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The Torture Garden (New Traveller's Companion)

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The Torture Garden (New Traveller's Companion)

by Octave Mirbeau

3.79 · rating details · 378 ratings · 42 reviews

Following the twin trails of desire and depravity to a shocking, sadistic paradise - a garden in China where torture is practiced as an art form - a dissolute Frenchman discovers the true depths of degradation beyond his prior bourgeois imaginings. Entranced by a resolute Englishwoman whose capacity for debauchery knows no bounds, he capitulates to her every whim amid an e...more

Paperback, 128 pages

Published August 28th 2004 by Olympiapress.com (first published 1899)

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May 14, 2008

Wyatt rated it

Ug...so I thought this would be a good time to review The Torture Garden since I just finished watching Diary of the Dead and don't want to sleep at the moment. If there's a common thread between some of what I've been reading and viewing lately, it's that we're all gluttons for the horrific--so long as the horror is one stepped removed from us.

The Torture Garden involves a relationship between a man and his mistress who loves to call him an "insignificant little woman." ...moreUg...so I thought this would be a good time to review The Torture Garden since I just finished watching Diary of the Dead and don't want to sleep at the moment. If there's a common thread between some of what I've been reading and viewing lately, it's that we're all gluttons for the horrific--so long as the horror is one stepped removed from us.

The Torture Garden involves a relationship between a man and his mistress who loves to call him an "insignificant little woman." Despite the title, it's not without humor. Though it was written over 100 years ago, the well-done sarcasm and cynicism could just as well be contemporary.

Our protagonist is given the gift of banishment and given the title of government-sponsored fake scientist so that his politician friend can be free of his poisonous friendship. He ten woos a woman on his ship that seems very typically Victorian, though we catch a hint of the sick sense of humor that she carries around with her, which she lets out of her purse during some of the pricelessly nauseating dinner table discussions--chalk full the author's criticisms of colonialism and mankind. The anti-hero breaks down and confesses with a snot-running nose about what a dog he is but she soon shows him that he's actually only half the worm she is. You'll have to read the lengthy descriptions of the torture garden yourself, but thhe scene were she tortures her ex-lover/poet by reading him his own poetry while he remains shackled and animalistic is...memorable.

Okay, that brings me back to Diary of the Dead. Once again, the horror in the story is just a vehicle through which to remind us of the horrors that we condone in real life.

I particularly liked the Katrina references: "It's called looting." "No, it's called doing what you have to do."

Since I'm really just writing this for myself, two other thoughts: Teeth, the previous horror movie I saw, also shared this social-criticism quality. It's about feminism and it runs ripe with critique of the Christian conservative's idealistic views of purity--well that's what I chose to see in it anyway. It's allegories are surely more varied and complex than that but I don't really want to boil each character down to a statement...or deviate...

As I type this sub-par blog entry, I'm recognizing how I liked the real time quality of Diary of the Dead and how their disaster became (for a moment in time) an independent media "revolution." When that moment passed, it wasn't cutting edge journalism anymore, but merely an obsession--a kid trying to hold onto media in a life where media no longer mattered, probably because that's all he knew.

I feel like I could make some connection here to the recently completed Painter of Battles, because Josh's relationship with his camera in D of the D (which he chooses over his girlfriend) definitely had some side effects in common with those between war photographers and their subjects. He becomes a martyr for film because he won't go hide in the shelter. It's too cozy. There's nothing there to film. He can only watch the surveilence cameras which would make him a watcher, not a shooter. He needs to be the shooter. I've definitely become a watcher these days.

I don't think it gets my rocks off in the same way that Josh's camera does it for him, or the torture garden does for Clara, but...ya, who am I to say I'm an exception?

Anyone know any bright and happy books for my next read?(less)

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Feb 12, 2008

Danger Kallisti rated it

Recommends it for: dissolute Francophile philosophers

Shelves: debauched-intellectualism, must-read

This book was really one of those once-in-a-lifetime finds. I was randomly surfing through Amazon.com, reading about Artaud and movements in contemporary theater, and that somehow led to weird recommendations for sadomasochistic turn-of-the-century French writing. It was translated and released by a small indie publisher dealing in out-of-print and hard-to-find erotica, mostly from the 60s.

