Justine

If you read de Sade as erotica, you miss the whole point of what he was trying to do. It is really a philosophy book in the form of a novel. His thesis which he draws out through hyperbolic pornography and sadism is: 1) Radical Naturalism and atheism. Humans are part of nature. There is no Platonic realm where moral universals reside. Moral absolutes don't exist. At best, they are purely human creations. 2) Pleasure and Pain are guides to behavior. Since there is no afterlife, you might as well maximize your pleasure. Radical hedonism 3) Freedom and Free will. Moral free will - the ability to choose good over evil - is illusory. Humans are not ultimately free but are driven by our 'nature' - inclinations. 4) Power and Transgression. show more Breaking taboos, including sexual and moral ones, is natural and enlightening. Transgression is a way to reveal the truth about human nature and critique hypocritical society. Might isn't right because there is no such thing as right or wrong. The stronger just do what they want and the weak have to suck it up. As Thucydides said, the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. In a nutshell, de Sade's philosophy is: radical libertinism + moral naturalism. It is interesting question to ask if Justine had to strive to be virtuous because that was her nature? She couldn't choose to be a libertine. If you are squeamish when reading it, just tell yourself that it is a fictional story. Nothing in the story happened. Unfortunately, the things described have occurred in history. show less

I don't like Sade. Remove pornography, the violence of graphic sexual scenes in which he indulged ad nauseam, and all that's left are philosophical platitudes, sophisms as boring as they are ignorant. Here's an embodiment of that. More, in this particular work, the sex itself is not even worth it.

The virtuous Sophie/ Justine is constantly humiliated, robbed, and raped by a whole gallery of perverts characters, in adventures that are supposedly meant to illustrate the laws of nature: the weak (those believing in charity, empathy, compassion) can only end up, and rightly so for Sade, suffering at the hands of the strong (the selfish and violent ones). I won't even bother to denounce such nonsensical ethos! Suffice to say that there's not show more much of a plot, and so that this whole tale is plain boring. Young and depraved homosexuals, libertines monks, brigands and forgers... Sade's imagination surely is inhibited! But it's all so predictable that, even if you read it only for the sex (something which is sick in itself -again, it's mostly all about a poor girl being raped over and over...) it will probably annoy you more than anything else. Personally, it may have been edgy back in its days, but, no matter how hard it tries (no pun intended...) to disguise itself under the cover of a supposed 'revolutionary ethos', to me this was nothing more than disturbing porn for twisted pervs and losers (well, Sade spent a great deal of his life in jail...).

The ending is just plain caricature. show less

Gilles Deleuze in Coldness and Cruelty insists that sadism (as inaugurated by de Sade) is at root the carnal application of critical inquiry. De Sade's first novel Justine does apply a vigorously destructive analysis to received notions of morality, demonstrated through the maltreatment of the virtuous Justine herself.

It's hard to tell in Justine whether the story is just illustrative window dressing for the philosophical lectures, or whether the lectures (delivered by the manifold abuser characters) are just another method of inflicting the suffering that is central to the plot and its protagonist. It works, in either case. "Virtue is its own reward," indeed!

¿Puede alguien realmente soportar tanto? Lo crean o no al terminar la lectura ese fue mi pensamiento al finalizar la lectura, y se debe a que Justine paso por toda clase de vejaciones en pos de mantener su castidad (al menos en lo referente a su voluntad). Mi segundo pensamiento fue "Esa mujer tiene una pésima suerte", nuestra protagonista se encuentra en una constante lucha de poder contra el mundo inmoral, y ese mundo es más fuerte y poderoso que ella se ve afectada en varias ocasiones. Inclusive el final te deja con la sensación de que ella perdió esa batalla en más de un sentido además de que terminas feliz de que muriera, es el único momento en que deja de sufrir.

Leer a Sade es ver toda su filosofía amoral plasmada en cada show more página, misma que tiene tendencia a ejemplificar de manera en ocasiones grotesca, aunque por conversaciones que he tenido con otros lectores afirman que está obra es de las más light. A decir verdad cuando hoy veo este libro me hace recordar a varios libros mucho más recientes que se han desarrollado en el genero de terror.

¿Lo recomiendo? No, a menos que estes dispuesto a leer Julieta porque te deja con deseos de saber que sucedió con ella. show less

trigger warnings: Rape, sexual assault, beatings, incest, pedophilia, torture, child abuse, homophobia AND MORE!

When this book was billed to me as "17th Century French Erotica," I expected wattpad or indie romance, not rape after rape after rape and torture after torture after torture. But maybe I should have listened more to the 17th century portion.

While this book was truly awful in every aspect known to man, it was compulsive. I needed to know how much more stupid she was going to be. For instance, why did she meet up with her first rapist? What did she think was going to happen? Was this a good read? No. Did I have fun? No.

This book made me feel how early 2000s, middle aged, neck-bearded fantasy elitists felt about Twilight: How show more could she be so dumb?

1.43 rounded down show less

Once again, I'm just guessing at the publication date based on the style of the bk's 'tasteful' 'artistic' (ie: camouflaged) cover. For de Sade, this is borderline PG. IE: In contrast to his more full-blown SADISTIC work - some of wch I've never been able to bring myself to read.

De Sade's last paragraph begins:

Reader, this is a stark and tragic tale; but we hope that you have shed tears over the misfortunes of virtue [..]

De Sade dropped such pretenses later on.

At the end of this edition there's a note that reads:

The editor, an amiable old gentleman devoted to hearth and home, living in the bosom of a happy family, highly disapproves of most of the characters in this novel; and in no way can identify himself with their words or show more actions.

Ha ha! Ya never know, maybe the kids will find this one, right? So he'd better protect his ass lest they get the wrong idea. "What? Dad PUBLISHED THIS?!" Maybe the guy was serious. show less

One can only imagine De Sade cackling madly as he penned this hilarious and maybe even unintentional send-up of the self-righteous whiner. Narrated by Justine, a selfish, perpetually-stupid, "virtuous" princess-type who is shocked to find out that her beloved God is not her own personal Santa Claus, the book is rife with rants on the place of vice over virtue - some of which actually make some good points.

Mostly loved it, tired of it before the lame ending.