Damaged Goods (Les Avaries) a Play in Three Acts

by Eugène Brieux

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Genres: Classics

86 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Eugène Brieux (1858-1932) was a French dramatist, one of the leading exponents of the realist drama, whose somewhat didactic works attacked the social evils of his day.

Reviews

[Jessica Reuter]

Good ole Upton Sinclair, fighting the good fight! A novelization of a French play intended to educate the public about their health and destigmatize syphilis. I'm a sucker for the promotion of knowledge, but this got a bit dry every other five pages. I think it probably worked better in its original form, but it's a clever way to promote awareness of communicable diseases. The ebook version I read had quite a few typos peppered throughout, too, which didn't help anything, but overall this was enjoyable.

[Tony]

A moralising, but well told, book about the scourge of STI’s (syphillis in this case) in the early 20tj century.

A book / play essentially calling for better sex education, economic support & assistance for the poor and greater understanding by all.

[Laura Fox]

Damaged Goods is most and foremost, a cautionary tale. Basically, it teaches us that one accident, one moment of carelessness is enough to fall from grace ... and get sick.

In our day and age, we take for granted that we need to go through a medical examination in order to get married, but during the author's time (the book was first published in 1913), those were hush-hush things.

The story covers various aspects of not only the intimate nature of the disease, but also the societal, politic and medical ones. Syphilis is presented as a matter of public health and safety, and it is the doctor's endeavor to change things that I found to be the red thread of the story and not the personal family drama.

I give it 4 stars because it feels, indeed, novelized, in the sense that the characters interact too theatrically, entering and exiting the scene as if on cue.

[Conquering Lioness]

Wow this book is unbelieveable

[J.A.]

I did not know this book was about syphillis. But it's the best book about syphillis I've read this year.

[Grannyvango]

Story about wealthy man with sid and peoples additude about sexauly transmitted disease and how they delt with itand how people with money felt they were above others
.