One could easily tell by the very poor editing (which I’m starting to get used to, after th...more

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Jun 24, 2007

Lisa rated it

Shelves: schwarzeromantik

As a well-meaning reviewer, I'd say: Don't read this book. It's disgusting. Just it is also considered so very diverting. But see if it's for you---Contains SPOILERS

Scene One: Our Parisian friend and hero of the book tries to get elected in a remote rural area of France, after a short tutorial on the beetroot crop (and how to improve it) from a friend. But alas: Obviously the peasants can smell ignorance when it comes to beetroot.

Scene Two: Having failed in politics, he t...moreAs a well-meaning reviewer, I'd say: Don't read this book. It's disgusting. Just it is also considered so very diverting. But see if it's for you---Contains SPOILERS

Scene One: Our Parisian friend and hero of the book tries to get elected in a remote rural area of France, after a short tutorial on the beetroot crop (and how to improve it) from a friend. But alas: Obviously the peasants can smell ignorance when it comes to beetroot.

Scene Two: Having failed in politics, he takes up travel and falls for the English belle Miss Clara, a pliable individual (both in the physical, and, as we shall learn, moral sense), who relishes in the description of state-of-the art killing methods by high-ranking British officers. Unfortunately at first his passion is unrequited, but as soon as he unveils what a rotten individual he is, Miss Clara totally gives up her reserve.

Scene Three: The happy couple have taken up 'dating' (as the Americans so coyly put it), and hang out at Miss Clara's Chinese estate while they fornicate. But what's a lady to do if boredom gets to her, and she is as highly decadent as our dear Miss Clara? Why, she gets herself some rotten meat, puts it in a dainty basket and then throws it at the half-crazed starving prisoners in the local detention centre, that's what she does.
This is even more delightful if one of the prisoners happens to be a poet and former lover, so you can recite one of his own (decadent) poems to him, while he no longer recognizes you and fights for the rotten meat with other prisoners.[This scene is featured in some books on black romanticism, so watch out, key scene]

Scene Four: Somehow our French friend never thought it would get as hard (and hot) as that. After the prison episode, Miss Clara drags him on under the tropical sun, out, to the 'torture garden'. You guess right, more of the same, torture namely, and unless you want to learn what is circumscribed by 'death by caress', you really don't have to keep reading...

etc. etc....
(less)

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Sep 30, 2010

Nate rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Nate by: Mike E, via goodreads.

Shelves: fin-de-siecle, france

Blood from blossoms, blossoms from blood, les fleurs du mal, terrible and exquisite sensations. Vicious, grotesque, fleetingly beautiful, then again utterly abject. Necessary and unnecessary. I'm startled, both by the fountaining bile of the book, and that any can claim this has been dulled by time into quaintness.

Murder is the very bed-rock of our social institutions, and consequently the most imperious necessity of civilized life. If it no longer existed, there would be no government

...more

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Jan 01, 2011

Andrew rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classic

First things first ...the front cover shown on Amazon to accompany the book gives rise to that adage 'don't judge a book by it's cover' as it gives the look of some pulp throw away wheras a better book actually lies behind the cover(replicated in virtual 'glory' by the Kindle).
The book itself is one I had heard of but had never got around to reading...however at 75p on Amazon.co.uk I thought maybe it was time to give it a go I am glad I did.
It's been a solid decent read starting as i...more

