What do You think about Justine (2003)?
This is primarily a book of philosophy...which is not to say that it isn't also filled with fairly graphic (in an 18th century kind of way) scenes of every kind of sex act imanginable. The philosophy is that of the merits of vice vs. virtue. The protagonist (a virtuous woman) falls prey to a series of libertines who use and abuse her in whatever ways they deem pleasurable to themselves. Some of these tribulations are inflicted as the result of chance events while others result from Justine/Therese's exercise of her virtue, but each of her abusers spends a good deal of time explaining to her why the exercise of their vices is their right, is inevitable, and cannot be thwarted by appeals to virtue. The constant falling of Therese into peril reminded me of the storyline Voltaire employed in attacking the philosophy of "the best of all possible worlds" in Candide. It's hard to tell throughout the book on which side of the vice/virtue argument de Sade falls but most people - based on "conventional wisdom" - assume that it's on the side of vice. The ending to this story will surprise you.
—Dan Porter
Set in the 18th Century, this book was very controversial for its time and now I understand why.But, nowadays, I think that it is difficult to shock anyone due to the information we can get.So, my opinion of this book is that it is not a great story, but rather a philosophical quest to find what is good and evil and, what kind of gains can be obtained by choosing one of them. While Justine is good in her heart she is treated under all the evils in the world, she suffers alot but she remains true to her beliefs; on the other hand, the perpetradors of her misfortunes become rich and successful.But somehow she becomes annoying because she is too naive, too innocent, too good, too everything!...noone is like that after what she has been through!...
—Diana Marques
It is precisely the Misfortunes of Virtue which Sade illuminates in Justine. Virtue, personified in Justine, is perpetually confronted by misfortune, and subdued by an omnipresent force, which, as expected from the Marquis, drips animalistic eroticism. Justine is, inarguably, a novel on depravity, but beyond its blatant decadent literature, Justine is also to be seen and appreciated as a historical document -- a passionate chronicle and assessment of a culture not governed by law, but through the despotic monarchy of King Louis XVI. It is, essentially, a work of political philosophy and a critique of Revolutionary France.Despite its ardent imagery the novel expands beyond the prurient joyride evident in its erotic style. That is to say, Justine is a candid rebuttal of Rousseau’s views of the noble savage and the social contract. The Marquis expounds man's unfettered indulgence as being fueled by momentary impulse and pleasure-- blind to consequence, or affliction to others. In the Sadean demimonde, characters (and people), were placed in either a position to impose their desires or as the objects upon which the desires of others were imposed upon -- occasionally a character enjoys the magnificence of the two. The Marquis’s savage is not noble in any perceivable sense, but rather merely a bundle of lustful appetites sulking underneath the patina of civilization, anticipating the occasion to be satiated. Sade not only boldly decorated the macabre side of humanity, but he also glorified it and gave it a name—libertinism. He did so by drafting the most luxurious, nauseating, and magnetizing piece of writing since Ovid’s Erotic Poems. Justine is, arguably, the most extraordinary novel of the Marquis; the horrors narrated evoke a plethora of emotions in the reader—one minute inducing uninhibited sexual arousal, shortly after the arousal gives way to anguish, anguish to desperation, desperation into repudiation, until repudiation finally precipitates into cholera. It’s grotesque, inhumane, fascinating, and extraordinarily compelling. Admittedly, I was simultaneously horrified and strangely captivated by Justine.
—Claudia Hernandez
