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The Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales
The name of the Marquis de Sade is synonymous with the blackest corners of the human soul, a byword for all that is most foul in human conduct. In his bleak, claustrophobic universe, there is no God, no human affection, and no hope. This selection of his early writings, some making their first appearance in English in this new translation by David Coward, reveals the full range of Sade's sobering moods and considerable talents. This is a fully annotated edition including an introduction, a biographical study, and a history of the censorship of these writings.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
336 pages, Paperback
First published June 18, 1992
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About the author
Marquis de Sade
622 books2,271 followersA preoccupation with sexual violence characterizes novels, plays, and short stories that Donatien Alphonse François, comte de Sade but known as marquis de Sade, of France wrote. After this writer derives the word sadism, the deriving of sexual gratification from fantasies or acts that involve causing other persons to suffer physical or mental pain.
This aristocrat, revolutionary politician, and philosopher exhibited famous libertine lifestyle.
His works include dialogues and political tracts; in his lifetime, he published some works under his own name and denied authorship of apparently anonymous other works. His best erotic works combined philosophical discourse with pornography and depicted fantasies with an emphasis on criminality and blasphemy against the Catholic Church. Morality, religion or law restrained not his "extreme freedom." Various prisons and an insane asylum incarcerated the aristocrat for 32 years of his life: ten years in the Bastile, another year elsewhere in Paris, a month in Conciergerie, two years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, three years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie, and 13 years in the Charenton asylum. During the French revolution, people elected this criminal as delegate to the National Convention. He wrote many of his works in prison.
This aristocrat, revolutionary politician, and philosopher exhibited famous libertine lifestyle.
His works include dialogues and political tracts; in his lifetime, he published some works under his own name and denied authorship of apparently anonymous other works. His best erotic works combined philosophical discourse with pornography and depicted fantasies with an emphasis on criminality and blasphemy against the Catholic Church. Morality, religion or law restrained not his "extreme freedom." Various prisons and an insane asylum incarcerated the aristocrat for 32 years of his life: ten years in the Bastile, another year elsewhere in Paris, a month in Conciergerie, two years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, three years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie, and 13 years in the Charenton asylum. During the French revolution, people elected this criminal as delegate to the National Convention. He wrote many of his works in prison.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
July 31, 2016
The Misfortunes of Virtue was the best story in this collection. Sophie the virtuous heroine suffers the most unspeakable horrors for her honorable ways, I felt anger at her mistreatment and the injustices which befell her. But the part that got me the most was that Sade may be making a good point: What purpose does living virtuously serve a person? Denying oneself the pleasures of life goes against our natural inclinations, it is illogical. Sade's argument, that Christianity and the repression which it enforces on the people serves only the weak, resonated with me no matter how much I dislike to admit it. If the strong, who are able to overlook such pointless rules and regulations on life, do as they see fit to make themselves happy, virtue is nothing more than a crutch. Nature does not care about good or evil, these are creations designed to restrain those who would take what in nature's eyes is rightfully theirs in order to share with those who cannot take for themselves.
The other stories were basically funny anecdotes about sex and offered an interesting historical insight into the libertinism of France during the 1700s. If these stories are any indication of the sexual promiscuity and infidelity of the populace during that time, it is not surprising that the following century would respond with the famed Victorian prudishness. The accounts of priests and monks engaging in rape and sexual slavery added an extra sheet of darkness to the stories.
I would not want to live in Sade's world, where selfishness rules and where the only people trying to make the world a better place are tortured for their efforts. That being said, I will read more Sade in the future.
The other stories were basically funny anecdotes about sex and offered an interesting historical insight into the libertinism of France during the 1700s. If these stories are any indication of the sexual promiscuity and infidelity of the populace during that time, it is not surprising that the following century would respond with the famed Victorian prudishness. The accounts of priests and monks engaging in rape and sexual slavery added an extra sheet of darkness to the stories.
I would not want to live in Sade's world, where selfishness rules and where the only people trying to make the world a better place are tortured for their efforts. That being said, I will read more Sade in the future.
November 17, 2015
"‘You are young and know nothing, but hear this: Heaven is the last thing in the world which interests us. Whether what we do on earth pleases Heaven or not is the last thing which gives us pause. Being only too aware of how little power Heaven has over men, we defy it daily without a qualm. Indeed, our passions acquire true enchantment only when they transgress Heaven’s designs most outrageously, or at least what simpletons assure us are its designs, though in reality they form the illusory chain by which hypocrites and impostors have always set out to deceive and subjugate the strong.’"
