Justine

By: Marquis de Sade

Narrated by: Polly Edsell, Nicholas Boulton

Length: 12 hrs

Publisher's Summary

Underneath the patina of civilized society lies the Sadean demimonde: a bundle of lustful appetites fueled by momentary impulse and a desire for unfettered indulgence. And the target of this savagery: Justine de Bertole, a pious and virginal heroine.

While her amoral sister Juliette gets all the wonders in the world, virtuous and faithful Justine is subjected to punishment after punishment at the hands of sadistic and abusive deviants. Grotesque, inhumane, and compelling, Sade’s novel overturns Rousseau’s views of the social contract, and the common trope that punishment only visits sinners, to deliver a passionate treatise on good and evil, virtue and sin.

Contains mature themes.

2012 translation by John Phillips.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2012 John Phillips (translation) (P)2018 Naxos AudioBooks

Fantastic

Not only is the writing satisfying and the content decadent, but I enjoyed the voice acting. I wish Polly had also done ‘Juliette’.

Torturous tedium

Look, I'm probably as twisted as the rest of these listeners, But I must say, Justine's (or Therese's) tortures were nowhere near as excruciating as mine were waiting for this book to end!
Narration....excruciating.
Repetitious storyline....excruciating.
Politely worded examples of Libertine sexual philosophy....excruciating.
The serious consideration that other reviewers have put on this book is lost on me.

overall as expected but somehow worse

I expected the story line to be just what it was, I've read reviews and was prepared for content. I was not prepared for the narration/performance of it to be so hard to listen to. The switching in and out of bad accents and character voices is distracting and does not come naturally, in the middle of hours of female narrative a male character speaks a single line. It sounds as if someone is trying to read in the voice of the wicked witch of the west, snow white, and gargamel combined-cartoonish.

A masterpiece

This is not for faint hearted. It’s gruesome and cruel. Now that’s out of the way. The writing is exquisite. You can’t help but feel for the poor unfortunate Therese. But at the same time I am like:” damn girl when will learn not to follow strange men in isolated places.” The voice acting alone is out of this world. They actors really brother it to life. Though i was shocked and I enjoyed it the book. It’s completely Captivating!

Into the Minds of Psychopathic Sexual Predators

I have always heard of this book, and it was not what I thought it was. It was a very skillfully written book with a lot of euphemisms. To conceal the true character of what is happening and what is going on, the book communicates in esoteric and arcane language.

This book is not for the faint of heart; it is about powerful, sometimes wealthy men who prey on women and children and abuse them in the most unimaginable ways. These victims have either been kidnapped and held prisoner until they are no longer needed and then either released under threat of never telling anyone who did what, or the victim may be killed.

The perpetrators are either wealthy, powerful men or society's business professionals and other religious authority figures, such as an order of monks, who prey on these helpless individuals.

I almost stopped listening to this audiobook due to the extreme, excessive abuse of women and children. But I asked myself the question: Does good triumph over evil in this book. Yes, it does but only in the end within the last 11 or 12-minutes of the audiobook as Justine is rescued by her brother who reported it to the authorities, and the perpetrators are brought to justice.

Voices

Most annoying female voices. Unbearable high pitch, sounds which don’t fit the characters of the book at all.