Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings

by Marquis de Sade, Richard Seaver (Translator, compiler), Austryn Wainhouse (Translator, compiler)

No other writer has so scandalized proper society as the Marquis de Sade, but despite the deliberate destruction of over three-quarters of his work, Sade remains a major figure in the history of ideas. His influence on some of the greatest minds of the last century—from Baudelaire and Swinburne to Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky and Kafka—is indisputable. This volume contains Philosophy in the Bedroom, a major novel that presents the clearest summation of his political philosophy; Eugénie de Franval, a novella widely considered to be a masterpiece of eighteenth-century French literature; and the only authentic and complete American edition of his most famous work, Justine. This literary portrait of Sade is completed by one of his earliest philosophical efforts, Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man, a selection of his letters, a fifty-page chronology of his life, two important essays on Sade, and a bibliography of his work.

Genres: Fiction, Philosophy, Classics, Erotica, Literature, France, Sexuality

784 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1791

About the author

A preoccupation with sexual violence characterizes novels, plays, and short stories that Donatien Alphonse François, comte de Sade but known as marquis de Sade, of France wrote. After this writer derives the word sadism, the deriving of sexual gratification from fantasies or acts that involve causing other persons to suffer physical or mental pain.

This aristocrat, revolutionary politician, and philosopher exhibited famous libertine lifestyle.

His works include dialogues and political tracts; in his lifetime, he published some works under his own name and denied authorship of apparently anonymous other works. His best erotic works combined philosophical discourse with pornography and depicted fantasies with an emphasis on criminality and blasphemy against the Catholic Church. Morality, religion or law restrained not his "extreme freedom." Various prisons and an insane asylum incarcerated the aristocrat for 32 years of his life: ten years in the Bastile, another year elsewhere in Paris, a month in Conciergerie, two years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, three years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie, and 13 years in the Charenton asylum. During the French revolution, people elected this criminal as delegate to the National Convention. He wrote many of his works in prison.

Reviews

[Harry Miktarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

what a sick bastard...I couldn't put it down.

[Danine · Rating 2 out of 5]

*yawn* I don't own this book anymore. It found a good home on a church pew.

[Don Rea · Rating 3 out of 5]

/Justine/ is little more than a prurient joyride unless you've read Rousseau. That is, it's a direct rebuttal of Rouseeau's notions of the noble savage and the social contract. De Sade presents man's unfettered urges as being driven by the pleasure of the moment, regardless of the cost to others. You either happen to be in a position to impose your desires, or you are the object of the desires of others, or both. The savage is not noble in any sense that we might recognize; he is merely a bundle of appetites, and he waits just below the patina of civilization for any chance to sate his lusts. De Sade brings his case to life with a story told in luxurious, nauseating detail.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

As one of the introductory authors mentioned "that those who read know of Sade, but very few ever actually read Sade." I was this person until I finally read this book. My one complaint is that prior to this I had never read Sade, so reading the introduction was a bit daunting. I didn't fully understand their references, those from his literature or historical. So if this is actually your first book of Sade's, or any of the others from this publisher, skip the introduction and read it at the end. The introductory essays seem to be written from the perspective of someone that expects their readers to be fairly well versed in Sade, a terrible thing if you never read Sade until now. So read them at the end and it won't ruin anything for you, rather they will enhance the work for you upon reading them in the end.

I will say this about the introductory material though, the section with the historical time-line was superb. I found it very interesting as well as useful. I have a couple other editions of De Sade's works and this one appears to be the best by far, aside from the fact it's not very friendly from a portable stand-point, but the writing/translations seem better than some others I've come across.

I would still say Sade is quite the controversial author and I've been getting into books of that nature as of late. As I am also currently reading Mein Kampf as I write this. I think a vast amount of people have opinions on these kinds of authors, but have never read their works. De Sade, for example, I think is typically unjustly demonized by a great many people. Hitler is a little more justified in being demonized, but I still think people should read his book before they start to exult some opinion on the person in detail. Sade, on the other hand, is little more complex and less obvious. His main problem is that he wrote Justine and in 18th century thinking, that is a grave enough sin in itself. Not so in the 20th century, though I don't think sadistic pleasure has fully outdone Sade yet, because he set a pretty strong precedent. Though, if he was going around doing the things he wrote about to women in "Justine," his demonization would be far more justified. As it is, he was involved with one girl, that was apparently willing at first, but changed her mind later. However, what was done is nothing compared to what he writes about or what is done to people nowadays, of course in that era, it was probably seen as far worse and shocking.