----
"‘Your principles are absurd and they will lead you straight to prison, my girl, take it from me,’ said Dubois with a frown. ‘Forget heavenly justice, your punishments and your rewards to come. Such talk is fit only for leaving in the schoolroom or, once you have left it and entered the world, for enabling you to starve to death, should you be foolish enough to believe it. The callousness of the rich justifies the knavery of the poor, my child. If their purses would open to satisfy our needs and if humanity reigned in their hearts, then virtue would take root in ours. But as long as our distress, the patience with which we bear it, our honesty and our subjection serve merely to add weight to our chains, our misdemeanours are their handiwork and we should be dupes indeed to reject crime as a means of lightening a yoke which they fasten around our necks. We were all born equal in the eyes of Nature, Sophie. If fate chooses to disturb the original disposition of Nature’s general laws, it is for us to correct departures therefrom and by our artfulness repair the depradations of the strong. How I love hearing rich people, the judges, and the magistrates, oh, how I love seeing them preaching virtue at us! Oh, how difficult it must be for them to refrain from theft when they have three times as much as they need to live on, how difficult never to think of murder when they are surrounded only by admirers and submissive slaves, how exceedingly painful indeed to be temperate and sober when they are intoxicated by sensuality and the most succulent dishes are set before them—and they must find it trying indeed to be frank and honest when the need to lie scarcely ever arises. "
----
"‘All religions start from a false premiss, Sophie,’ he would say. ‘Each one assumes the need for belief in a Creator. Now if this everlasting world of ours, like all the others which hang in the infinite plains of space, had no beginning and can never have an end; if all the products of nature are the consequential effects of laws by which Nature herself is bound; if her perpetual actions and reactions presuppose the movement which is an integral part of her essence, then what role is left for the prime mover which you gratuitously impute to it? Believe me, Sophie, the God you admit to is nothing but the fruit on the one hand of ignorance and on the other of tyranny. When the strong first set out to enslave the weak, they convinced their victims that God sanctified the chains that bound them, and the weak, their wits crushed by poverty, believed what they were told. All religions are the destructive consequences of this first fiction and merit the same contempt as its source deserves. There is not one of these fairy-tales which does not march under the banner of imposture and stupidity. In all these mysteries which stagger human reason, I see only dogmas which outrage Nature and grotesque ceremonials which warrant nothing but derision. From the moment my eyes were opened, Sophie, I loathed all these disgusting shams. I vowed I should trample them beneath my feet and never return to the fold as long as I lived. If you wish to be a rational being, follow my lead.’"
----
"Nothing is quite as insatiable as our urges; the greater the offerings we make to them, the hotter they burn. Of course, the outcome is always pretty much the same, yet we always imagine that there is better just around the corner. The instant our thirst for one woman is slaked is also the moment when the same drives kindle our desire for another."
----
"‘Ah! But do you not then believe that in the next world heavenly justice lies in wait for the man who has not feared to lead a life of crime in this?’
‘I think that if there were a God, there would be less evil on this earth. I believe that if evil exists here below, then either it was willed by God or it was beyond His powers to prevent it. Now I cannot bring myself to fear a God who is either spiteful or weak. I defy Him without fear and care not a fig for His thunderbolts.’"
----
"What barbaric law is it that binds her sex with inhuman chains while granting us men total freedom? Is such a law equitable?"
----
"‘Your principles are absurd and they will lead you straight to prison, my girl, take it from me,’ said Dubois with a frown. ‘Forget heavenly justice, your punishments and your rewards to come. Such talk is fit only for leaving in the schoolroom or, once you have left it and entered the world, for enabling you to starve to death, should you be foolish enough to believe it. The callousness of the rich justifies the knavery of the poor, my child. If their purses would open to satisfy our needs and if humanity reigned in their hearts, then virtue would take root in ours. But as long as our distress, the patience with which we bear it, our honesty and our subjection serve merely to add weight to our chains, our misdemeanours are their handiwork and we should be dupes indeed to reject crime as a means of lightening a yoke which they fasten around our necks. We were all born equal in the eyes of Nature, Sophie. If fate chooses to disturb the original disposition of Nature’s general laws, it is for us to correct departures therefrom and by our artfulness repair the depradations of the strong. How I love hearing rich people, the judges, and the magistrates, oh, how I love seeing them preaching virtue at us! Oh, how difficult it must be for them to refrain from theft when they have three times as much as they need to live on, how difficult never to think of murder when they are surrounded only by admirers and submissive slaves, how exceedingly painful indeed to be temperate and sober when they are intoxicated by sensuality and the most succulent dishes are set before them—and they must find it trying indeed to be frank and honest when the need to lie scarcely ever arises. "
----
"‘All religions start from a false premiss, Sophie,’ he would say. ‘Each one assumes the need for belief in a Creator. Now if this everlasting world of ours, like all the others which hang in the infinite plains of space, had no beginning and can never have an end; if all the products of nature are the consequential effects of laws by which Nature herself is bound; if her perpetual actions and reactions presuppose the movement which is an integral part of her essence, then what role is left for the prime mover which you gratuitously impute to it? Believe me, Sophie, the God you admit to is nothing but the fruit on the one hand of ignorance and on the other of tyranny. When the strong first set out to enslave the weak, they convinced their victims that God sanctified the chains that bound them, and the weak, their wits crushed by poverty, believed what they were told. All religions are the destructive consequences of this first fiction and merit the same contempt as its source deserves. There is not one of these fairy-tales which does not march under the banner of imposture and stupidity. In all these mysteries which stagger human reason, I see only dogmas which outrage Nature and grotesque ceremonials which warrant nothing but derision. From the moment my eyes were opened, Sophie, I loathed all these disgusting shams. I vowed I should trample them beneath my feet and never return to the fold as long as I lived. If you wish to be a rational being, follow my lead.’"
----
"Nothing is quite as insatiable as our urges; the greater the offerings we make to them, the hotter they burn. Of course, the outcome is always pretty much the same, yet we always imagine that there is better just around the corner. The instant our thirst for one woman is slaked is also the moment when the same drives kindle our desire for another."
