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A review by generalheff
Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue by John Phillips, Marquis de Sade
1.0
An atrocious book, I cannot overstate how much this is to be avoided. From the action to the message, the plot to the characters, this book has nothing to redeem it whatsoever.
The novel follows Justine - a personification of virtue - as she describes her life to her sister Juliette. The siblings were separated in their teens. Juliette, as we briefly hear in the novel's opening, took advantage of everyone, stole and murdered, and ended up doing rather well. Justine, as we are told for the rest of the book, attempted to live an honourable life but is thrown from one unimaginable situation of sexual exploitation and cruelty to another up to the present encounter with Juliette.
The book is, then, just a catalogue of descriptions of the ritualistic rape, torture and murder of (mostly) women by (mostly) men - interspersed with the various antagonists tediously and pedantically explaining to Justine why their despicable antics are justified.
So let's take these two features. First, the action of the novel. Justine somehow manages to fall into the arms of (what I truly hope are) one in a billion men, more evil and cruel than most any person who has ever lived. She describes being incarcerated in a monastery, for example, with 14 other women (as young as 12 - yes paedophilia is a strong theme in this book) who must serve in every way four monks, including taking part in orgies where they are repeatedly raped, beaten, subjected to bizarre tortures (think: standing on stools until so weak they fall onto a bed of thorns) and much more besides. These scenes are, in short, gratuitous and exceptionally unpleasant to read. The effect of them also lessens: one awful such scene in a novel would be shocking and possibly serve a purpose. Almost a whole book of them leaves the reader feeling numb. Moreover, so many such scenes make it plain that we are listening to Sade's fantasies more than reading a work of fiction meant for wider consumption.
Speaking of which: it is impossible not to think of Sade when reading this. Of course, novels about awful things don't necessarily incriminate the author. But a short bit of reading about Sade throws up some fairly relevant facts. He spent 30 of his 74 years in prison - primarily for crimes like whipping prostitutes, cutting and pouring hot wax on a widow and drugging women. Given all this, it is impossible not to feel uncomfortable reading what are already deeply unpleasant scenes when you are conscious that Sade would have largely enjoyed the tales of torture and rape. Sade also clearly shares the searing misogyny that almost explodes off of every page; he endorsed 'sexual communism' where women are treated as property and must be receptive to all sexual advances. The many instances of women being shared amongst men clearly highlights Sade's interest in such a dystopia world.
The second aspect of the novel is the many lectures given to Justine by people when she attempts to point out their awful behaviour. These are pseudo-philosophic attempts to justify (presumably) Sade's own passions. These justifications usually follow the same pattern: nature has made me (the rapist currently torturing you) like this, nothing nature does is unnatural therefore me indulging my fantasies is OK. Beyond this, the book rails against Christianity - it is no coincidence that four of the villains are monks. And it is routinely made clear that Justine's desperate attempts to be good are ridiculous: those who follow the way of vice prosper; those who hew to a Christian definition of virtue suffer.
But as John Gray pointed out in his treatise on Atheism ([b:Seven Types of Atheism|36482672|Seven Types of Atheism|John N. Gray|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561468449l/36482672._SY75_.jpg|58193250]), at the same time as Sade is pointing out all he finds absurd with religion he is at the same time simply imbuing Nature with good and evil, vice and virtue, and purpose. In other words, he has grafted his own just-as-arbitrary set of aims and morals onto Nature and then opted to live by them, precisely what he criticises Christianity for in Justine. So not only are his philosophical asides poor attempts to gloss his monstrous fantasies, they are not even consistent criticisms of religion.
So much for the action and the message. What of the characters or the plot? I think this is the final nail in the coffin. This book is utterly dull. Yes it's full of unimaginably awful sexual encounters and yes it (for late 18th century France) would have been profoundly scandalous for its blistering invective against religion - all of which should at least have rendered the book in some way interesting. But at its core, the book is a monotonous and emotionally deadening series of perverse fantasies pockmarked with tedious monologues.
As for characters: What characters? Justine merely serves as a narrator's device to give us all the grisly details of the sexual exploitation on offer. What character she has is faintly ridiculous: if the world were even remotely as dangerous as this one is - that is, every person you encounter abducts, imprisons and serially rapes and tortures you - then the only logical thing to do would be to never approach anyone, offer anyone help or believe anyone was good. But Justine learns nothing. This is, of course, all part of Sade's point on the stupidity of Christian virtue, but this totally eliminates any chance of rending Justine - or anyone else for that matter - believable or engaging.