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Nov 17, 2011

Juan rated it

Voy a comentar este libro en español porque nadie lo ha hecho y porque fue el idioma en que lo leí. Llegué a “El jardín de los suplicios (Le jardin des supplices)” de manera casi casual.
A los catorce o quince años de edad encontré en la biblioteca de la secundaria a la que asistía un libro con un título y tema similar, en ese entonces, siendo más joven, el libro me impresionó profundamente y aún la considero una de esas lecturas que aparecen una vez en la vida y dejan su marca. Años despu...moreVoy a comentar este libro en español porque nadie lo ha hecho y porque fue el idioma en que lo leí. Llegué a “El jardín de los suplicios (Le jardin des supplices)” de manera casi casual.
A los catorce o quince años de edad encontré en la biblioteca de la secundaria a la que asistía un libro con un título y tema similar, en ese entonces, siendo más joven, el libro me impresionó profundamente y aún la considero una de esas lecturas que aparecen una vez en la vida y dejan su marca. Años después comencé a buscar información de dicho libro y ahí surgió “El jardín de los suplicios”. Por las reseñas supe que no era el libro que yo había leído, y que nunca he encontrado, y pasaron otros diez años antes de que me decidiera a leerlo.

En una reunión de amigos, en el París de finales del siglo XIX asoma el tema del homicidio. Tras mucho deliberar uno de los asistentes, que hasta entonces se había mantenido callado, decide mostrar al resto un borrador autobiográfico.
El narrador, que se mantiene anónimo a lo largo del texto, relata como inmerso en la corrupción de la clase política parisiense es desterrado en una misión a Ceilán. Durante el viaje conoce a una mujer inglesa, joven, bella y liberal llamada Clara. Enamorado de ella decide acceder a su petición de marcharse con ella a China, donde ella tiene residencia.
Después de un período de abandono –que no se narra en el libro, solo se hace una breve alusión- él decide volver a ella en China. El resto del libro transcurre en un solo día, la visita a un presidio con bellos jardínes, donde se ejecuta mediante tortura a los ahí recluidos: el jardín de los suplicios.

El libro no fue fácil de conseguir en español, y de hecho jámas lo encontré fisicamente. Terminé leyendo una versión electrónica escaneada de una edición de Casa Editorial Maucci (España) donada a la University of Toronto en 1937. Usualmente no recurriría a la piratería pero al menos tengo la excusa de no haber encontrado una edición impresa y de que los derechos de autor ya están vencidos.
Originalmente pensaba calificar con cuatro estrellas a esta obra, si finalmente me decidí por cinco estrellas fue por la consideración de la época en que fue publicada por vez primera, 1899. No puedo imaginar el impacto que debe haber producido en la época un libro en el cual el personaje principal es una mujer de la alta sociedad, apenas salida de su adolescencia, liberal y libertina, y que además describe graficamente las torturas a las que son sometidos los reos en el jardín de los suplicios –y más importante, la reacción que esas torturas provocan en Clara.
La novela está dedicada “a los sacerdotes, los soldados, los jueces y los hombres encargados de instruir y gobernar a los hombres”, y es, evidentemente una crítica a la hipocresía de la clase dominante que pretendía escandalizarse ante un asesinato pero sin reparo en apoyar el asesinato y la virtual esclavitud de masas con tal de mantener el poder.
El libro está muy bien escrito –considerando las técnicas literarias de la época- y es una de las cosas más originales con las que me topado en la literatura.
Con respeto a la violencia, lo considero el segundo libro más violento que he leído –siendo el primero al que me refería al inicio de este comentario-. No es el libro en el que más sangre hay, ni en el que más muertes. Hace poco leí “Meridiano de sangre” de Cormac McCarthy. El libro que narra el mayor número de asesinatos con que me encontrado, sin contar La Biblia –en broma pero cierto-. Pero en “Meridiano de sangre” y otros libros contemporáneos se asiste a esa muerte que nada significa, ya transformada en algo vulgar por la sociedad norteamericana. “El jardin de los suplicios”, sin embargo, la muerte tiene la capacidad de impresionar por el contexto en que esta se encuentra.
La novela trata también con los temas de hasta donde el hombre debe limitarse a si mismo en la busqueda de nuevas experiencias y hasta donde debe dar libertad a las sensaciones que en él producen esas experiencias -como apunta la reseña de una de las ediciones en inglés-. Y creo que por eso mismo tardé tanto tiempo en decidirme a leerlo. No estaba seguro de querer encontrar lo que sabía que en él encontraria.(less)

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Sep 01, 2007

Clint rated it

A simple story about a jaded guy who meets this crazy-ass woman in China who takes him to this amusement park of torture. Absolutely spectacular imagination! And the ending is so strange...

