REVIEW: by MelodyLee
Aside from being a seriously heavy read, this book runs the gamut of sexual possibilities (though not as much as "120 Days..." ...Think of it as a warm up.) as Justine runs into the worst luck (an possibly the worst people) possible....From the get-go, the reader has the feeling that Someone Up There just has it in for her...and he does. At the end, after all
the various villians she's run across fail to do her in, de Sade does it himself, in the ultimate act of deus ex machina, by striking her down with a lightening bolt.
REVIEW: by m-woo@shout.net , 07/17/97
(taken from Amazon.com)
_Justine_ is the story of a young woman who lives a life governed by virtue. As she goes through life, she encounters a series of evil people who use and abuse her. Even though she continues to believe in virtue, she is continually beaten down, while those who inflict evil upon her continually prosper.
Though an interesting read, Sade tends to get tediously repetitive when trying to justify (over and over) perversion in the context of Nature. And yes, this is as nasty and sexually perverse as one might expect, covering practices ranging from sadism to autoerotic asphyxiation.