Either way, the French government went through lengths to try and destroy his works, but thankfully for those astute readers they are here for us to enjoy, or be reviled by, as it is up to the reader to decide. I stress that it is up to the reader, opinions on works not being read are useless in my point of view, all you can merely say at that point is that "it is not something that interests me," but one should not delve into a conversation about the work in question!

The first text is "Philsophy in the Bedroom," and what an interesting work that is. It is a mixture of philosophy, politics, and gratuitous sex. I will admit the homosexuality brought up in the writing caught me off guard at first, for it was unexpected. I typically do not go after that sort of writing, but the philosophical aspect is what kept me turning the pages. Though I must admit my own general deviancy, because some of the scenes were quite well done when the characters were not philsophizing. The part I struggled with though were the political discussions, I'm not an avid follower of politics in the 20th & 21st century, so I know quite a bit less about historical politics, unfortunately. I think a lot of the political discussions taking place between the characters focused on politics of that era (and are very specific to France), so any student of historical politics will likely find this vastly fascinating. The discusions on philosophy, such as the philosophy of crime leading to true freedom is quite a bit more interesting to me as I am more interested in philosophy in general. (Not that Sade has truly convinced me to go out and commit criminal acts by any means.) It shows that Sade was very well thought out in his writings because he makes fairly convincing arguments, though in terms of liberation, I believe it is up to the person. If you choose to live by such societal restrictions and your inner inhibitions coincide with the populace then you are free by your own point of view. If you find these things extremely limiting, then you are not free. I suspect Sade found societal normalcy a trapping that he sought to escape, thus he had a far different view on criminal acts.

The next two sections were relatively short, especially the discussion between a Priest and a Dying Man, which is essentially a satirical work. It clearly shows the lack of love Sade has for the church. Since I essentially agree with this sentiment, I had no problems with this, but those people out there who are religious may have an issue with this. However, I can't see the devoutly religious enjoying Sade's work and sexual vulgarity in the least to begin with. Next we have "Marie du Franval", also known as "Incest" from another publisher. This story is quite different than some of his other works, it's not nearly as explicit, but it does cross one of the more extreme taboo lines between father and daughter. Interestingly it does have a fairly unhappy ending for his main character who ends up losing what he loves most. A curious ending for Sade, since Sade preaches full liberty in most of his stories (regardless of who it would hurt). Perhaps this was merely written creatively to switch up his usual works, a break from the norm and to show, as an author, he can work outside of his comfort zone (so to speak).

The final part of this collection is the great apex of Sade's works. This is one of his most well known works and flows in conjunction, to a degree, with "Juliette." Here we have "Justine" the work that was Sade's undoing and got him put in prison, but made his works live on in infamy. This was, personally, my favorite tale in this entire collected works. That opinion, of course, may change as I read more, but so far I am summarily impressed. Justine has the greatest story and best blend of demented sex and philosophy in all the book. I can see why they saved this until the end. Justine is a lost child who seeks to guard her virtue above all other things. However, she is thrust through a sequence of very unfortunate circumstances and is debauched in some of the worst ways imaginable. However, all of her captors seem to be more than just a lout who is merely exacting pleasure for no reason. No, these characters a typically well educated, some are wealthy, and think about the philosophy and motivations of their particular desires. Not only do they think about their internal motivations, they are also happy to expound on this at length to their captives! The pinnacle of this is by far when she is taken captive by the monks, and I won't ruin it for anyone, but I'm sure this particular section is what did Sade in. Justine can never seem to "get saved" but rather goes from clutches to clutches of various captors, when all she wants is to live a wholesome life that she can be proud of. This will never be the case for her, and she is very disillusioned with life by the end. In the end the reader feels it is a very tragic tale over all. However, we'll see a wholly different perspective with her sister Juliette.