----
"‘Ah! But do you not then believe that in the next world heavenly justice lies in wait for the man who has not feared to lead a life of crime in this?’
‘I think that if there were a God, there would be less evil on this earth. I believe that if evil exists here below, then either it was willed by God or it was beyond His powers to prevent it. Now I cannot bring myself to fear a God who is either spiteful or weak. I defy Him without fear and care not a fig for His thunderbolts.’"
----
"What barbaric law is it that binds her sex with inhuman chains while granting us men total freedom? Is such a law equitable?"
September 11, 2019
Curious that the translator, who wrote the introduction, doesn't actually appear to like or even appreciate Sade. He raises the question of whether Sade is an ironist, and immediately rejects it. Well, maybe ya missed it? Is he providing trenchant commentary on the bourgeois, the legal system, the church? Nah. He's just a pornographer who wanted to shock everyone. Maybe it's philosophy? Nope, it's pathology. Okay then. Thanks for that "insight," Mr. Coward.
So there's the initial version of what he'd later title Justine, but everyone already talks about that. Let's turn to the "Other Early Tales" ("some making their first appearance in English," but nobody tells us which ones).
"Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man" is didactic, a very early piece to sort of bridge his attempts as a playwright (unsuccessful) with his fiction.
Many stories ("The Successful Ruse," "The Windbags of Provence," "The Prude," "The Law of Talion," "The Self-Made Cuckold," "The Husband who Said Mass" among them) have the light feel of The Decameron with their cuckolded husbands, buffoonery by local officials, and unexpectedly happy endings. In these very short tales there are moral lessons that were ahead of their time, such as what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and, if you're going to cheat on your wife with a nun, don't be surprised if your wife beds the local priest. Most are comic though the twists in "The Lady of the Manor of Longeville" show Sade's darker side.
"The Pimp Well Served" offers a different ethical take on what kinds of actions serve the greater good. "An Inexplicable Affair" is Sade's gorier telling of Faust. In "The Confidence Men" another charming young thing gets punished for her naïveté.
This is the same basic plot of "Émile de Tourville," a fantastic gothic ride of young love, treachery, sibling rivalry, and blood. Much blood. It's truly one of Sade's finest. (I am almost positive you can find this one in other Sade anthologies too, this wasn't the first time I've read it.)
Which brings us to "Augustine de Villeblanche," his peek behind the drawing-room curtain to show a lesbian in her natural habitat. He tries a sort of ironic twist as in some of the shorter stories, this time a gender-bender, but I didn't have the guile for it. It's a shame because with a few simple tweaks it could have slotted right into his philosophy that nothing that occurs in nature, including homosexuality, is condemnable. Le sigh, it's very problematic by today's standards of course; we're all glad Sade evolved on this subject by the time he wrote Juliette. I forgive him this one.
So there's the initial version of what he'd later title Justine, but everyone already talks about that. Let's turn to the "Other Early Tales" ("some making their first appearance in English," but nobody tells us which ones).
"Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man" is didactic, a very early piece to sort of bridge his attempts as a playwright (unsuccessful) with his fiction.
Many stories ("The Successful Ruse," "The Windbags of Provence," "The Prude," "The Law of Talion," "The Self-Made Cuckold," "The Husband who Said Mass" among them) have the light feel of The Decameron with their cuckolded husbands, buffoonery by local officials, and unexpectedly happy endings. In these very short tales there are moral lessons that were ahead of their time, such as what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and, if you're going to cheat on your wife with a nun, don't be surprised if your wife beds the local priest. Most are comic though the twists in "The Lady of the Manor of Longeville" show Sade's darker side.
"The Pimp Well Served" offers a different ethical take on what kinds of actions serve the greater good. "An Inexplicable Affair" is Sade's gorier telling of Faust. In "The Confidence Men" another charming young thing gets punished for her naïveté.
This is the same basic plot of "Émile de Tourville," a fantastic gothic ride of young love, treachery, sibling rivalry, and blood. Much blood. It's truly one of Sade's finest. (I am almost positive you can find this one in other Sade anthologies too, this wasn't the first time I've read it.)
Which brings us to "Augustine de Villeblanche," his peek behind the drawing-room curtain to show a lesbian in her natural habitat. He tries a sort of ironic twist as in some of the shorter stories, this time a gender-bender, but I didn't have the guile for it. It's a shame because with a few simple tweaks it could have slotted right into his philosophy that nothing that occurs in nature, including homosexuality, is condemnable. Le sigh, it's very problematic by today's standards of course; we're all glad Sade evolved on this subject by the time he wrote Juliette. I forgive him this one.
