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.

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