A lot of people see the sadism and the lascivous sex as the trademark of Sade's work, others walk away having a different perspective on life in general. I feel I am one of the latter, because I had never particularly thought of the philosophy of commiting crimes. While some of the sexual deviancy is very strong, I felt I could stomach them better because they were written (of course doing a lot of this stuff in real life is very illegal, and some would likely kill a person), but if you are particularly weak hearted then this may be a text to avoid. All some people want to read are the sex scenes and they want to skip the philosophy, this is probably a lot easier to pull off. I would say the works are typically about half and half in terms of philosophy versus sex, and I found the mixture is really what kept me turning the pages. I always wanted to find out what the next antogonist of vices had in store for me next, and how would Justine react to that particular philosopher! All in all, I would recommend this great work, but I realize that this is surely not a work for everyone, so if what I've said appeals to you, read it, if not, don't read it.

[Rayna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Marquis De Sade is definitely a required taste. Not many can sit and read his vulgar words, but I could enjoy them daily. Justine is one of his greatest works, and this book comes with many other little haunting tales to keep you on the edge of your seat.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sade is nothing if not a challenge. Not because of the predictable outraged sentiments of moral squeamishness or censorious prudery; rather, to those who cannot be scandalized by the mere content of fiction and find pornographic one-upmanship tedious, Sade is a bore. His prolix monomania exemplifies—perhaps even instantiates—what modernists would later call épater les bourgeoisie… ad nauseum. The pattern is brutally mind-numbing: an eloquent encomium to murder, incest, atheism, theft, sodomy, misogyny, parricide/infanticide, etc., then a luridly detailed rape-torture-orgy. Repeat for 600 pages. Entire chunks of speeches are repeated almost verbatim. In Philosophy in the Bedroom, Dolmance is the lone stand-in for Sade, but in Justine, the utterly pointless shifts in setting and character (Justine escapes, is promptly immured again) serve only to introduce dozens of pseudonymous Sades. A dogmatic concept of Nature, and its embodiment in the ludicrous sensory materialism of “sensations” and “impressions,” serves to truncate any actual philosophical inquiry into right and wrong. The alibi of Nature is the God that failed, natural science and intellectual history having been unkind to such a baldly self-serving and callow ideology.

The opening gestures in Eugenie de Franval and Justine are the apex of mockery and dissimulation: in these writings, he positions himself as a Man of Virtue humbly and reluctantly sharing a tale of woeful debauchery simply so that others may learn and avoid such catastrophes. What he does not say is that the catastrophe—in his eyes—is that of Virtue itself, not its chastisement. By such ruses he hoped to sow his seeds in unsuspecting breasts, convincing them (not that the pious offer much resistance to the splendid spectacle of sin, as long as it is sandwiched between the thinnest layers of sanctimony) in the name of cold, objective morality to indulge in the exquisiteness of all flesh and crime in order to emerge more fortified to combat it. It’s what today goes by the name “atrocity tourism” and has found such mainstream outlets as blockbuster torture films and round-the-clock war porn. Why can’t you look away? Isn’t it just… awwwwful?

So why read Sade? I wanted to better understand Horkheimer and Adorno’s essay in Dialectic of Enlightenment and Lacan’s “Kant avec Sade.” Sade (and to a lesser extent Nietzsche) is a paper tiger, a scurrilous frisson only for the immature and ill-informed. Such demonic figures in literature demand to be read rather than to ride out their reputations on murmurs and allusions. What generations of readers and scholars have found is that regardless of what one makes of Sade’s predilections, he is a brilliant stylist and an often-imitated-but-never-replicated philosophical provocateur. Freethinkers of every persuasion owe him a debt of gratitude for the courageous vehemence of his atheism; it’s undeniable that he took one (and two and three) for the team. That’s not merely metaphorical: Sade was imprisoned time and again for what he preached, not what he practiced. His virtue (sic) is in forcing us to think beyond every custom and constraint. When we desire, is it Nature, Culture, or Ideology that animates us?