This is, all in all, a 260 page justification of Sade's deranged mind and a deeply unpleasant and upsetting read. Only read if you really do not value your time or happiness.
The novel follows Justine - a personification of virtue - as she describes her life to her sister Juliette. The siblings were separated in their teens. Juliette, as we briefly hear in the novel's opening, took advantage of everyone, stole and murdered, and ended up doing rather well. Justine, as we are told for the rest of the book, attempted to live an honourable life but is thrown from one unimaginable situation of sexual exploitation and cruelty to another up to the present encounter with Juliette.
The book is, then, just a catalogue of descriptions of the ritualistic rape, torture and murder of (mostly) women by (mostly) men - interspersed with the various antagonists tediously and pedantically explaining to Justine why their despicable antics are justified.
So let's take these two features. First, the action of the novel. Justine somehow manages to fall into the arms of (what I truly hope are) one in a billion men, more evil and cruel than most any person who has ever lived. She describes being incarcerated in a monastery, for example, with 14 other women (as young as 12 - yes paedophilia is a strong theme in this book) who must serve in every way four monks, including taking part in orgies where they are repeatedly raped, beaten, subjected to bizarre tortures (think: standing on stools until so weak they fall onto a bed of thorns) and much more besides. These scenes are, in short, gratuitous and exceptionally unpleasant to read. The effect of them also lessens: one awful such scene in a novel would be shocking and possibly serve a purpose. Almost a whole book of them leaves the reader feeling numb. Moreover, so many such scenes make it plain that we are listening to Sade's fantasies more than reading a work of fiction meant for wider consumption.
Speaking of which: it is impossible not to think of Sade when reading this. Of course, novels about awful things don't necessarily incriminate the author. But a short bit of reading about Sade throws up some fairly relevant facts. He spent 30 of his 74 years in prison - primarily for crimes like whipping prostitutes, cutting and pouring hot wax on a widow and drugging women. Given all this, it is impossible not to feel uncomfortable reading what are already deeply unpleasant scenes when you are conscious that Sade would have largely enjoyed the tales of torture and rape. Sade also clearly shares the searing misogyny that almost explodes off of every page; he endorsed 'sexual communism' where women are treated as property and must be receptive to all sexual advances. The many instances of women being shared amongst men clearly highlights Sade's interest in such a dystopia world.
The second aspect of the novel is the many lectures given to Justine by people when she attempts to point out their awful behaviour. These are pseudo-philosophic attempts to justify (presumably) Sade's own passions. These justifications usually follow the same pattern: nature has made me (the rapist currently torturing you) like this, nothing nature does is unnatural therefore me indulging my fantasies is OK. Beyond this, the book rails against Christianity - it is no coincidence that four of the villains are monks. And it is routinely made clear that Justine's desperate attempts to be good are ridiculous: those who follow the way of vice prosper; those who hew to a Christian definition of virtue suffer.
But as John Gray pointed out in his treatise on Atheism ([b:Seven Types of Atheism|36482672|Seven Types of Atheism|John N. Gray|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561468449l/36482672._SY75_.jpg|58193250]), at the same time as Sade is pointing out all he finds absurd with religion he is at the same time simply imbuing Nature with good and evil, vice and virtue, and purpose. In other words, he has grafted his own just-as-arbitrary set of aims and morals onto Nature and then opted to live by them, precisely what he criticises Christianity for in Justine. So not only are his philosophical asides poor attempts to gloss his monstrous fantasies, they are not even consistent criticisms of religion.
So much for the action and the message. What of the characters or the plot? I think this is the final nail in the coffin. This book is utterly dull. Yes it's full of unimaginably awful sexual encounters and yes it (for late 18th century France) would have been profoundly scandalous for its blistering invective against religion - all of which should at least have rendered the book in some way interesting. But at its core, the book is a monotonous and emotionally deadening series of perverse fantasies pockmarked with tedious monologues.
As for characters: What characters? Justine merely serves as a narrator's device to give us all the grisly details of the sexual exploitation on offer. What character she has is faintly ridiculous: if the world were even remotely as dangerous as this one is - that is, every person you encounter abducts, imprisons and serially rapes and tortures you - then the only logical thing to do would be to never approach anyone, offer anyone help or believe anyone was good. But Justine learns nothing. This is, of course, all part of Sade's point on the stupidity of Christian virtue, but this totally eliminates any chance of rending Justine - or anyone else for that matter - believable or engaging.
This is, all in all, a 260 page justification of Sade's deranged mind and a deeply unpleasant and upsetting read. Only read if you really do not value your time or happiness.