The Misfortunes of Virtue
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| Author | The Marquis de Sade |
|---|---|
| Original title (if not in English) | Les Infortunes de la Vertu |
| Translator | Pieralessandro Casavini |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | Erotica/Classics |
| Publisher | {{{publisher}}} |
| Released | 1791 |
| Followed by | 'Juliette' |
Justine is a classical erotic novel by Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, better known as the Marquis de Sade.
Contents |
[edit] History of the Work
The Misfortunes of Virtue (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. It is a novella (187 pages) with relatively little of the obscenity which characterized his later writing as it was written in the classical style (which was fashionable at the time), with verbose and metaphorical description plentiful.
A much extended and more graphic version, entitled Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu (1791) (English title: Justine, or Good Conduct Well Chastised or simply Justine) was the first of Sade's books to be published.
A further extended version La Nouvelle Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu was published in 1797. It was accompanied by a continuation, Juliette about Justine's sister. The two together formed 10 volumes and were nearly 4000 pages long in total; publication was completed in 1801. This final version, La Nouvelle Justine, departed from the first-person narrative of the previous two versions, and included around 100 engravings.
Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette, and as a result Sade was incarcerated for the last 13 years of his life. Napoleon called Justine "the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination".
A censored English translation was issued in the USA by the Risus Press in the early 1930s. The first unexpurgated English translation (by 'Pieralessandro Casavini', a pseudonym for Austryn Wainhouse) was published by the Olympia Press in 1953. Wainhouse later revised this translation for publication in the United States by Grove Press. Other versions currently in print, notably the Wordsworth edition, are abridged and heavily censored.
[edit] Plot introduction
Justine is set just before the French Revolution in France and tells the story of a young woman who goes under the name of Therese. Her story is recounted to Madame de Lorsagne while defending herself for her crimes, en route to punishment and death. She explains the series of misfortunes which have led her to be in her present situation.
[edit] Plot
The plot concerns Justine, a twelve-year-old maiden ("As for Justine, aged as we have remarked, twelve"...) who sets off, impecunious, to make her way in France. It follows her until the age of twenty-six, in her quest for virtue. At every turn she is presented with vice and abuse, hidden under a virtuous mask that lures her. Just some of the unfortunate situations include when she seeks refuge and confession in a monastery, but is forced to become a sex-slave to the monks, who subject her to countless orgies, rapes and other abuses. When helping a gentleman who is robbed in a field, he takes her back to his chateau with promises of a post caring for his wife, but she is then confined in a cave and subject to much the same punishment. These punishments are mostly the same throughout, even when she goes to a judge to beg for mercy in her case as an arsonist, and then finds herself openly humiliated in court, unable to defend herself.
These are, of course, described in true Sadean form. However, unlike some of his other works, the novel is not just a catalogue of sadism. Rather it purports to show, albeit in a hideously extreme way, an inversion of poetic justice: how those who live a life of vice prosper, whilst the virtuous suffer. Nonetheless, Sade invites us to live virtuously in hope of heavenly reward.
The story is told by "Therese" in an inn, to Madame de Lorsange. It is finally revealed that Madame de Lorsagne is her long lost sister. The irony is that her sister submitted to a brief period of vice and found herself a comfortable existence where she could exercise good, while Justine refused to make concessions for the greater good and was plunged further into vice than those who would go willingly.
The story ends with Madame de Lorsagne relieving her from a life of vice and clearing her name. Strangely though, Justine quickly becomes introverted and morose, before finally being struck by a thunderbolt and killed instantly. Madame de Lorsagne joins a religious order.
[edit] Major Themes
De Sade was strongly involved in both the development of his own philosophies (which later became many of the principles of sadism) and an investigation into the changing nature of his country. As, later in life, he became very involved in politics and became a member of the National Convention, we can see many of his ideas introduced in this, one of his earlier works.
Key philosophical ideas as follows:
- going against accepted tradition
- the subjectivity of virtue and vice
- the pursuit of desire and the consequences of it
- the evils of absolutism for either the purposes of good or evil
- Nature, as being the only true ruler of man
The more political ideas focus on:
- the hierarchy and inequalities within a class system
- the corruption of the church, the justice system and most major institutions
- the respective roles of the sexes
- the necessity of reliance upon others (appropriate as De Sade advocated a form of utopian socialism, at least later in life)
[edit] Quote
A quotation from the last paragraph of the book:
May you...be persuaded that true happiness lies in virtue alone and that, though God allows goodness to be persecuted on earth, it is with no other end than to prepare us for a better reward in heaven.
[edit] Contemporary reference
Justine was written around thirty years after Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, and the influence is very clear thematically. The story is quite related in terms of the endless trials which face each heroine, but with the opposite results. While Pamela's unwavering dedication to virtue does force her to suffer the threat of some vices, and confinement similar to that which befalls Justine, she is eventually successful in reforming Mr B. and becoming his wife. She then leads a life of prosperity and happines.
[edit] Adaptations
The story has been adapted for film several times, most notably in a 1969 international co-production directed by Jesus Franco and starring Klaus Kinski as the Marquis, titled Marquis de Sade: Justine. There has also been a graphic novel version by Guido Crepax.