What Sade cannot be forgiven—and that for which we owe him our attentions—has nothing to do with the sexual barbarities which had to take his very name. Walter Benjamin exhorted would-be revolutionaries to reject cynicism inasmuch as it is the predominant mode of the ruling class. After reading Justine, the unavoidable conclusion is that it is much worse than cynicism; it is downright Sadism. The unbridled egoism, self-aggrandizing social Darwinism, and blunt admission that the wealthy and powerful are beyond the reach of common law are all still recognizable pillars of our social edifice. Sade could do whatever he wanted in his boudoir, pen any perversity imaginable, but the moment he bluntly confessed and championed the aristocratic double standard in an age of liberty, equality, and fraternity, his censure was swift and irremediable. The sententious outrage over “public decency and manners,” far from refuting such a thesis, substantiates it: vitriol over exposed parts throws a shroud over exposed parties.

The volume is commendably introduced by the translators and the publisher, each offering a concise contextualization and Caveat Lector, although I skipped Paulhan’s (judicious) and Blanchot’s (too adulatory) essays until the end. Sade is not required reading, neither enjoyable nor edifying, and I could not wait to be done. Most of it is inane or mere shock value, some is scathing and trenchant, and just a little is magnificent. If God had not created Sade it would have been necessary for us to invent him.

[January Carroll · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a load of dribbling moronic crap! No really, why would a man in prison for more than 40 years equate sex with death and pain and a pathological fear, loathing and desire to subjugate women? Please! The fact that people worship him as a genius is pathetic. I read this book originally as research for something I thought I wanted to write at the time to "rescue" the Justine character.
I changed my mind after I read this ludicrous, infantile treatise. No redeeming qualities, but you have to give it one star to be able to review it.

[Squire · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Maurice Blanchot points out in his excellent essay in Part One of this book, de Sade is the one author that people have heard about, but few have read. After I graduated with a BA in Literature, I put de Sade on my TBR since I had not been exposed to his work. But the more I heard about the man, the less I was inclined to read him. Finally, in 2005, I settled on The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings to be my first de Sade (I was fascinated by the scarcity and cost of the movie "Salo;" since it was beyond my price range, I decided to read the book.)
I abandoned it at the 1/3 point of 120 Days. Any story or plot was abandoned and the book became merely a laundry list of sexual perversities and atrocities. Since de Sade decided not to really finish the work, why should I bother to finish it?

I have no intention of going back there.

So that brings me to 2013. I'm on a kick to get a lot of "classics" of my TBR, so I considered de Sade again. I've always been fascinated by the title Philosophy in the Bedroom, plus I'd heard that Justine was his best work.

Summing up de Sade's philosophy in one short paragraph is impossible and would do him a disservice--but I'll ty. He is part anarchist, part sexual fetishist, and part feminist. He advocates a society where the strong (rich and powerful) use the weak (everyone else) as objects of pleasure without fear of legal reprisal. Since one act can be a crime in one country (sodomy, incest, thievery, etc.), but not be a crime 200 leagues distant, no true definiton of Crime exists under Nature (even murder would be allowed since Nature requires destruction of one matter for the creation of other.) And since Nature endowed man with all the instincts that help him derive pleasure from existence, the freedom to pursue pleasure in it's many forms should be uninhibited. The weak must submit to the pleasures of the strong. He advocates the strong respect each other's freedom, but he admits that they are under no obligation to do so.

Part One contains critical and biographical information on The Marquis. The critical essays by Jean Paulhan and Blanchot are both insightful and excellent, though I found Blanchot's more helpful in understanding de Sade's philosophy. If I were to give any advice to a reader unfamiliar with de Sade who is getting ready to dive in to this book, I would recommend reading Blanchot's as the introduction and saving Paulhan's for after they've read Justine. Blanchot's deals mostly with Juliette; while that work is not contained in this compilation, Blanchot uses it brilliantly as a foil to talk about Justine and he makes references to Philosophy and Eugenie de Franval: all to bring focus on the fidelity of de Sade to his philosophy. While Paulhan's essay specifically focuses on Justine, I felt I needed first-hand experience with the text to really comprehend the essay. I reread it after finishing Justine and found it more enlightening.

