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Justine

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Justine

By: Marquis de Sade
Narrated by: Polly Edsell, Nicholas Boulton
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Underneath the patina of civilized society lies the Sadean demimonde: a bundle of lustful appetites fueled by momentary impulse and a desire for unfettered indulgence. And the target of this savagery: Justine de Bertole, a pious and virginal heroine.

While her amoral sister Juliette gets all the wonders in the world, virtuous and faithful Justine is subjected to punishment after punishment at the hands of sadistic and abusive deviants. Grotesque, inhumane and compelling, Sade’s novel overturns Rousseau’s views of the social contract, and the common trope that punishment only visits sinners, to deliver a passionate treatise on good and evil, virtue and sin.

2012 translation by John Phillips.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2012 John Phillips (translation) (P)2018 Naxos AudioBooks Classics
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All stars
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probably the most classic of erotic literature.
this is not just a diatribe of evil takes stories , but an example of the works of one of the most controversial philosophers that ever lived.

The most extreme of nuggets of naughtiness

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The most horrible narration, cant even concentrate on the story because of the annoying female voices!

Terrible narration

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If you like reading a long series of baroquely coy descriptions of pornographic grotesquery, interspersed with long philosophical self justifications, delivered by an endless parade of cartoonish baddies: this is the novel for you. After a few hours you start to notice the patterns - every act of nobility always being cruelly punished, evil always being prospering, and every act of extravagant depravity interspersed with long, rambling arguments as to why it all supposedly cannot be reproached.

It gets exhausting to listen to. And it just goes on, and on, and on.

Some people call this "erotica", but I don't think very many people will actually find it titillating. It's all too grotesque, too over the top, and too loaded down with the authors self-justifications to actually arouse. The philosophical interludes are in some respects more interesting, and you may get some intellectual stimulation from trying to unravel it all: but it doesn't really come down to more than the "there's no such thing as good and evil" shtick that seems to be perennially in fashion among certain kinds of affluent commentators who are sufficiently detached from reality to find it satisfying. (Which perfectly describes the author).

I suggest waiting for the hoped for graphic novel sequel, where Justine becomes a masked vigilante on a rip-roaring rampage of bloody revenge.

I do have to praise the performers however - both the male and female narrators really capture the tone of the book, and go at it with suitably melodramatic gusto.

Atrocity - Philosophy - Repeat - Endlessly

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