|
Post by dem bones on Oct 27, 2010 18:46:17 GMT
The Marquis de Sade - Justine: or The Misfortunes Of Virtue (Corgi, 1965) A complete unexpurgated translation by Alan Hull Walton Blurb: Since the closing years of the 19th century, the works of the notorious Marquis de Sade have assumed an increasing importance in the world of literature. And the recent production of the Peter Weiss play — briefly known as Marat/Sade — has focused new attention on this important writer.
'Justine', now published in England for the first time in a complete and unexpurgated translation, is undoubtedly his most celebrated and vilified work. As the French critic, Maurice Blanchot, has said: "It is true to say that nowhere in the world, and at no other time, has there been such a scandalous book in the whole of literature." With Franklin 'Proust' Marsh bent on taking us in an exciting new literary direction, thought I'd haul in this gem from the Divine Marquis. It's often been commented that Justine may have influenced M. G. Lewis's The Monk, and having read - and loved - both, there is no 'may' about it. Have read a few translations of Justine, including a Grove Press edition which gleefully dwells on, and possibly even ups the filth content, but Alan Hull Walton's translation is the one I go back to (it's among my most re-read novels). By excising at least some of the crap (so to speak), he allows us to see Justine for the absolutely brilliant Gothic novel it is, even if deSade intended it as - among other, more important things- a twisted parody of the form. Not having been particularly excited by the little else of his !'ve squirmed through ( 120 Days Of Sodom, Philosophy In The Bedroom and some of his shorter pieces), am wondering if what I'm really appreciating here is Alan Hull Walton's talent as an editor/ translator as much as De Sade's scary-hilarious vision.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 28, 2010 7:30:27 GMT
Just reading Sade's life on wiki. What a bloke. He could have singlehandedly written a review of the prison system based on extensive knowledge. 32 years of his life in asylums and prisons; eleven years in Paris (10 in the Bastille) a month in Conciergerie, two years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, three years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie. 13 years in the Charenton asylum and still managing to hump anything that showed a flicker of life.
As far as asylums go, he managed to shout out 'they're killing the prisoners in here!' when the mob were on the loose, which betrays a rather astute recognition of possibilities.
One of the best ironies was his imprisonment for "moderatism" during the reign of terror. Can you imagine his face when the judge said you're getting a year of porridge for being too moderate.
His modern critics are wonderful. The feminists as a whole don't seem all that keen. I remember my favourite feminist authoress (I have only one - Camille Paglia -) wrote some good stuff about Sade. But Angela Carter takes the biscuit. She sees Sade as 'a "moral pornographer" who creates spaces for women.' Perhaps not the spaces you really craved but who knows.
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Oct 28, 2010 11:35:30 GMT
Just reading Sade's life on wiki. What a bloke. He could have singlehandedly written a review of the prison system based on extensive knowledge. 32 years of his life in asylums and prisons; eleven years in Paris (10 in the Bastille) a month in Conciergerie, two years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, three years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie. 13 years in the Charenton asylum and still managing to hump anything that showed a flicker of life. He really must have pissed off some very influential people. This reminds me I always wanted to read a good bio about him. His is such a strange story. And it is typical how the Cliff Notes version of his interests have obscured his politcal and philosophical ideas and just reduced him to a dirty old man. Of course a villian is more interesting than a philosoph Somehow I can never forget Robert Englunds portrait of him in the otherwise godawful Night Terrors. But I guess that happens if a branch of sexual pahtology gets named after you
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Oct 28, 2010 13:24:43 GMT
never did get a copy of this but I'm thinking it might be worth it for the novelization of Matheson's script for AIP's DeSade(1969) which sounds a disaster though maybe some of our film buffs can advise me otherwise? Kiss the Whip (Creation, 2005) Blurb: Four acclaimed purveyors of fantastic fiction collide in a pulp inferno of black magic, torture, and sexual depravity: Robert Bloch's The Skull of the Marquis de Sade, Jean-Paul Denard's Jacqueline, Daughter of the Marquis de Sade, Richard Matheson's De Sade (novelized by Henry Clement), and Jeremy Reed's When the Whip Comes Down. All four works are dark tributes to the Marquis de Sade, whose literary legacy and reputation continue to inspire writers and filmmakers to this day.