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Sep 11, 2009

Tim Mayer rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: karl-wagner-memorial-library

"Fin-de-siecle decadence at its best. At one time one of those 'suppressed' books and now chiefly remembered as one of Frank Frazetta's better paperback covers"
-Karl Edward Wagner, 1983

"In a broader sense the expression fin de siècle is used to characterize anything that has an ominous mixture of opulence and/or decadence, combined with a shared prospect of unavoidable radical change or some approaching 'end.'"- Wikipedia

First published in 1899, ...more"Fin-de-siecle decadence at its best. At one time one of those 'suppressed' books and now chiefly remembered as one of Frank Frazetta's better paperback covers"
-Karl Edward Wagner, 1983

"In a broader sense the expression fin de siècle is used to characterize anything that has an ominous mixture of opulence and/or decadence, combined with a shared prospect of unavoidable radical change or some approaching 'end.'"- Wikipedia

First published in 1899, Torture Garden still leaves a taste of decadence in your mouth. Written by a French journalist disgusted with the pomposity of his own society, he shows us a foreign one equally beautiful, equally deadly. Mirabeau was famous for writing about forbidden subjects and shoving them in the reader's face. In this book, he decided to examine the connection of sex and death by way of art and beauty.
Torture Garden begins with a discussion about law and society among a gathering of cultured guests. As it turns to punishment, a quiet guest begins to tell his tale of a trip he recently took to China.
But first he gives us his back story:
After being raised in by a ruthless businessman of a father, our hero suddenly found himself penniless while still a young man (dad's shady business deals having caught up with the family). So he becomes a patron of the only man more twisted than his father: a government minister he went to college with. His political friend, named Eugene, becomes worried the narrator will become a lead weight on his career, so he manages to send him on a government paid scientific mission to Asia. It doesn't matter that the hero of the book doesn't know a thing about his subject- embryology- the important issue is getting him out of France.
While traveling to China he meets an Englishwoman, the beautiful and sensuous Clara. Unfortunately for him, Clara has an unhealthy obsession with death. Once they reach China, she takes him to a the Torture Garden of the book's title: A massive garden outside a penitentiary. Those convicted by a Chinese judge are executed by bizarre and unusual means. After visiting and describing the gardens, he leaves with Clara. But Clara is so lost in her ecstasy she soon faints. A Chinese ferry woman, who has wittnessed Clara's swoons before, takes them both to the only place Clara can recover: a floating sex club. End of book.
There isn't a lot of plot or character deveopment in Torture Garden. Mirabeau was obsessed with hammering home his belief about French society being one big execution chamber. There is an interesting scene where the narrator and Clara encounter an executioner who fancies himself an artist and deplores the crude mass killings of gunpowder. I'm not sure if the description of the prision or the torture garden has any basis in relaity; I'll leave that one for late-period Manchu Dynasty scholars.
A fascinating example of "Decandent 90's" writing from the same decade which gave us The King In Yellow. (less)

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Jul 07, 2008

Chris rated it

Recommends it for: anyone who likes to boast they've read some shocking, underground fare

Recommended to Chris by: the nincompoops at Amazon.com

Recommended by Amazon.com, and when have they been wrong, aside from the last ten suggestions haphazardly tossed my way……

I picked this up hoping to be disgusted, to be so shocked, startled, and overwhelmed with mind-blowing perversity that I wouldn’t be able to turn my sickened eyes from it while plumbing the depths of depravity. What did I get? A bunch of botany and some pretty pathetic torture sequences. What happened to the ‘detailed descriptions of sexual euphoria and exquisi...moreRecommended by Amazon.com, and when have they been wrong, aside from the last ten suggestions haphazardly tossed my way……

