Virtuous

Justine, The Misfortunes of Virtue, or Good Conduct Well Chastised
Marquis de Sade
Fiction

Many are probably loosely aware of the author of Justine, though not as an author but as the namesake for a particular brand of gratification. Much of the material that sparked the association and derivation of that word, sadism, with the Marquis occur in this particular novel. To be certain, the book is revolutionary. That quality, however, has faded a bit in the intervening years.

Orphaned at age 12, the aristocratic and virtuous Justine parts with her older, more cynical sister, Juliette. Juliette, through vice, goes on to find fortune and prosperity while Justine meets nothing but misfortune and abuse. The outrageous fortune of Justine is recanted in first person to Madame de Lorsagne and her husband. The novel is in essence a pulpit for de Sade to promote his own ideas and politics (there is a preponderance of didactic soliloquies by the characters in the novel which tend to wear one out).

It is, in its core, a novel of extreme poetic justice...through vice there is prosperity and through virtue despair. In the end, Justine (who uses the pseudonym Therese throughout her life) is rescued by her sister, the aforementioned Lorsagne. Her initial joy gives way to despondency and moroseness before she is struck by a lightning bolt and perishes. Her sister, greatly affected, runs off to join a nunnery, where she becomes a paragon of virtue.

If you have an interest in late 18th early 19th century French literature, I would recommend the book heartily. Otherwise, unless you have a particular interest (mine own was the namesake corollary between it and my favorite book, Justine by Lawrence Durrell) in sadism or societal theory,

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