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Oct 28, 2010 13:48:21 GMT
Here is a german edition of Justine I bought second hand. Publisher Ullstein, this edition 1967, original translation It is a quite funny edition, as the paperback was published under the heading "Ullstein Urlaubs Klassiker". Ullstein holiday classic Others include Twain, Maupassant, Verne, Poe. And to just show that we are dealing here with literature and not smut there is a essay by Albert Camus included. It is quite interesting how the old marquis have become a staple of fiction. In Italy there even was a long runing fumetti comic called DeSade, one of those blood, violence and rape things. Most of its covers would let photob**t implode, so I don´t even try. A lot more boring was a series of novels by May Ann Mitchell, which had the marquis as a ... right, a vampire. I only read the first one, which I never finished. When even the sex scenes are boring ... I never watched the Cushing movie The Skull which is based on the Bloch story. It is supposed not to be bad.
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 28, 2010 15:38:58 GMT
All four works are dark tributes to the Marquis de Sade, whose literary legacy and reputation continue to inspire writers and filmmakers to this day. Looking at that cover You'd never guess the appeal...
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on Oct 28, 2010 19:52:18 GMT
never did get a copy of this but I'm thinking it might be worth it for the novelization of Matheson's script for AIP's DeSade(1969) which sounds a disaster though maybe some of our film buffs can advise me otherwise? Kiss the Whip (Creation, 2005) Blurb: Four acclaimed purveyors of fantastic fiction collide in a pulp inferno of black magic, torture, and sexual depravity: Robert Bloch's The Skull of the Marquis de Sade, Jean-Paul Denard's Jacqueline, Daughter of the Marquis de Sade, Richard Matheson's De Sade (novelized by Henry Clement), and Jeremy Reed's When the Whip Comes Down. All four works are dark tributes to the Marquis de Sade, whose literary legacy and reputation continue to inspire writers and filmmakers to this day. Oh good Lordy! I must admit I wouldn't mind a copy of this, not particularly for the cover, you understand but because I've never read the Bloch and the Matheson novelisation might be fun as well. AIP's De Sade was meant to be their first foray into big budget 'respectability' (yes I know) and was one of the projects lined up for Michael Reeves before everything went wrong. Apparently the result was pretty awful, but as you all know by now I simply cannot take anyone else's word for it and will have to view the film myself at some point when it becomes available. Fear not members of Vault - I shall watch it so you don't have to. Lady P on the other hand, will have to watch it with me
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Oct 29, 2010 10:03:42 GMT
never did get a copy of this but I'm thinking it might be worth it for the novelization of Matheson's script for AIP's DeSade(1969) which sounds a disaster though maybe some of our film buffs can advise me otherwise? I also tried to get this, but hadn´t any luck. This cover btw is one of the italian fumetti I mentionend. Imagine 150 or more of those
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 8, 2016 7:08:22 GMT
Having again somehow survived Nesta H. Webster's harrowing The French Revolution: A Study In Democracy (Constable, 1919), I desperately needed to read something comparatively light that would restore my faith in mankind, etc., so a rematch with de Sade's Gothic masterpiece seemed the logical next step.
Following the death of their parents, Juliette de Bertole, fifteen, and little sister Justine, twelve, are turfed out of the convent by the bent Mother Superior and told to make their own way in the world. Juliette, adventurous, ambitious and carnal by nature, embraces prostitution, theft, and murder. She's brilliant at them. When next we hear of her fifteen years later, she has scaled the social ladder. Vice and crime have served their purpose. The Countess Madame de Lorsange is devoted to her lover of four years, M. de Corville, a thoroughly decent fellow, under whose influence she takes the greatest joy in performing charitable deeds.
Justine, is not so lucky. Unlike her sister, she takes her religious upbringing extremely seriously and is determined to cling on to her chastity come what may. Her predilection for performing kind acts rebounds on her every time. She has an uncanny ability for falling foul of french-kissing parish priests, sadistic libertines, MAD SCIENTISTS and lust-crazed sodomites. The four Monks of Sainte-Marie-de-Bois are worshipped locally as saints. Justine requests "sweet solitude", only to be kept as a sex slave and gang-banged over a period of three years by Fathers Antonin ("butcher of my virginity"), Jerome, Raphael and Clement. Framed for theft, she's thrown into prison to become the unwitting confederate of career criminal, Madame Dubois, who effects their escape by torching the building. Twenty-one people perish in the inferno. Justine receives the blame. When M. Dalville is beaten up and left to die by bandits, it is she tends his wounds and nurses him back to health. The beast repays her by chaining her to a wheel at his counterfeiting plant to slave under threat of the whip. And so on and so on ad nauseum. Finally, at Villenfranche, she rushes into a burning building to rescue a baby, she's struck by a beam and drops the infant into the flames. The craven mother, Madame Bertrand, loathe to risk her own skin, has her arrested for murder. "Under what fatal star was it necessary that I should be born? Why is it impossible for me to feel even a single virtuous sentiment, without it promptly being followed by a deluge of trouble and suffering? And how can it be that this radiant providence, whose justice I have been pleased to adore, has only punished me for my virtues, but has, at the same time, raised to the very pinnacle of success those people who have crushed me with their vices?"