April 3, 2016
Plenty of people almost instinctively revolt upon hearing Sade's name, and if the little I know about his biography is true, perhaps rightfully so. But that is no reason to just as instinctively revolt at his literary works without actually having read them. Having read this work, he is a better writer than most of the garbage which is read these days, but his style shines as a brighter beacon than his content. The best story in this collection is titled piece, "The Misfortunes of Virtues." It is a gut-wrenching and morally unbearable story of what happens to a good woman when her only flaw is the tragic flaw of virtue in an evil world not too unlike our own world. However, this story along with many of the other stories suffers from a reoccurring motif--which seems more like a repetition really--of Sade making many of the characters mouthpieces for his atomistic-hedonistic philosophy. (This really makes one appreciate Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" and Marlowe's ability to, as an atheist, write a seemingly Christian work or Nietzsche's "Zarathustra"--the most spiritual book ever written by, ironically, the most godless man.) My complaint with this, as a reader, is that it reads like bad Dostoevsky: that is, while with Dostoevsky you have characters standing in for ideas, at least there is a breadth of ideas these characters stand for but with Sade there are only two--those who stand-in for his philosophy and those who do not. After finishing the book, one may get the feeling that what one really just read was a philosophical argument/dialogue sneaked into a prose work. Sade is an intelligent man who knows who to write and has a command of style; he should be read at least once so one knows what one is missing but with that said, I am not bashing on his philosophy (although I could) but rather his presentation of it into prose which is okay enough but ultimately seems lacking.
November 7, 2008
"Yes, I am a libertine(1), I admit it freely. I have dreamed of doing everything that it is possible to dream of in that line. But I most certainly have not done all the things I dreamt of and never shall. Libertine I may be, but I am not a criminal, I am not a murderer." Marquis de Sade (1781)
The Marquis De Sade is made fully it seems, of contradictions. His imagination for debauchery is unrivaled - but he, as he stated above in a letter to his wife, did not in actuality cross the line into crime - whatever the term may mean in Sade's mind. We cannot fully know his limits, but that he would admit to them is in itself somewhat astonishing.
Sade was also an aristocrat and, at times, a tyrannical one. Yet he was a fervent supporter of the French Revolution. He could attest to the complete subjugation of an individual - but support the right of all people to be completely free.
The Misfortunes of Virtue (which would later be expanded to the unnecessarily long novel Justine), was the sister novel of Juliette, or The Prosperities of Vice. Misfortunes of Virtue contrasts the lives of two orphaned sisters - one finding almost immeasurable success in the life of a consort, the other finding only degradation, pain, and horrors trying to lead a life of virtue. This would seem to suit the Marquis' ideals perfectly, until the sisters are reunited near the end of the book. Then there is a sudden transformation in the successful but sinful sister as she reaches out to help her downtrodden sibling. The ending runs completely contrary to the rest of the story but that is not a new theme in Sade's writings. There is a certain sarcasm to the tone that makes the reader question the author's commitment to the "redemptive" ending.
For a novella, it feels like a much longer work. The more the Marquis put to paper, the more he tended to bog down both characters and plot. The fact this story was further expanded into the enormous novel, Justine, is remarkable - and explains why I was never able to get through it. Juliette is also difficult reading. What Sade adds to the novels is not depth of characters or story - but simply more window dressing of vulgarity and violence. Not even the compelling sort of sadism you find so extensively used in eroticism - but crude, flat details in the most vulgar wording possible. The goal of the prose is not used so much to challenge propriety and religion as so many of his essays and shorter works do - but to simply offend.
Summarizing Sade is risky business, but if left to something that will fit into the confines of this Weblog - I choose another's words.
"Sade's negation is enormous, total. In this he recalls St. Augustine. Both were anti-Manichean (2), that is, they proclaimed the existence of a single principle. For St. Augustine, evil is really nothing, nonbeing; the only thing that truly exists is good. It is the only thing that is. Good is the supreme Being. For Sade, evil is the only reality; there is no good. But what is the ontological (3) reality of evil? It is indefinable, its name is legion: dispersion and plurality. The only feature that isolates and defines evil is to be an exception. Thus, affirming with maniacal insistence on evil as the only principle, Sade affirms a plurality of exceptions that result in many negations. In sum, evil lacks a foundation. This is more than a contradiction or a paradox: to affirm evil is not to postulate a principle but dispersion. Evil is nothing but a myriad of exceptions. Sade flings himself into an infinity of negations that also negate Sade himself. He is nothing more than an exception, a reflection among the reflections of a game of mirrors that multiply and vanish. " (Octavio Paz, 1986)
1. Libertine: 1 usually disparaging : a freethinker especially in religious matters
2 : a person who is unrestrained by convention or morality; specifically : one leading a dissolute life
- libertine adjective
2. Manichean - a believer in religious or philosophical dualism, from a religious dualism originating in Persia in the third century A.D. and teaching the release of the spirit from matter through strict self-denial.
3. Ontology - 1 : a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being
2 : a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of existents
The Marquis De Sade is made fully it seems, of contradictions. His imagination for debauchery is unrivaled - but he, as he stated above in a letter to his wife, did not in actuality cross the line into crime - whatever the term may mean in Sade's mind. We cannot fully know his limits, but that he would admit to them is in itself somewhat astonishing.
Sade was also an aristocrat and, at times, a tyrannical one. Yet he was a fervent supporter of the French Revolution. He could attest to the complete subjugation of an individual - but support the right of all people to be completely free.
The Misfortunes of Virtue (which would later be expanded to the unnecessarily long novel Justine), was the sister novel of Juliette, or The Prosperities of Vice. Misfortunes of Virtue contrasts the lives of two orphaned sisters - one finding almost immeasurable success in the life of a consort, the other finding only degradation, pain, and horrors trying to lead a life of virtue. This would seem to suit the Marquis' ideals perfectly, until the sisters are reunited near the end of the book. Then there is a sudden transformation in the successful but sinful sister as she reaches out to help her downtrodden sibling. The ending runs completely contrary to the rest of the story but that is not a new theme in Sade's writings. There is a certain sarcasm to the tone that makes the reader question the author's commitment to the "redemptive" ending.