The biographical information is interesting as in sheds light on de Sade's "crimes." While de Sade was indeed a criminal, it's amusing to note that his biggest crime was being an embarrassment to the family he married into. His mother-in-law obtained a lettre de cachet which allowed her to keep de Sade in various prisons for most of his life. And since he couldn't act on his whims and fantasies, he wrote about them.

Part One concludes with a selection of the Marquis' correspondence from various prisons and his Last Will and Testament. Through the letters, de Sade's passion for his lifestyle and his anger over his situation come through eloquently. His will convinces the reader that, even though he espouses a sexual freedom that is perplexing at best, he probably did love his wife and held her in high regard. It's actually one of the few touching moments in the book.

Part Two contains Dialog Between a Priest and a Dying Man and Philosophy in the Bedroom. Atheism is the foundation of de Sade's philosophy and in Priest he makes his point about that quickly and succintly. Then he makes it again. And again. And again. But I can't say that this short piece is not entertaining. Philosophy concerns the education of a 15-year-old girl from a convent in the ways of libertinage. It is essentially a threesome, turned into a foursome, turned into a five-way that philosophizes about the joys of sodomy, incest and murder. Not my cup-of-tea; but it ends with a shocking act of revenge that makes most of the horror books I read seem pretty tame. There is a 40-page section of where one of the characters reads a pamphlet concerning the type of society France should become after the Revoltuion which I suppose is the purpose of his writing, but it bogs the story down.

Part Three contains the novella-length Eugenie de Franval and Justine. It's interesting to note that de Sade's "moral" fiction presents the dangers that libertines can present to society--he warns his readers that he must relate such horrors to let them know what to expect; while, of course, satifying his own desire to exercise the freedom given to him by Nature. Eugenie is actually well-written and engaging--and horrifying and tragic. There are a couple of passages not included in the orginal published version of the story that were found among de Sade's papers that show he was trying to expand upon the narrative. These are presented in the text, but italicized. Overall, a disquieting, but enjoyable read.

Justine is about two sisters who are orphaned. The older (Juliette--whose story is the subject of another of de Sade's books) is seduced by the ways of libertinage and prospers; the younger, Justine, is full of compassion and virtue and she suffers endlessly for it. De Sade takes ample opportunity to rehash his philosophies on atheism, sodomy, incest, thievery and murder, in the various punishments inflicted upon poor Justine.

This time, he includes platitudes on the role of women in his vision: "A puny creature, always inferior to man, infinitely less attractive than he, less ingenious, less wise, constructed in a disgusting manner entirely opposite of what is capable of pleasing a man... shrewish, bitter, and thwart: a tyrant if you allow her privileges, mean, vile, a sneak in bondage; always false, forever mischeivous, constantly dangerous..." He doesn't have a high opinion of women and allows that she only exists to provide what pleasure she can to natural man. But being so unenamored of women, it's interesting that he chooses make women his titular heroines. It's only the women who resist man's libertinage that he finds appalling; he seems to have quite an affection for women who submit to the pleasure of libertinage: Madame de Saint-Ange and Eugenie in Philosophy and Juliette. So, in one sense, de Sade is encouraging women to break the ties that have kept them in bondage throughout history and become what nature has intended for them all along (he does make it clear that the pains inflicted upon those who don't accept the ways of the libertine can be even more enjoyable.) So, in his own weird and demented way, de Sade is a feminist.

In the end, de Sade is someone who needs to be read, if only to gain an understanding of the extremes of philosophy. I have gotten what I desired out of exposing myself to this vile, yet fascinating figure. But now I'm toying with the notion of undertaking a reading of Juliette. I mentioned, a long time ago it seems, that I didn't finish 120 Days because I felt that de Sade didn't finish it. But Justine is only the first part of what he ultimately envisioned--Juliette is the second part of La Nouvelle Justine. I think I want to, eventually, finish with that vision.