I picked this up hoping to be disgusted, to be so shocked, startled, and overwhelmed with mind-blowing perversity that I wouldn’t be able to turn my sickened eyes from it while plumbing the depths of depravity. What did I get? A bunch of botany and some pretty pathetic torture sequences. What happened to the ‘detailed descriptions of sexual euphoria and exquisite torture’ that publisher Olympia Press promised? And who the hell is Olympia press, anyway? Have you ever had the bargain-basement beer/swill known as Olympia “It’s the water” Lager? Olympia Press is the publishing equivalent; there are probably somewhere around 200 errors in the editing, printing, and translation throughout; periods in the middle of sentences or following commas, forward-slashes and back-slashes appearing for no particular reason, capitalization where none is needed, individual letters in place of words (notably “j” and “m”, which I’m assuming the typist confused from “I” and “in” respectively, presumably while working off a moth-eaten, handwritten proof) and a whole bunch of misspellings which sometimes add a touch of humor to the story (he put his lips to her 'beast'? sexy). While I am hardly qualified to bitch someone out for their spelling and use of punctuation, the fact that even I noticed these things means that there are for more problems than met my sloppy eye. I’m not blaming the author for these errors; this is entirely the fault of half-assed production by the regrettable Olympia Press, who managed to churn out a truly piss-poor edition of “The Torture Garden”.

With the low quality of the copy in mind, it was up to the generally-unsung and twisted talents of Octave Mirbeau to save the day, and this turned out to be as promising as having a myopic, underdeveloped fifteen year old step to the mound at the bottom of the ninth to save a one-run lead for your preferred baseball team. I was hoping that “The Torture Garden” was completely insane, massively f@cked-up and revolting, and since it was published by some shitty indie press, I figured this was a good sign that no reputable publisher would dare release it under their name. Generally, I’ve come to expect that in circumstances such as this, this isn’t the case; it’s basically that the larger firms know that the book has almost no literary merit, won’t draw readership, and pretty much sucks.

The story begins with a group of affluent, cigar-smoking, brandy-sniffing stuffed shirts sitting around discussing man’s lust for the suffering, violence, and death of others, with several members of the group animatedly recollecting their experiences with the viciousness of mankind. One of the group, a man with a ravaged face, joins the debate with much to contribute regarding the ability of women to perform acts of unspeakable cruelty. When he is rebuked, he immediately whips out a manuscript from his fanny pack and offers to read his magnum opus to the group as support for his statements. The host calls for candles to be lit, fresh cigars, and full snifters to be distributed, and during this reading we can only assume a multitude of booze, wax, and ashes befouled the copy to the point that some poor pud at Olympia press would be unable to read about a quarter of the sacred tale within: “The Torture Garden”.

The story plods along for quite some time before anything resembling torture takes place. The narrator gives a thorough account of his upbringing, in which his father was a shady farmer that used every trick in the book to turn a profit, or ‘roping in’ the witless dunderheads that purchased his goods. Eventually, he sold the army some tainted goods and had his reputation ruined before kicking the bucket, leaving the narrator and his mother poverty-striken. The narrator turns to his friend, Eugene, a rising politician, for aide, and becomes a pawn in Gene’s underhanded dealings. As Eugene climbs higher in social standing, our narrator increasingly resents his success (borne partly of his efforts) and becomes openly hostile towards his chum when he fails to win a post of his own in an election in which Eugene steered his campaign. Ruined, the narrator threatens to turn over his documents concerning his dealings to the press and authorities, leaving Eugene no choice but to put as much distance between the two as possible. As a gesture of goodwill, Eugene sends the narrator off with false credentials as an able scientist in the discipline of embryology, and basically exiles him to Ceylon to go discover the origins of life on Earth.

En route to Ceylon, on the good ship Saghalien, our narrator busies himself with bullshitting a young English noblewoman, Miss Clara, who has been living in China to escape the senseless routine of European customs. While there are some interesting conversations between the passengers on the boat (most notably the formidable and inventive artilleryman) concerning savagery, cannibalism, and crimes during times of war, Mirbeau’s only strength here is to help the reader appreciate and experience the tedium and sluggish pace of nineteenth-century ocean travel. Our narrator, afraid of losing the lovely Miss Clara when he is to disembark, comes clean and informs her that he’s a fraud, he doesn’t know a thing about embryology, he’s not a naturalist, he’s just an unscrupulous scumbag that’s been the hapless tool of a more powerful scumbag. Miss Clara just giggles at him, and offers him to join her in China, where she intends to show him what true debauchery looks and tastes like. The narrator blindly obeys.

