Justine, as a woman thrown out to fend for herself at the age of fourteen, tries to live a good life. A good Christian girl, she sticks to her morals. Some good it does her. She seems the unluckiest girl in the world.
Unlucky to the point that when she runs away from a crazed incest loving sadistic paedophile and tries to take refuge in a monastery, she finds that the monks are actually, guess what? Debauched sadists!
This contrasts with the life of her sister, who manages to seduce, murder and deceive her way into high society and live a life of immoral luxury. So, the question is, who will come out on top? Will virtue eventually be rewarded? Will moral crimes be somehow punished? Or is pleasure, rather than morality, truly the way to make it in life?
Sadism is named after the good Marquis, and you can see why. Every man in this book seems to like nothing more than molesting innocent girls and attacking young flesh with whips. However it is also witty, philosophical, and quite short on the gory details, seeing as it was written in the 1700s. De Sade was still imprisoned and declared insane for publishing this novel, and it still hold the power to fascinate. Tales of weird depravity alternate with the perpetrators' moral justifications, as they try to persuade innocent Justine to join their libertine lifestyles.
I haven't finished this book yet, but she's already been whipped quite a lot, lost two toes, her money, and her virginity, been branded with fire, and generally molested and beaten in every way. Her naivety and attempts to appeal to the goodness of humanity only seem to enrage fate.
Fate may well be the ultimate sadist. And sadists like it better when you cry.
No comments:
Post a Comment