Dialog Between a Priest and a Dying Man: 3 stars
Philosophy in the Bedroom: 2 stars
Eugenie de Franval: 4 stars
Justine: 4 stars

[Frankie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a difficult book to read. The biographical information and his correspondence are interesting, but this fiction of his is ridiculous. I've racked my brain trying to vindicate the time I've wasted; trying to lend allegorical weight to Sade's philosophy. If the dispensable horrors in Philosophy in the Bedroom and Justine are meant to be satire or reverse psychology, Sade is absolutely awful at it. Perhaps he's like that introvert at a dinner party who carries a joke too far. But once you look at his life, it's clear there's no satire here, nor any need of it.

Of the few things I appreciate, his analytical chats on homosexuality and the gray areas between sexual activity for sport or propagation – these were strong, however often repeated and over-emphasized. Even some of his atheism, anti-law and anti-cleric digressions hold ground. But what undermines these arguments is that they come from the mouths of his antagonists, who in the same breath preach murder, torture, sublimation of the weak, incest, statutory rape, etc. You cannot convince me that Sade meant to use Swiftian sarcasm to shed a criminalizing light on evil men. He describes their crimes with such pornographic and bestial detail, makes his criminals so much wiser than their victims, that it just seems clear to me that they are the heroes. Also, his atheistic dogma is replaced by worship of the goddess Nature. This is one of many philosophic contradictions.

Before reading this, I thought libertinage meant drinking, drugs, promiscuity – basically the rock 'n roll lifestyle. The libertinage of Sade involves (at least in his imagination) rape, torture and murder. Whatever makes the libertine happy, regardless of consequence, which in his characters translates as cruelty to others. In the 20-something scenes of this behavior in Justine, I don't mind the scatological fetishes, blood-letting, piercing suspension or strangulation orgies, for example, since he describes these things in simple terms. To be frank, it's his hyperbolic descriptions of engulfing showers of sperm, penises of forearm proportions, and voluptuously tight asses.

His heroine Justine marches blindly ahead, remaining virtuous and kind, while every stranger she meets takes carnal advantage of her, each one with a larger and more menacing phallus (literally). Sade must mean for his readers to see her as stupid and arrogant above all else. If the hero doesn't defend herself, is she implicit in the crime? I don't know, but I'm sick of thinking in this vein. No more. If anyone is ever tempted to read Justine, proceed to the final 5 pages where Justine summarizes the plot.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ummmm, what can I say about a book that De Sade has written? If you know about this Libertine Man than you know how his books are going to be. It took me a long time to find these books in the US due to them being banned for a while but I did acquire them, Juliette and Justine, what a wild insatiable appetite this unusual man, or beast as some have called him, had. I truly can not tell you which book was better because they in the shallow sense were the same but in the in depth sense they were a mind F. I got and read these books years ago but just did a reread recently and they never seem to fail the senses.

[Deborah]

This is weird, but at times I wondered if de sade was an early feminist. His athiestic tirades were dead on, but his rants on women's inferiority were so ridiculous that I wondered if he were "pulling a Jonathan Swift." Folks who have read 120 days of Sadom say not, but I still wonder. I did enjoy it for the philosophy, assinine and not so much, and the kinkiness was not that extreme, except the bleeding one. I loved how he killed her off at the end and by the end he was calling her feeble because she never learned, not once.

[Erik Graff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dad obtained this book in paperback right after Grove Press put it out in '65. For a while it sat in the bookshelf in the living room, then it disappeared into the parental bedroom where, of course, I quickly rediscovered it. Being about thirteen at the time, I found Philosophy in the Bedroom to be stimulating in its earlier parts, but its conclusion and its companion book, Justine, were off-putting.

Later, after I'd entered high school, I actually sat down and read the introduction to the volume by Simone deBeauvior, an essay about Sade and the close connection between his overt sadism and covert masochism. It was actually quite clever, quite well written.

Now, as an adult no longer mystified by sex, I still wonder at someone like the Marquis deSade. His work, such as I've seen, is rather repetitive and boring. Yet he was prodigious in its production and this despite repeated treatments and punishments. Was the essence of his obsession a rebellious spirit and perverse sexuality merely the convenient channel for its expression as suggested by the recent film, Quills?

