Justine (Sade)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from The Misfortunes of Virtue)
Jump to: navigation, search
Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue
Sade 1.jpeg
Frontispiece by Philippe Chéry and title page of the first edition
Author The Marquis de Sade
Original title Les Infortunes de la Vertu
Translator Pieralessandro Casavini
Country France
Language French
Genre Gothic Novel, Erotica, Classics
Publisher J. V. Girouard
Publication date
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Followed by ''Juliette''

Justine (or The Misfortunes of Virtue, or several other titles: see below) is a classic 1791 novel by Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, better known as the Marquis de Sade. There is no standard edition of this text in hardcover, having passed into the public domain. The text itself is often incorporated into collections of Sade's work.


History of the work[edit]

Justine (original French title: Les infortunes de la vertu) was an early work by the Marquis de Sade, written in two weeks in 1787 while imprisoned in the Bastille. It is a novella (187 pages) with relatively little of the obscenity which characterized his later writing, as it was written in the classical style (which was fashionable at the time), with much verbose and metaphorical description.

A much extended and more graphic version, entitled Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu (1791) (English title: Justine, or The Misfortunes of the Virtue or simply Justine), was the first of Sade's books to be published.

A further extended version, La Nouvelle Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu (The New Justine), was published in the Netherlands in 1797. This final version, La Nouvelle Justine, departed from the first-person narrative of the previous two versions, and included around 100 engravings. It was accompanied by a continuation, Juliette, about Justine's sister. The two together formed 10 volumes of nearly 4000 pages in total; publication was completed in 1801.

Justine was written around 30 years after Samuel Richardson's Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, and the thematic influence is clear.[citation needed] The story is quite related in terms of the endless trials which face each heroine, but with the opposite results. While Pamela's unwavering dedication to virtue does force her to suffer the threat of some vices, and confinement similar to that which befalls Justine, she is eventually successful in reforming Mr. B. and becoming his wife. She then leads a life of prosperity and happiness.

Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette, and as a result Sade was incarcerated for the last 13 years of his life. Napoleon called Justine "the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination".[citation needed]

The book's destruction was ordered by the Cour Royale de Paris on May 19, 1815.

Modern publication[edit]

A censored English translation of Justine was issued in the USA by the Risus Press in the early 1930s, and went through many reprintings. The first unexpurgated English translation of Justine (by 'Pieralessandro Casavini', a pseudonym for Austryn Wainhouse) was published by the Olympia Press in 1953. Wainhouse later revised this translation for publication in the United States by Grove Press. Other modern translated versions in print, notably the Wordsworth edition, are abridged and heavily censored.

The final 1797 version La Nouvelle Justine has never been published in English translation, although it was published in French in the permissive conditions of the late 1960s, as part of two rival limited-editions of the definitive collected works of de Sade: Jean-Jacques Pauvert's Oeuvres completes de Sade (1968, 30 volumes) and Cercle du Livre Precieux's Oeuvres completes du Marquis de Sade: editions definitive (1967, 16 volumes).

Plot summary[edit]

The plot concerns Justine, a 12-year-old maiden ("As for Justine, aged as we have remarked, twelve") who sets off, to make her way in France. It follows her until age 26, in her quest for virtue. She is presented with sexual lessons, hidden under a virtuous mask. The unfortunate situations include: the time when she seeks refuge and confession in a monastery, but is forced to become a sex-slave to the monks, who subject her to countless orgies, rapes, and similar rigours. When helping a gentleman who is robbed in a field, he takes her back to his chateau with promises of a post caring for his wife, but she is then confined in a cave and subject to much the same punishment. These punishments are mostly the same throughout, even when she goes to a judge to beg for mercy in her case as an arsonist, and then finds herself openly humiliated in court, unable to defend herself.

Justine (Therese) and Juliette were the daughters of Monsieur de Bertole. Bertole was a widower banker who fell in love with another man's lover. The man, Monsieur de Noirseuil, in the interest of revenge, pretended to be his friend, and made sure he became bankrupt and eventually poisoned him, leaving the girls orphans. Juliette and Justine lived in a nunnery, where the Abbess of the nunnery corrupted Juliette (and attempted to corrupt Justine too). However, Justine was sweet and virtuous. When the Abbess found out about Bertole's death she threw both girls out. Juliette's story is told in another book, and Justine continues on in pursuit of virtue, beginning from becoming a maid in the house of the Usurer Harpin, which is where her troubles begin anew.

In her search for work and shelter Justine constantly fell into the hands of rogues who would ravish and torture her and the people she makes friends with. Justine was falsely accused of theft by Harpin and sent to jail expecting execution. She had to ally herself with a Miss Dubois, a criminal who helped her to escape along with her band. In order to escape they had to start a fire in the prison, in which 21 people died. After escaping the band of Dubois, Justine wanders off and accidentally trespasses upon the lands of The Count of Bressac.

These are described in true Sadean form. However, unlike some of his other works, the novel is not just a catalogue of sadism.

The story is told by "Therese" in an inn, to Madame de Lorsagne. It is finally revealed that Madame de Lorsagne is her long lost sister. The irony is that her sister submitted to a brief period of vice and found herself a comfortable existence where she could exercise good, while Justine refused to make concessions for the greater good and was plunged further into vice than those who would go willingly.

The story ends with Madame de Lorsagne relieving her from a life of vice and clearing her name. Soon afterward, Justine becomes introverted and morose, and is finally struck by a bolt of lightning and killed instantly. Madame de Lorsagne joins a religious order after Justine's death.


In 1798, the rival writer Rétif de la Bretonne published his Anti-Justine.

In Lars von Trier's 2011 film Melancholia, the main character, played by Kirsten Dunst, is named after Sade's Justine.

A retelling in contemporary terms, is The Turkish Bath, a 1969 novel published by Olympia Press, allegedly by Justine and Juliette Lemercier in an autobiographical format.[1]

In 1957 Lawrence Durrell's Justine part one of the Alexandria Quartet

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations[edit]

The story has been adapted for film several times, most notably in a 1969 international co-production directed by Jesus Franco and starring Jack Palance, Romina Power, and Klaus Kinski as the Marquis, titled Marquis de Sade: Justine. There has also been a graphic novel version by Guido Crepax. In 1973 the Japanese director Tatsumi Kumashiro filmed an adaptation of Justine as part of Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series. The film was titled Woman Hell: Woods are Wet (女地獄　森は濡れた Onna Jigoku: Mori wa Nureta?).[2]

Justine was also featured in the 2000 film Quills based on the life of the Marquis de Sade.


  1. ^ The Turkish Bath. Juliette Lemercier, Justine Lemercier. Olympia Press, 1969. ISBN 1-60872-090-X, 9781608720903
  2. ^ Sharp, Jasper (2008). Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema. Guildford: FAB Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-903254-54-7. 

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

  • Justine (fr)
  • Justine, ou les malheurs de la vertu, vol. 1, vol. 2, en Hollande, chez les Libraires Associés, 1791.
  • (French) La nouvelle Justine, ou les malheurs de la vertu, suivie de l'Histoire de Juliette, sa soeur, vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3, vol. 4, en Hollande, 1797.