sade advocates a darkly utopian vision based on extending freedom to its very limits. This is high-octane libertine libertarianism. Something that's kind of expected if you've spent a lot of time in prison.

"Juliette" is the black cathedral of pain and wisdom. It holds a valuable place in the Western Canon, alongside William Blake, Ferdinand Celine, and Antonin Artaud. Sade was a highly articulate atheist bisexual, a philosopher and a pornographer. He tears into the sacred cows of organized religion and organized government with the gusto and ferocity of a Soviet tank division. (Christopher Hitchens is a dithering twit by comparison.)

Yes, there is rape, there is murder, there is death, there is hatred, but the Bible has far more of all those. Far less people get killed in 1200 pages than in the first 10 chapters of Genesis. Something to ponder. ( )

It's difficult to tell whether Sade actually believed in what he was writing about or if he merely wanted to shock the knickers off of anyone who dared peek inside his books. If you don't take his novels too seriously you'll find that the Marquis had a pretty good sense of humor and a knack for pointing out human hypocrisy--especially among the elites of his time. If you DO take his work seriously, however, you'll probably get sick to your stomach. It's not easy stuff to swallow. ( )

Of historical interest, and good porn too. His best. ( )