- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (1 July 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0192836951
- ISBN-13: 978-0192836953
- Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.7 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,041,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
The Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales
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Product Description
Product Description
Revered by Enlightenment and Victorian thinkers, de Sade was recognized as a founding father by the Surrealists, and holds a prominent place in the history of modernism and post-modernism. This selection of his early writings, some appearing in English translation for the first time, reveals the full range of his sobering moods and considerable talents.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Misfortunes of Virtue is a blistering tale of woe that is unyielding and profane. Sade hurls his "victim" Justine from one catastrophe to another and he is relentless with the misery inflicted upon her. He teases the reader with false hope and deceitful benevolence and leads us into his suffocating nirvana of human indifference and selfishness. Sade's incarcerated psyche penetrates the text and the stench of his pre-Darwinian philosophy lingers painfully from page to page. David Coward's new translation of The Misfortunes of Virtue and other early tales provides an engaging introduction to the literary world of the Marquis De Sade.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sade is known primarily for his unprintable, unpublishable
works, but most of the short stories or fables in this
collection are only slightly risque, if they are at all.
Primarily adaptations of folk tales from around Provence,
or attacks on the administrative figures who hounded him
under three regimes, these stories show a different side of
Sade: the humorist. Also included is _Les Infortunes des
Virtu_, the first version of _Justine_, and considered by
many Sade scholars to be the best.
works, but most of the short stories or fables in this
collection are only slightly risque, if they are at all.
Primarily adaptations of folk tales from around Provence,
or attacks on the administrative figures who hounded him
under three regimes, these stories show a different side of
Sade: the humorist. Also included is _Les Infortunes des
Virtu_, the first version of _Justine_, and considered by
many Sade scholars to be the best.
Format:Paperback
Written while being held under a lettre de cashet, The Misfortunes of Virtue is an early incarnation of his Justine. Most of the misfortunes visited upon Justine (or Sophie as she calls herself) come from Sade's own life, it is semi-autobiographical. The tale of Justine is contrasted with that of her sister Juliette, the libertine. It's a scorching indictment of the hypocrisies of power and authority, who reign over the weak by forcing them to adopt a morality of piety which the strong never adhere to. Justine suffers because Justine sincerely believes that piety will be rewarded. Further, Justine suffers because Justine is encouraged to believe this by those who reign over her. Sade wants to free Justine, and for doing so he was defamed. If posterity continues to believe in this defamed portrait of the Divine Marquis then it is duped just as Justine was. My recommendation is to read Sade closely, without prejudice, for underneath his imposed diabolical mask is a man of the Enlightenment.
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