1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

  • Gulliver's Travels
  • Roxana
  • Moll Flanders
  • Love In Excess
  • Robinson Crusoe
  • A Tale of a Tub
  • Oroonoko
  • The Princess of Cleves

Friday, January 13, 2012

49. Justine, or Good Conduct Well Chastised by Marquis de Sade

Justine is virtuous and never loses her goodness in spite of a series of adventures in which she is abused and degraded.  Her sister Juliet is bad and profits from it.

At the end of the book, when they are reunited and Justine has some hope of living happily, she is struck by a bolt of lightning and dies.  The moral de Sade offers is "true happiness lies only in the bosom of virtue" - "virtue is its own reward" -  and "If God permits virtue to be persecuted on earth, it is not for us to question his intentions."

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