(Original Review, 1981-04-04)

Histoire de Juliette ou les Prospérités du Vice (Story of Juliette or The Prosperities of Vice) by de Sade.

Profoundly disturbing - not only in its depiction of cold-hearted indulgence, by way of a text nearly as long as War and Peace, in murder, rape, robbery and more horrors besides, but also in its capability to beguile and confuse readers of a feminist persuasion.

Angela Carter fell for it: "[Sade's] great women [characters in Juliette], ... once they have tasted power, once they know how to use their sexuality as an instrument of aggression, they use it to extract vengeance for the humiliations they were forced to endure as the passive objects of the sexual energy of others ...”

"Sade declares himself unequivocally for the right of women to fuck - as if the period in which women fuck aggressively, tyrannously and cruelly will be a necessary stage in the development of a general human consciousness of the nature of fucking, that if it is not egalitarian, it is unjust... Sade ... urges women to fuck as actively as they are able so that, powered by their enormous and hitherto untapped sexual energy, they will then be able to fuck their way into history and, in doing so, to change it...”

"... I would like to think that he put pornography in the service of women, or, perhaps, allowed it to be invaded by an ideology not inimical to women."

Both quotes from “The Sadeian Woman” by Angela Carter

Not so. Juliette, the young protagonist of the novel, might be a great, potent criminal, risen from poverty, endowed with high intelligence, dauntless daring and a sharp gift of the gab, seeming fit to set phallocracy trembling and to show the way for new women of nerve, verve and organisation. However, she operates always on a tether and on a precipice, always subject to men even more steeped in crime and even more rich and powerful than she. The narrative repeatedly re-introduces one of these overlords, with whom the male reader may identify and who has all women, even the polymath-in-vice Juliette, within his grasp. She has to refrain from any attack on any of the arch-fiendish men who teach her, supervise her and employ her as director and star turn of many bloody orgies.

Sade's vast novel is a sophisticated “aide masturbatoire” for male (and some female) Reachers who want their lusty, lusting, beautiful heroines always on the rein and the bridle, however gleaming and gilded the leather and the steel, of a master. On the other hand, someone could argue that my reading of Carter is far too dismissive and superficial. I would even suggest that I may have "fallen for" the oft-rehearsed position that sees Carter's analysis as resting on Juliette as a counterforce to patriarchal dominance. It's worth looking more closely, at what she has to say about Justine, for instance. In de Sade's day it was most unusual for female characters to have their own distinctive voice, let alone agency. De Sade has his 'heroines' do or experience horrible things, but they do have a voice and we understand and care about what happens to them. ( )

A bizarre combo horny/perverted - philosophical treatise classic I've read three times now. It's huge and takes forever to get through and it can get a little redundant, but it's still my favorite de Sade book. Now for the prim or faint of heart though... ( )

Sex! Sex! Sex! Orgies! Rape! Sodomy! Murder! Death! Adultery! Homosexuality & hate for the Catholic Church written in the most disgustingly beautiful way. I had the pleasure & I do mean PLEASURE of reading this as an adult that can cogitate the meaning de Sade wished to express. This is very heavy, dense literature! Extremely philosophical, & definitely penetrating!

One can't help but appreciate the author's writing or his views on authority which at the time happened to be the Catholic Church, not God! A topic that is still arguable today.

This is a sequel to "Justine", & also three times as long. I would recommend this to an intellectual that can digest the severity of Sade's writing & like it or not the reader has to appreciate the syntax created by Sade! He was a genius of expression, let us not forget "sade" is the origin of "sadist". ( )

Needs a new translation. ( )

Like Justine, this book is heavy, but much more than "Justine". The scenes of sadism and torture are much more severe than in Justine.

Where Justine ends with a message of hope and redemption, this does not. In fact, this book ends with Juliette's lover sodomizing the corpse of her sister - Justine - and, this does not point towards hope.

This book is meant for a very select few. ( )