For a novella, it feels like a much longer work. The more the Marquis put to paper, the more he tended to bog down both characters and plot. The fact this story was further expanded into the enormous novel, Justine, is remarkable - and explains why I was never able to get through it. Juliette is also difficult reading. What Sade adds to the novels is not depth of characters or story - but simply more window dressing of vulgarity and violence. Not even the compelling sort of sadism you find so extensively used in eroticism - but crude, flat details in the most vulgar wording possible. The goal of the prose is not used so much to challenge propriety and religion as so many of his essays and shorter works do - but to simply offend.
Summarizing Sade is risky business, but if left to something that will fit into the confines of this Weblog - I choose another's words.
"Sade's negation is enormous, total. In this he recalls St. Augustine. Both were anti-Manichean (2), that is, they proclaimed the existence of a single principle. For St. Augustine, evil is really nothing, nonbeing; the only thing that truly exists is good. It is the only thing that is. Good is the supreme Being. For Sade, evil is the only reality; there is no good. But what is the ontological (3) reality of evil? It is indefinable, its name is legion: dispersion and plurality. The only feature that isolates and defines evil is to be an exception. Thus, affirming with maniacal insistence on evil as the only principle, Sade affirms a plurality of exceptions that result in many negations. In sum, evil lacks a foundation. This is more than a contradiction or a paradox: to affirm evil is not to postulate a principle but dispersion. Evil is nothing but a myriad of exceptions. Sade flings himself into an infinity of negations that also negate Sade himself. He is nothing more than an exception, a reflection among the reflections of a game of mirrors that multiply and vanish. " (Octavio Paz, 1986)
1. Libertine: 1 usually disparaging : a freethinker especially in religious matters
2 : a person who is unrestrained by convention or morality; specifically : one leading a dissolute life
- libertine adjective
2. Manichean - a believer in religious or philosophical dualism, from a religious dualism originating in Persia in the third century A.D. and teaching the release of the spirit from matter through strict self-denial.
3. Ontology - 1 : a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being
2 : a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of existents
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2015
So, I started reading The 120 Days of Sodom about six months ago, but quit partway through because I just couldn't see the value in continuing. I didn't write about it here because I really didn't know what to make of it or what to say. However, having now read David Coward's very interesting introduction to The Misfortunes of Virtue, I feel I have a slightly better handle on Sade. The thing that really threw me with The 120 Days was that I really wasn't sure whether it was intended to be titillating. I understand that if you can think of it, somebody's into it, and I'm sure there are people out there who find the whole thing terribly sexy, but I just found that Sade seemed to go out of his way to describe everyone as so utterly repulsive that it couldn't possibly actually be intended to turn anyone on, could it? But if not that, then what the hell was it for? Basically, it's... philosophy? It's an extreme version of the materialist philosophy, which essentially states that this is the only world that exists, and that everything in it is in it for good, the materials just getting recycled as living beings die and the matter of which they were made recomposes into another living being. Because of that perpetuity, there's no reward or punishment in the hereafter for any behaviour, so you might as well do basically whatever you feel like, regardless of morality, which, as it says above, doesn't really exist. So, with no morality, there's no inherent value in being virtuous, so if you have the power to subjugate, hurt, etc. someone else, there's really no reason not to do so. Taken in that light, The 120 Days makes a lot more sense. It's still horrifically vile, and I still have no particular interest in revisiting it, but I can at least sort of understand what Sade was trying to say with it.*
So. That said, on to The Misfortunes of Virtue. It's another manifesto on the theme, basically, but a good deal less extreme and graphically detailed. It's... somewhat interesting, I suppose, as a philosophy, but once you've gotten the point, I'm not sure how much value there really is in continuing with the reading, as it's really all just variations on the same theme, over and over: Justine tries to do the right thing and gets screwed right over and woefully abused. Repeat.
I had some further thoughts on various elements of this book, but let's just leave it with this comment from Coward's introduction: "Sade was probably not mad, but neither was he entirely sane." (xxxvii)
* The following footnote from Coward, in reference to a question regarding whether the depravities suffered by Justine by one set of her tormentors could ever be catalogued, didn't exactly change my mind, but did make me chuckle: "But this is precisely what Sade had already done in The 120 Days of Sodom, a catalogue of 600 'passions' which, after the initial shock, is as interesting to read as a telephone directory and considerably less instructive." (266). Indeed, Mr. Coward. Indeed.
So. That said, on to The Misfortunes of Virtue. It's another manifesto on the theme, basically, but a good deal less extreme and graphically detailed. It's... somewhat interesting, I suppose, as a philosophy, but once you've gotten the point, I'm not sure how much value there really is in continuing with the reading, as it's really all just variations on the same theme, over and over: Justine tries to do the right thing and gets screwed right over and woefully abused. Repeat.
