These divergent paths inevitably cross one another against a gloriously painted backdrop of eccentric small-town living. De Sade is a towering figure in any literary canon founded upon joy, for reasons at once enlightening and complex.

She was not slow to observe her caresses were having so powerful an influence upon my senses that I was in serious danger of being entirely overcome.And we may be very certain that even when it be a question of acts of the broadest consequence, stifled they definitely may be, provided one’s mental development is sufficient and provided one has toiled earnestly to extinguish one’s prejudices.

Justine (original French title: Les infortunes de la vertu) was an early work by the Marquis de Sade, written in two weeks in 1787 while imprisoned in the Bastille. For the human conscience,” continued that deep-learned woman, “is not at all times and everywhere the same, but rather almost always the direct product of a given society’s manners and of a particular climate and geography. If because it has been detected this deed brings us unhappiness in its wake, let us bend our keener faculties to ferreting out the reasons why it came to public intelligence; and without shedding a superfluous tear over something we are powerless to arrange otherwise, let us mobilize every effort so that the next time we shall not be wanting in tact, let us turn this mishap to our advantage, and from this reversal draw the experience necessary to improve our methods: henceforth, we will ensure our impunity by swathing our irregularities in thicker veils and more entire obscurity.

Who knows, perhaps I have even gone beyond what one may imagine, have been gripped by wants whose satisfaction defies all conception?

We struck a thousand different poses; continually altering our roles, we were sometimes wives to fuckers whom the next instant we dealt with as husbands and, thus beguiling Nature, for the length of an entire day we compelled that indulgent mother to set the crown of her voluptuousness most sweet upon all the little infractions of her laws we committed. Personally, I started out fascinated but found there to be little value until I started reading secondary essays, biographies of the man and his other works. While Justine, Juliette’s sister, was a virtuous woman who consequently encountered nothing but despair and abuse, Juliette is an amoral nymphomaniac murderer who is successful and happy.

Discussions of literary criticism, literary history, literary theory, and critical theory are also welcome. Green wraps, 12mo, 201pp, 1st edn thus, Very Good plus with light general wear, corner crease on back cover and small sticker residue at btm of fr cover, nice copy of this scarce volume.

You are a veritable discovery, from now on I propose to associate you with all my pleasures and you shall find that we may avail ourselves of some very poignant ones, despite the fact male company is, strictly speaking, forbidden us. Smoky Gentlemen's Club: The Sodality of The Friends of Crime is a private social club that all of France's libertines are secretly members of. Soon afterward, Justine becomes introverted and morose and is finally struck by a bolt of lightning and killed instantly. To put into perspective how disturbing this story is, when Napoléon Bonaparte read it, he had de Sade arrested and imprisoned for the rest of his life.

The two together formed 10 volumes of nearly 4000 pages in total; publication was completed in 1801.