Freud once wrote that sado-masochism was one of the greater mysteries of human psychology. His late Thanatos theory was an attempt to get at it, but I do not find it convincing.

[Kathy Stone · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book. I found it very hard to read because of the sexually explicit content. I personally could never be a libertine because the whole idea of sodomy just disgusts me. Bisexual orgies I find extremely revolting and so this book took much longer to read than I had anticipated. The ripping open of a person's anus is just one act that I find completely reprehensible. The sexual acts are supposed to bring a husband and wife together. These passions are expected to be bridled so that children conceived will no that they are loved and wanted. These particular novels did not show husbands that loved their wives rather the few married men written about were into debauchery and incest. Children were not wanted and that was why sodomy of women was permitted because than there was no threat of pregnancy. Virtue is not rewarded in these novels, but rather severely punished by consistent rape and other forms of abuse. I am aware that de Sade is the reason for the term "sado-masochism. I personally do not believe that sex needs to involve pain,nor do I believe that homosexuality is normal. That may go against today's political thinking, but I need to stick with what I believe. I would not recommend this book.

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

I wrote my dissertation on this. Before it got popular.

Little known fact : Lacan got his Kant avec Sade thesis from that dissertation. Irc, it was a footnote buried somewhere in a discussion of Hegel's thesis about absolute recoil in relation to the transition into the philosophy of nature. Really just a very minor point that the Charlatan de Lacan turned into something that Zizek found sexy.

[Sonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erudit porn at it's best. A god of human sexual perversion.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with all of the Marquis de Sade's work is that it's one-handed reading mixed in with endless pages of "philosophy" (actually, more like "thought diarrhea").

Le Marquis was neither a great writer (in French or in translation) nor a great thinker. He did compile a lot of ideas that I may never have run into otherwise (coprophagia being one example, "foutre" in the passe simple another).

I read the Marquis in my late teens. What I recall are variations of gratuitous rape, anal sex, coprophilia, virgins of high virture and good birth (France clearly produced thousands of them) that are kidnapped and ravaged, and prolonged dining scenes of magnificent overeating interspersed with people sitting around having debates about great concepts that weren't very interesting.

It's not reading for the squeamish; after a while if you continue you have to start wondering if you qualify as a psychopath.

Two stars because in small quantities it's ... unique.

[John Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sade's spittle and bile for polite society is never on better display than here. As he probably would have predicted, we've become worse and more hypocritical than ever before. Progress is a myth; we like to pretend we've become transgressive, but in fact we've only turned sex and violence into cartoons - in fact we're scandalized more than ever by the real. This is particularly true among the progressives, leftists, and liberal priests who like to walk around and prattle about liberty while being as oppressive as any regressive hypocrite - the difference is we, the left, have managed to push our fears underground, where they've grown uglier and larger than we can imagine.

Sade would have loved to be alive today in our culture of prudery. If Sade were working today, there'd be some truly revolutionary art . . . not to take anything away from Justine or Philosophy in the Bedroom.

[Rosita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book makes me wonder why now we are so shock for this practices, but we keep doing them in silence and as taboo? I read this book again recently, and its just weird to read it and think how people think of 50 shades of gray being "too much".
I love it, the way its written, the crude of the moments and the descriptions leaving just a very vague empty space, but most of all I want to know and I keep reading it, and I feel anger, as a woman, I do feel angry, but the writer had me in the net, and I need to finish the book, it happens every time.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as horrific as I thought it would be, vastly more horrific than I ever dreamed. I need to wash out my brain and simultaneously re-evaluate some things. (The fact that Sade was a politician as well as a sex trafficker, rapist and thug adds a whole other ironic element to this fiasco of an erotic treatise.)

[Milka · Rating 1 out of 5]

You should definitely read it, if only for the fact that de Sade is a classic as far as erotica goes. But were it not that the book would end up as trash faster than you can say "God, why? why!?"
Characters are flat, plot is ridiculus and supposedly erotic scenes vary from boring to just plainly laughable.