Now that the book was more than half completed, I was expecting Mirbeau to pull out all the stops and delve into sensational, stomach-turning horrors. What a fool I am; I’d simply been ‘roped in’ by the shrewd marketing of Olympia Press. Sure, there’s a little torture, but nothing shocking or very interesting. The rest of the book is basically a long discourse on the incredible botany skills of the Chinamen tending to the Garden, and the multitudinous flora of the area. And a shitload of peacocks. That’s really about it; the narrator endlessly contemplates his heightened appreciation of natural beauty after the disquieting events which take place during the couple of hours he spends at the Torture Garden. Seriously, the guy attends this grotesquery once, for all of an afternoon, and then spends the rest of the time in the goddam garden and naming each specimen and lauding its beauty. For a sham naturalist, the guy is surprisingly well-studied in identifying all forms of plant life, and I haven’t read anything so wholly dedicated to endless descriptions of flowers since Huysmans’s “Against Nature”. The only torture going on is inflicted upon the reader’s sense of literary acumen, a much more fitting title would have been “The Torture of Reading About a Garden”.

Overall, “The Torture Garden” was very disappointing, and my experience reading this was almost identical to that of “Story of the Eye” by Bataille, except that I’d have to say Mirbeau’s writing is far better. Both were acclaimed for some sort of underground status and applauded for their ‘disgusting and nauseating’ content, but both were just cheap and flimsy attempts to titillate.

I suppose it was fitting that I read this while attending the 6th wedding my girlfriend has dragged me to. That was torturous alright, and my behavior was probably more shocking and appalling than anything within this poorly-constructed volume. (less)

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Jul 11, 2010

Birdlashes rated it

· review of another edition

"Ah, yes! The Torture Garden! Passions, appetites, personal interests, hatreds and lies, along with laws, social institutions, justice, love, glory, heroism and religion. These are its monstrous and hideous flowers--instruments of eternal human suffering. What I saw that day, what I hear, exists and cries out and yells outside that garden, which for me is no more than a symbol of the whole earth. I have vainly sought a lull in crime and rest in death, but have found them nowhere."

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Nov 23, 2010

Andrew Smith rated it

· review of another edition

I'll be honest, this is pretty much my favourite book of all time.

A swingeing satire painted in lurid brushstrokes broad enough to appear crass to some. The depiction of fin de siecle French politics is perfect and the decadent ruminations on the nature of man could hardly be more attuned to my taste. Erudite, incorrigible and fresh enough to still be shocking, if this book became flesh there'd be a queue to join his gentleman's club.

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Jun 01, 2011

Macksat rated it

· review of another edition

Found by chance in a give away pile at my hairdresser's, I thought it was a very intriguing read. I loved the obscure imagery, and inventive, concise story. The ending kept me thinking about this one for days though. A very delicious surprise. I'd recommend it for a "dark" romantic in a heartbeat.

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Mar 23, 2010

Libby Drew rated it

· review of another edition

My LJ bookclub book for March. Not an easy read, but a thought-provoking one. I believe the most disturbing parts, for me at any rate, were not the graphic scenes, but just how many truths about human nature are hidden (or not hidden) in the social commentary. I can't even imagine what stir this book must have caused when originally published in 1899.

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Jan 05, 2011

Tait rated it

Shelves: french, literature

This book is not nearly as disturbing as it could have been, though for it's time period it certainly was one of the most shocking things ever written. Then again, if you've never tasted any literature of depravity before don't read it over lunch.