Justine is escorted to Paris to face the formality of a trial on charges of robbery, murder and arson. Arriving in Lyons at nightfall, the party put up at the same inn where Madame de Lorsange and beau are spending the evening. Full of compassion for the prisoner - even the guards think she has been done by - Madame de Lorsange requests that 'Sophie' spend the night in the custody of she and the good de Corville. Imagine her joy when she realises the poor women is her long lost sister, Justine! Oh, but what cruelties she has suffered! de Colville, much moved by Justine's testimony, intervenes on her behalf. All charges against her are dropped. At last she is free! Praise be to ...
Actually, God hasn't quite done with her yet.
There are three versions of the book. The first, completed on July 8 1787, was written over fifteen days while de Sade was imprisoned in the Bastille (he was transferred to the Charenton lunatic asylum in 1789, ten days before the prison was liberated). Two centuries on, it reads like a perved-up The Perils Of Pauline with lashings of rogering (© Dennis Wheatley), lashings of lashings, too, but, in light of what was to follow, it is relatively benign. The next version - the first to see print - was published in 1791. de Sade tinkers, develops his philosophy and nasties things up another level. Walton incorporates sequences from this version into his translation where he thinks them relevant.
The infamous third and final version, The New Justine, published over ten volumes between 1797 and 1801, is, apparently, to quote Walton, "horror fiction gone mad." It seems that, fired up by recent events in Paris and across France - the storming of the Tuileries, the September Massacres and the Reign of Terror might have come direct from his nightmare vision - de Sade piled obscenity upon blasphemy upon obscenity to deliver his verdict on mankind. No longer does Juliette grieve her sister's gruesome and thoroughly undeserved death, she finds it the funniest thing she's ever seen. The orgies - repetitive enough in the original - go on for ever.
Walton's 70-page introduction and extensive footnotes - literally a running commentary - add much to the book, though at times they are a little unreasonable toward "the youth of today" (he compares the mob who perpetuated the September Massacres with "Mods" and "contemporary teenage types.")
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Aug 11, 2016 20:32:05 GMT
I have read two DeSade biographies over the last years and am still fascinated, but I can't seem to get into his books. I tried again after watching Cruel Passions, the "based" on Justine movie with Koo Stark, and still gave up after a few pages. My respect, Dem, for reading this. I wonder what Walton would have to say about Generation Smartphone
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Aug 12, 2016 10:49:01 GMT
I've never attempted to read any of de Sade's books, but I can heartily recommend the 2000 film Quills with Geoffrey Rush playing de Sade. "Historically inaccurate", but probably all the better for it.
|
|
|
Post by andydecker on Aug 13, 2016 19:56:55 GMT
I've never attempted to read any of de Sade's books, but I can heartily recommend the 2000 film Quills with Geoffrey Rush playing de Sade. "Historically inaccurate", but probably all the better for it. This is a very good movie.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 16, 2016 7:41:37 GMT
This particular edition of Justine is the only edition of any of de Sade's works I've finished (think this was the fourth time), so again, that probably says much about Walton's translation and editorial skills. The Grove Press version (which includes another excellent introduction) is much longer, may even be the greater achievement, but I found it too much of a grind. I don't fancy 120 Days Of Sodom at all.
Have not yet seen Quills, but some years back my mum joined a local pensioners film club. They arranged a deal with the local cinema that they'd get in for next to nowt on Tuesday afternoons, and, of course, that lovely Cate Blanchett is in Quills, so "let's watch that one! ...."
|
|
|
Post by David A. Riley on Aug 16, 2016 10:32:01 GMT
Have not yet seen Quills, but some years back my mum joined a local pensioners film club. They arranged a deal with the local cinema that they'd get in for next to nowt on Tuesday afternoons, and, of course, that lovely Cate Blanchett is in Quills, so "let's watch that one! ...." I hope that ended well....!
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 17, 2016 15:08:16 GMT
Not the way my mum tells it, it didn't! Best of all, a number of the party were of the Daily Ma*l/ Jam & Jerusalem persuasion. God, but I'd have loved to have been there.
|
|