[Tom Nittoli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me preface that three stars is my default rating for anything I don't feel qualified to accurately assess. Although I've read a handful of literature spawning from the eighteenth century, I've in fact read no pornographic tales of lecherous old men, debauchery, and pious charlatans masquerading as important figures with a hankering for despotism, rape, and .....

The two essays in the beginning are very helpful for context and explanatory notes. They work almost like a narrator setting the time, place, vibe, etc.

Philosophy in the Bedroom, works in a interesting systematic orchestra of lustful sex followed closely by philosophic debate, and by debate, I mean long diatribes that invoke the reader to imagine a Shakespearean soliloquy where the actor is highlighted by a spotlight droning out the background. The sex is... good? I guess. The philoshpy is .... well-said? At times... I guess. The concept of a sex scene followed by six pages of one character talking.... not too great.

Justine is the crowning achievement.

[Keith Rada · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ordinarily I advocate listening to an entire argument, even if you disagree. Nevertheless, I couldn't finish this. It was the most depraved, graphic sexuality I've ever read, which aside from the cringe factor just became tiring after a while, as I read through trying to get to Sade's political philosophy. There were aspects of his arguments that I agreed with: removing the constraints of religion from the state, a relative acceptance of consensual activity between adults... except that he wasn't arguing for consensual sex. Sade's position was that a person of power possesses the right, under 'natural law', to do as he or she wishes with the weaker party, up to and including murder. This is a profoundly disturbing argument, and I found that his use of it to justify crimes such as murder, abuse, or rape, to seriously undermine the rest of his arguments, even those that I agreed with. In the end, the grotesque sexuality became overbearing: not just a distraction, but a nuisance. I returned the book to the library, unfinished.

[Robert Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where to start. First, I could not find one word or idea in Sade’s libertinage philosophy that I could agree with. It may work in theory, but in practice, in reality it would be impossible to work.
There were some moments in this book that shocked me and I do not shock easily. It is a tough read and is definitely not for the faint of heart.
The ending note to Justine is a bit puzzling and casts confusion on what Sade was actually trying to argue. Unless I am looking too much into it. The rating and the review is what it is, my opinion. I read this because I wanted to see just how controversial it really was. I can see why it definitely ruffled feathers in his day and why it would still do so today.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, given the history surrounding these publications and the fate of the author, but disturbing. I can't help like feeling that De Sade wrote these tales just to be shocking, much like if you were to scream out "F*ck!" during a religous ceremony, or the way a child says words they know are unpermissible just to see what will happen. The dialogue between the raunchy parts is occasionally interesting (if you can concentrate on it) and the discussions on homosexuality and abortions are still relevant today. Funny how some things never change...

[Isabel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read Justine. This is essentially early torture porn that manages to be both disgusting and tedious at the same time starring one of the most dim witted heroines known to literary history. A series of kidnappings and trusting all the wrong people followed by enslavement and repeated rape and torture on an endless loop. I only read this because of its entry on the 1001 books list which I find puzzling. I skimmed huge sections because it was just too gross.

[Xiiz Iikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

ohhhhh baby, this is a fantastic book to end the year with. as opposed to his more prurient writings like the 120 days of sodom, this book is far more intellectually stimulating as it has much deeper philosophical implications which delve into exposing hypocrisy surrounding what we perceive right or wrong and virtue versus evil through erotica. yep it's really fascinating how he uses eroticism as a tool for philosophical exploration - not just an outlet for sexual gratification alone.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

When reading Justine, be warned that the dinosaurs evolved, lived and died in the time it takes for some of this book's characters to make speeches. Some of it is interesting, but most of it is 'blahblahblah I like to hear myself talk - so I'm talking and you're a twit for listening to me raa-aaaamble lalalala'

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me break down the plot of Justine for you: rape...trust...rape...trust...rape...trust...rape.

[Lorena · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh.

[Princesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something that one reads once and then again. Makes one think of what is moral, what boundaries should or should not be tested.

Scary to some, thrilling to others.