One of the flaws is that Mirbeau spends far more time describing the details of bureaucracy and floral botany than he does torture and lust. When he does turn to those subjects however it is merely in passive told description or explanatory ...more

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Aug 16, 2011

Laura rated it

Shelves: decadence

Although this was in the vein of other decadent works that I have read and enjoyed (A Rebours, Venus in Furs), something about this book was kind of off. Perhaps it was poor characterization. Or perhaps this was just a bad translation. I found the character of Clara rather unconvincing, and also pretty annoying. The narrator was not much better.

That said, I liked some of the descriptions of the tortures and flowers.

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Jan 17, 2009

Natalie rated it

Shelves: general-unpleasantry, do-i-make-you-horny

I expected a little more out of this one, since it's hailed as this shocking fin de siecle masterpiece. Maybe I'm jaded. It wasn't the best translation, either, and my copy has this ridiculous cover photo of a Catherine Deneuve-type from Belle de Jour, obviously meant to draw in and titillate, and which couldn't misrepresent the book and its premise any more.

Win some, lose some, I suppose. I'd probably have really dug this in high school, when I discovered Nin, Miller, and D.H. ...more

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Jan 03, 2009

Whitley rated it

Shelves: strange-but-good

what i learned? haha
umm....don't trust french people?
i don't really know....

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Oct 05, 2011

Bookwhore rated it

Shelves: erotic

Classic tale of sex and torture set in an oriental pleasure/pain paradise!

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Feb 19, 2010

Claudia rated it

Not as intense as I expected it to be.

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Apr 08, 2009

Nick Wallace rated it

· review of another edition

What a magnificent book! It's interesting that the French in the late ninteenth century produced works that exploitation filmmakers in the sixties and seventies could only attempt to match.

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Sep 02, 2011

Antiloquax rated it

Sex and torture classic.

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Jun 04, 2011

Zorzynek rated it

· review of another edition

Something for Foucault to write about.

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Dec 18, 2010

J-Elfasy (Montreal) rated it

Over rated, indeed.

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May 21, 2010

Seth added it · review of another edition

Shelves: odd

What a writer. What a weirdo.

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Jun 30, 2008

Sean Billy rated it

This book had some incredible imagery. I thought it was beautiful in that it was really visual about grotesque means of torture and extreme passion or love. Was political and very sexy in the dynamic of the two main characters. Written in 1899, it has a strong french attitude of love, death, torture and passion. Would recommend. It only lost a star because I thought the transitions from location to location in the book could have been more pulled together. Sometimes felt that I had jumped ...more

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Sep 24, 2011

Hristina added it

Read in Bulgarian.

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Jan 12, 2011

~V.W.~ rated it

Fastest book I have read in a long time. Timeless Classic
~Love and Death have never been more appealing~

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Sep 12, 2009

Elsa Glembotzki rated it

Recommends it for: Those who like to play with the idea of perversity.

Recommended to Elsa by: Amazon.com

I felt the translation was poor, however the ideas in it were fantastic. I could have done without all the political references,although this was written in a highly political time,by a political man, so I do understand its purpose. I found the first half of the book a bit of a tedious read. I did however, appreciate the character of Clara, and Mirbeau's depiction of life being like a torture garden.

· see review

Apr 04, 2007

Tracy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: pathology-of-righteousness

it's the same territory mined by diary of a chambermaid, but it was a tad bit too harsh for me to put my real stamp of approval on it. need to read another translation, because the REsearch folks might have spun it too hard. not to claim that mirbeau wasn't a scary dude! i have a great pulp cover edition of this! prized possession

· see review

Oct 24, 2008

Emrah Emir rated it

The most horrifying, existential and amazing book I've ever read. This book made it's force known not only in the impact it had on my mind, but also by the antagonism and disdain it caused among peers and tutors who found out I'd read it.

· see review

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“Come now, don't make such a funeral face. It isn't dying that's sad; it's living when you're not happy.” — 5 people liked it

“Woman possesses the cosmic force of an element, an invincible force of destruction, like nature's. She is, in herself alone, all nature! Being the matrix of life, she is by that very fact the matrix of death - since it is from death that life is perpetually reborn, and since to annihilate death would be to kill life at its only fertile source.” — 2 people liked it

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