I had some further thoughts on various elements of this book, but let's just leave it with this comment from Coward's introduction: "Sade was probably not mad, but neither was he entirely sane." (xxxvii)
* The following footnote from Coward, in reference to a question regarding whether the depravities suffered by Justine by one set of her tormentors could ever be catalogued, didn't exactly change my mind, but did make me chuckle: "But this is precisely what Sade had already done in The 120 Days of Sodom, a catalogue of 600 'passions' which, after the initial shock, is as interesting to read as a telephone directory and considerably less instructive." (266). Indeed, Mr. Coward. Indeed.
November 24, 2011
As with all de Sade's works, thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking.
August 7, 2014
It will taint your soul irrevocably.
March 7, 2020
An interesting read and a great introduction to the writings of Marquis de Sade. Representing a logical extreme conclusion of the Enlightenment philosophical stance, de Sade examines the superstitions of religion, morality, contrasting them with the drives of nature, libertinism, and anarchic desires crossing into the perverse. Echoing Boccaccio, but with quite a modern voice, de Sade presents a challenging perspective, prefiguring some of the insights produced by Darwin, Freud and others. In his life, as a member of aristocracy and even a government servant during the Republic, he ultimately earned a distinction of being persecuted and incarcerated by all three regimes - the monarchy, the republic, and the empire.
August 25, 2025
I got into this book not realising that the Marquis de Sade was where we got Sadism from, and was a bit taken aback at first, but then the plot just felt unnecessarily crude. Each misfortune became repetitive and boring, and I became desensitized to it by the end of the book. I love dark narratives, but this was meh.
September 22, 2025
SHE COULDNT CATCH A BREAK
October 3, 2025
In creating an example of why virtue brings nothing but misfortune, Sade has created a character that is appealing beyond words. For Sophie is my /lit/-fu and I love her and would have been able to save her (temporarily as my own virtue would cause me misfortune tenfold in Sade's world). Bascially Sophie is the perfect woman and is my waifu.
Moving on to an analysis/response to Sade's philosophy, belief in Nature as the "being" of sorts that desires destruction or desires the imbalance of power is as flawed as asserting that God exists. Even if Nature did desire that the weak to be ruled by the strong and even if Nature wished to reuse molecules as quickly as possible to create new things, why should man be at the whim of this cruel tyrant. Man must act selfishly to create the world that is best for him. The libertines use Nature's ambivalence to the deeds of men as an excuse for horrendous deeds. But ironically, it is also
Nature that provided man with His characteristic humanity (empathy). Why would Nature provide man with such a feeling if not because She desired for Him to feel deeply for His
brothers and sisters. For myself, the selfish reality I would create would be in accordance with this empathy that I was birthed with. And the destruction of those without the
capacity for such feelings (i.e. the libertines) is necessary for a desirable world.
(Alternative to above paragraph):
Libertinism hinges on man not having the capacity for empathy. I suppose since Sade did not have this capacity to a sufficient degree, he was unable to understand something so basic. It is however
not incomprehensible to him why people would commit virtuous acts. He understands that people feel a sense of satisfaction from such deeds. But perhaps he only sees the transactional
part of the deed? The leverage good deeds provide? Doing good for the sake of doing good (as dictated by our biological moral compass) is not something that is praised by Sade or factored in. Or perhaps it is factored in but is disregarded as illogical and suboptimal. Nature did produce empathy within us. This is a fact but perhaps it is the "weakness" that Sade believes the "strong" shall triumph (and deserve to triumph) over.
Of particular interest are the monologues of Sade's antagonists. The comical villainy and ever escalating disaster that Sophie goes through is offensive to the foundations of
human decency and compassion. The reader will be like Justine, naive and trusting of the people that provide dear Sophie with the briefest respite. Only to then be punished just as Sophie is by the description of ever escalating horrors. Eventually, the reader will come to believe foundationally that any virtuous action will surely have severe consequences and all vice will inevitably be rewarded. It is like shock therapy and conditions the reader into conforming to this mindset. In this, it is successful.
However, thankfully I live in a region with greater amounts of empathy than Sade's France (or so I have been lead to believe) and my virtue generally goes unpunished in day to day life.
Regardles, the apprehension at committing virtue and the knowledge that there is no one to punish vice, at least not in this realm, has been ingrained in me successfully...
The entire text is dripping in delicious sardonic irony. The ending in particular is so comically tragic that the only reaction to its contrast with the final line of the text is to laugh out loud. Each of Sophie's virtues treated by Providence as a sin worse than murder is like the lash of a whip on the back of the reader. Just as Justine breaks out into fits of tears in anticipation of her next misfortune, so too does the reader grip the pages of the text awaiting the next disaster. And when it strikes, so too does it remove any thought of fortune following virtue. It is only after this thorough beating that the last page of the texts' irony deals a striking blow.
Expertly paints a picture of utmost personal tragedy while weaving his unique philosophical views throughout. If I lived in Sade's world, what choice would I have but to follow a path of vice lest the same fate that befell Justine falls upon me.
I quite liked the other stories in this collection as well although they all sort of go the same way (lots of cuckoldry, adultery, rape, and cheating). Standouts to me are:
- "Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man" which is a thought provoking argument against theism with an unexpectedly, Camus-pilled approach to death. (it is r/atheism core though)
- "The Prude" which is based in that it confirms that all women are of the same stock.
- "Emilie de Tourville", which is like a mini misfortunes of virtue except with less of Sade's philosophy and brutality.
- "Augustine de Villeblanche" which is funny and based.
