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.

Kind of long & boring

If you are interested in sade it’s a decent read, but the book is long, repetitive and boring. There is also a ton triggering and sexually violent content so be warned. I wanted this book to be good but it just isn’t. I can’t recommend this to the casual reader who doesn’t have a academic interest in Sade’s work

Salacious and profane

Not a moment's doubt this will speak to your most secret desires. Detailed descriptions of debaucherous acts that are not for the faint of heart.

Kink with Teletubbies

This is a comically awful book, made far worse by the even worse narration. The normal voices of the readers are passable, but as soon as they try to do dialogue the female characters sound like Teletubbies and the male characters sound bad guy parodies from Looney Tunes cartoon. It is the most cringeworthily awful narration I have ever heard on Audible, by a large margin.

I decided to read it because de Sade's works have a reputation for being literature, above and beyond all the kink, and I thought I should have a look at at least one of his books. Literature? Excuse me? Compared to Justine, the script of your average pizza delivery boy porn video is quality writing, and the plot is even less credible. The tired structural ploy of the story being told in an evening by Justine telling her life to two fellow travelers also stretches any suspension of disbelief far beyond breaking point after the first few pages. Although there is a lot of text in quotes, none of it is dialog. It is all the author pontificating or fantasizing and putting it in the mouths of his cardboard cutout characters. Descriptions of women in dialog spoken by the heroine read like a schoolboy talking about a Playboy centerfold. The rest is prolix fillers and endless discussioins about whether what is going on could be classed as good or bad.

The coy descriptions of the kink scenes could be excused because of the century they were written in. But the content is so unrealistic that it is immediately obvious that the author has never actually done anything he is writing about. Most of it simply wouldn't work, purely on physical level. It is all overheated, masturbatory fantasy. To make matters worse, every rape and assault is preceded by at least half an hour of pop sophistry masquerading as philosophy, as the abuser attempts to explain and justify what he is about to do. It beggars belief that generations of intellectuals have taken this puerile crap seriously in any way at all.

Last but not least, de Sade is clearly not a sadist, at least not on the basis of this book. Whoever wrote this was a masochist identifying with the main character and trying to justify his leanings. It's painfully obvious throughout the entire book.

Annoying

The story is cliché in 2021. Way over the top. I like to think with an open mind but the story was childish in its apparent explanation of the evils of those with power. Maybe in the 18th century it was explosive today just a poor listen plus the voices didn’t help either.

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.

The most extreme of nuggets of naughtiness

probably the most classic of erotic literature.
this is not just a diatribe of evil takes stories , but an example of the works of one of the most controversial philosophers that ever lived.

Terrible narration

The most horrible narration, cant even concentrate on the story because of the annoying female voices!