Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41079 in Books
• Published on: 1990-01-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 753 pages

Customer Reviews

Some great works by the Great Libertarian
This collection of works is an illuminating collection of Sade's best. The critical introductions are excellent, along with the massive chronology of Sade's life. Sade's letters and Last Will & Testament also give insight into one of France's most controversial literary minds.

The collection begins with "Dialogue between a priest and a dying man", perhaps the shortest, and least depraved, of his works. The dialogue is a concise evisceration of Judeo-Christian philosophy, advocating the supremacy and amorality of Nature.

"Philosophy in the Bedroom" follows, which is Sade at his most philosophically eloquent and sexually twisted. Every taboo is torn to pieces (sometimes literally) while the characters engage in philosophical dialogues about Nature, religion, politics, and, obviously, sex. There is a political treatise in the middle of the dialogues. The treatise is Sade at his most learned and compelling. Amid the erotic carnage, Sade displays himself as one of France's greatest philosophers. Foucault? Whatever.

Eugenie de Franval is next. It is a romantic tale about the love between a father and his daughter. It pre-dates Balzac, although it has a realistic style familiar to anyone who has read Pere Goriot (another tale of familial love, but not about incest).

Justine closes out the collection. This version is considerably longer than "the Misfortunes of Virtue" in the story collection of the same name. Sade fills the story with copious monologues discussing the stupidities of religion, the nature of fetishism (pre-dating Freud and Krafft-Ebing by a long shot), and the glories of crime. Depraved? Yes. Entertaining? Absolutely. Justine is comedy at its blackest. You'll laugh at all the misfortunes Justine gets herself into and her abundantly sentimental character. Kind of like "Pride and Prejudice", but totally messed up.

Reading Sade has opened my eyes and my mind to his scorched earth brand of philosophy. Nietzsche pales in comparison to the furious directness of Sade. Also, check out the chapter on Sade and Rousseau in Camille Paglia's "Sexual Personae" for more insight than this silly little review.

Quality reading. Pick it up now!

Centuries ahead of its time
It is little wonder that the Marquis De Sade spent the last years of his life in a madhouse. Anyone as far ahead of his time as he was is sure to be considered insane by his contemporaries. This collection of his work is exhaustive, and deliciously exausting. You not only get "Justine" and "Philosophy in the Bedroom", there are many shorter works and a collection of De Sade's letters. All of these paint a picture of a man and a philosophy that was at least 150 years ahead of the morals and thought of his period. Sade not only anticipates Freud and Niezche, he goes beyond them. He declares homosexuality natural and advocates a woman's right to choose. The cruelty Sade is known for is the natural outgrowth of his philosophy and the pervailing attitude toward Nature during his life. Nature is the only real ruler of man, he says. Nature is sometimes cruel, indeed in the view of Western Civilization, Nature is always cruel. Therefore, says the Marquis, humans, if they are to be in harmony with the only true governing force, must allow themselves to at least imagine being cruel. Now, while one might criticize the Marquis for not being able to cross the rubicon with his views on Nature as he did with homosexuality, the fact remains that the conclusion is logical within De Sade's framework. This is not a collection for those seeking light erotica. Indeed, some of the situations described are the exact opposite of erotic. Read as philosophy, as the Marquis intended, his work is an earth shattering precursor to the modern and post modernist movement. This colection goes a long way in wresting Sade's name away from the pathology that unfortunatly bears his name.

First of the greats
When I read Justine ou Les Malheurs de Virtue, I lost my appetite. That's how intense it is. However, I loved it. Only the Marquis de Sade could have come up with such sordid tales. Many people believe his books are erotica, pornography, and even Satanic. I believe that throughout this work and all his others there is an obvious show of existentialism. De Sade is one of the first modern nihilists. When you think of existentialism, one of the first you name is Camou, but when someone asks me to name an existential I think of de Sade. The book is fascinating. It might seem like a show of wanton libertines, in fact, I would have to say, this book is about how man is inherently savage and animalistic; that innocence and virtue are nothing more than hopes created by hopeless people. Justine is one of them. She believes Man is by nature divine and pure. But throughout her journey she sees the contrary. Its called the Misfortune of Virtue because Justine never realizes at any time that Man is utterly sinful and completely unsaveable. She continues to find misfortune because she holds true to her hope and faith in Man and God; the two characters de Sade completely abhors. To de Sade Man is an animal equal to pigs and rats and therefore they have no true value except for what pleasure they can bring themselves in life. Personally if you have never read any of de Sades works, you should read his biography first. His books take alot of their inspiration from the marquis' own life. By the way, if you wonder why I gave this book a 4 and not a five, it is because I felt that the end was too abrupt and didn't have the climax I had hoped for. This book also has several short pieces by him of which the one I favor most is "Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man". That will is definitely serious but in the end you can't do anything else but laugh.