- "The Self Made Cuckold", which is funny because of its absurdity. Reads like a brilliant manga protagonist playing mind games or something.
Some of my favorite quotes:
Moving on to an analysis/response to Sade's philosophy, belief in Nature as the "being" of sorts that desires destruction or desires the imbalance of power is as flawed as asserting that God exists. Even if Nature did desire that the weak to be ruled by the strong and even if Nature wished to reuse molecules as quickly as possible to create new things, why should man be at the whim of this cruel tyrant. Man must act selfishly to create the world that is best for him. The libertines use Nature's ambivalence to the deeds of men as an excuse for horrendous deeds. But ironically, it is also
Nature that provided man with His characteristic humanity (empathy). Why would Nature provide man with such a feeling if not because She desired for Him to feel deeply for His
brothers and sisters. For myself, the selfish reality I would create would be in accordance with this empathy that I was birthed with. And the destruction of those without the
capacity for such feelings (i.e. the libertines) is necessary for a desirable world.
(Alternative to above paragraph):
Libertinism hinges on man not having the capacity for empathy. I suppose since Sade did not have this capacity to a sufficient degree, he was unable to understand something so basic. It is however
not incomprehensible to him why people would commit virtuous acts. He understands that people feel a sense of satisfaction from such deeds. But perhaps he only sees the transactional
part of the deed? The leverage good deeds provide? Doing good for the sake of doing good (as dictated by our biological moral compass) is not something that is praised by Sade or factored in. Or perhaps it is factored in but is disregarded as illogical and suboptimal. Nature did produce empathy within us. This is a fact but perhaps it is the "weakness" that Sade believes the "strong" shall triumph (and deserve to triumph) over.
Of particular interest are the monologues of Sade's antagonists. The comical villainy and ever escalating disaster that Sophie goes through is offensive to the foundations of
human decency and compassion. The reader will be like Justine, naive and trusting of the people that provide dear Sophie with the briefest respite. Only to then be punished just as Sophie is by the description of ever escalating horrors. Eventually, the reader will come to believe foundationally that any virtuous action will surely have severe consequences and all vice will inevitably be rewarded. It is like shock therapy and conditions the reader into conforming to this mindset. In this, it is successful.
However, thankfully I live in a region with greater amounts of empathy than Sade's France (or so I have been lead to believe) and my virtue generally goes unpunished in day to day life.
Regardles, the apprehension at committing virtue and the knowledge that there is no one to punish vice, at least not in this realm, has been ingrained in me successfully...
The entire text is dripping in delicious sardonic irony. The ending in particular is so comically tragic that the only reaction to its contrast with the final line of the text is to laugh out loud. Each of Sophie's virtues treated by Providence as a sin worse than murder is like the lash of a whip on the back of the reader. Just as Justine breaks out into fits of tears in anticipation of her next misfortune, so too does the reader grip the pages of the text awaiting the next disaster. And when it strikes, so too does it remove any thought of fortune following virtue. It is only after this thorough beating that the last page of the texts' irony deals a striking blow.
Expertly paints a picture of utmost personal tragedy while weaving his unique philosophical views throughout. If I lived in Sade's world, what choice would I have but to follow a path of vice lest the same fate that befell Justine falls upon me.
I quite liked the other stories in this collection as well although they all sort of go the same way (lots of cuckoldry, adultery, rape, and cheating). Standouts to me are:
- "Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man" which is a thought provoking argument against theism with an unexpectedly, Camus-pilled approach to death. (it is r/atheism core though)
- "The Prude" which is based in that it confirms that all women are of the same stock.
- "Emilie de Tourville", which is like a mini misfortunes of virtue except with less of Sade's philosophy and brutality.
- "Augustine de Villeblanche" which is funny and based.
- "The Self Made Cuckold", which is funny because of its absurdity. Reads like a brilliant manga protagonist playing mind games or something.
Some of my favorite quotes:
April 28, 2022
A bizarre book, by a bizarre man. I won't go into De Sades politics and morals here, it would be a rather long essay. However I do feel he was maybe a misundstood character. The stories in this book seem to poke deliberate and mocking accusations against the church and the French aristocracy of the time. De Sade was imprisoned for his so called acts of sadinism but the book has left me wondering it this was simple propaganda to slander a man who mocked the system and revealed it for what it is. Well worth a read if you are fan of old style fiction in its rawist form and want to learn something about where the word sadinism comes from!
March 18, 2007
Not the hardcore Sade, but that makes it digestible - good ol' Enlightenment rationalism, atheism and utilitarianism with a libidinous twist. The core story, the basis of what would later become "Justine", is mostly the picaresque tale of how a paragon of virtue is violated at every turn by the amoral denizens of the world, whereas the later stories are Decameronesque philosophical tales of high perversity ultimately settling into stable monogamous patterns. Rather piquant.
November 10, 2008
I think Sade derives his infamous reputation from his later works. I can't speak to that, since I haven't read them. I found the stories that are part of The Misfortunes to be funny, ironic, biting criticisms of the social hypocrisy of Sade's time, many of which are still relevant today.
April 24, 2008
The Marquis de Sade. Words can't even begin to describe this man. As a woman, I am so glad I didn't live (or at least that I know of) during this time.
Read
January 26, 2014What a nympho. :)
May 20, 2020
Adalah kumpulan tulisan Sade berupa satu novella dan cerita-cerita pendek. Cerita-cerita pendeknya saya rasa tidak terlalu bermasalah. Yha ala ala tulisan libertine-atheist dan wong woke myself-vs-the-world gitu. Yang menjadi perhatian saya tertuju pada novellanya, The Misfortunes of Virtue.
Jauhi buku ini jika perlu, atau lebih tepatnya, jauhi karya Sade. Sade adalah manfiestasi dari bagian pikiran manusia yang tidak ingin pernah ada. Membaca ini seperti melihat Hannibal Lecter yang sedang menghiasi santapan korbannya. Memiliki nilai estetika, tapi keji dan biadab.
Gaya tulisannya menunjukan betapa sade memang dari orang terhormat, kata-katanya indah dan teratur. Luasnya referensi yang tertuangkan di tulisan ini juga kaya dan dalam, membuktikan bahwa memang doi adalah pemikir dan filusuf ulung. Tapi, ya ampun, beberapa bagian sengaja saya lompati saja karena tidak kuat.
Bukan, tulisannya bukannya jelek, saya akui bagus malah. tapi memang kepalanya saja yang entah sudah terbentur beberapa kali sampai mampu melahirkan iblis ini. Capek sekali membacanya. Rasa penasaran saya sudah kapok dan tidak mau menengok karya lainnya lagi.
Jauhi buku ini jika perlu, atau lebih tepatnya, jauhi karya Sade. Sade adalah manfiestasi dari bagian pikiran manusia yang tidak ingin pernah ada. Membaca ini seperti melihat Hannibal Lecter yang sedang menghiasi santapan korbannya. Memiliki nilai estetika, tapi keji dan biadab.
Gaya tulisannya menunjukan betapa sade memang dari orang terhormat, kata-katanya indah dan teratur. Luasnya referensi yang tertuangkan di tulisan ini juga kaya dan dalam, membuktikan bahwa memang doi adalah pemikir dan filusuf ulung. Tapi, ya ampun, beberapa bagian sengaja saya lompati saja karena tidak kuat.
Bukan, tulisannya bukannya jelek, saya akui bagus malah. tapi memang kepalanya saja yang entah sudah terbentur beberapa kali sampai mampu melahirkan iblis ini. Capek sekali membacanya. Rasa penasaran saya sudah kapok dan tidak mau menengok karya lainnya lagi.
October 26, 2024
Rating is for the ‘Misfortunes of Virtue’, rest is trite. MV is a surprisingly deep exploration of reverse moral philosophy, which places vice over virtue, like an opposite counter piece to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
January 1, 2018
Shock value is cheap.
February 7, 2018
Pitifully nihilistic, though genuinely thought-provoking.
August 1, 2018
An adventurous look into 18th century moral quandaries.
January 19, 2022
Orgies, murder, incest... This book is so much I couldn't finish it.
June 26, 2022
Underwhelming considering De Sade's reputation.
January 25, 2023
Honestly I expected more… Sade’s reputation proceeds him. This was like. Fine. I get why it was scandalous then but it’s incredibly tame by todays standards.
August 30, 2007
I seem to recall this was somewhat like Voltaire but with a real cruel streak. This innocent, virtuous chick gets pooed on more and more, the nicer she tries to be. Definitely funny and thought provoking. I remember thinking De Sade was a pretty cool guy who must have been a seriously progressive thinker. I don't know his sex and violence stuff but this stuff is pretty modern in the way it flips the finger to so called virtuous behaviour and piety. The lord doesn't protect innocent and pure folks, they just get screwed. Watch out for yourself!
April 26, 2012
While waiting for "50 Shades of Gray" to come in at the library, I went on a little Sade kick! This just goes to show that by no means is society *more* perverse now. We've always been warped, now we simply have the means and lack of grace to kiss and tell to the masses. Great book! I actually like that it was completely descriptive. There's something to be said for letting one's imagination fill in the blanks! I would recommend these to anyone that likes erotica, Sade is the Father of the genre as far as I'm concerned!
July 25, 2015
This book makes me wonder why now we are so shock for this practices, but we keep doing them in silence and as taboo? I read this book again recently, and its just weird to read it and think how people think of 50 shades of gray being "too much".
I love it, the way its written, the crude of the moments and the descriptions leaving just a very vague empty space, but most of all I want to know and I keep reading it, and I feel anger, as a woman, I do feel angry, but the writer had me in the net, and I need to finish the book, it happens every time.
I love it, the way its written, the crude of the moments and the descriptions leaving just a very vague empty space, but most of all I want to know and I keep reading it, and I feel anger, as a woman, I do feel angry, but the writer had me in the net, and I need to finish the book, it happens every time.
June 29, 2008
This is the book that initially got me into Sade. Don't get me wrong, you will be shocked beyond belief when you read this. It is brutally violent and indecently sexual but definitely makes you think. Also, I consider Sade as perhaps one of the greatest writers of all time. His descriptions are impeccable and his vision is searing. Not for the weak but definitely rewarding for those who take the plunge.
April 3, 2010
Having never before read anything from the Marquis de Sade, I was full of misconceptions, nevertheless, I decided to read his book. I must confess that I was quite surprised by the clarity of his ideas about good vs bad and convenient vs inconvenient. A very different way of approaching the world and life....
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