Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings

Book Description

This volume contains Philosophy in the Bedroom, a major novel that presents the clearest summation of his political philosophy; Eugénie de Franval, a novella widely considered to be a masterpiece of eighteenth-century French literature; and the only authentic and complete American edition of his most famous work, Justine.

Customer Reviews:

Historical/Psychological Value Only.......2006-08-01

Well I bought this book because enough people have purported to find literary or philosophical value in the drivel that the Marquis De Sade wrote as a sexual outlet while he was in prison. The rehabilitation of De Sade is proof of how far academic standards have sunk and how dumbed down our culture has become, as though any further proof were needed.

In case you were wondering, as I was, nobody actually likes this book. No one takes the philosophy seriously, but there are still some people left in the world who search for something to shock. The last genuine instance of literature or art actually shocking someone occurred on April 29, 1978. It has all been a tired old rehash since then.

Serious writers like Octavio Paz, Apollinaire, and Charles Baudelaire did indeed purport to find something of value in De Sade's work, but I am convinced they just found De Sade a convenient symbol at a time when shock still existed and censorship and prudery were real threats that artists and writers faced.

De Sade was a figure of unquestionable historical significance and he is forever linked to the psychological condition that bears his name, so his work is valuable to readers interested in history and psychology. Hence the three stars.

It is also worth noting that, in spite of all the people who feel the need to turn De Sade into some kind of Christ figure for sociopaths, his writings are obviously satirical and there is no evidence that he ever committed the crimes for which he was imprisoned.

I do kind of wonder what the large number of non-pornographic novels, stories and plays De Sade wrote are like. It is bizarre that the only works of his that people read nowadays are just sexual fantasies that he wrote down for release and published because he knew they would make money.

a wonderful one-handed book..........2006-07-26

While it is interesting how the Marquis works in his philosophy (about 30 pages of orgy, around the same length of the most well-endowed man reading aloud from a political pamphlet one of them just happended to pick up on the way, followed about 30 more pages of orgy and so on), the desired effects are accomplished: the reader is left satisfied on the intellectual, philosophical, and yes, sexual levels.

As for Justine, one can definitely feel for the main character and itch to read Juliette, a wonderful companion which is also available here at Amazon. Some of Sade's descriptions are not for the weak at heart though, but that's part of life and the risk you take in leafing through a book like this.

I didin't really know a thing about actual libertinage before I read this book, but that certainly isn't the case now! I had only expected to be enlightened on a half-way intellectual level; I bought this book without considering the possibilites of the content suggested by the title.

Sade's refreshing view of sex and world-view (which ranges from indifferent to - surprise - "sadistic" in every sense of the word) was indeed way ahead of his time. While you probably won't agree whole-heartedly with him, he definitely gives the reader something to think about as far as the darker side of the human mind is concerned. Enjoy!

The Marquis is a most misunderstood man..........2006-05-14

In one of the introduction essays in this collection, the translators write that those who read know of de Sade, but so few of those have actually read any of his work. People know who the Marquis de Sade is. He's referenced constantly in film, TV, and literature, and it's always some childish, snickering S & M reference. If his work was simply for shock value, it would have long been forgotten about. This is a man of ideas and philosophy. A terrifying vision, no doubt, but a unique and fascinating one, for those who can take it. This is an excellent compliation, including the complete version of Justine, the excellent Philosophy in the Bedroom, the hilarious Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man, and the superb Eugenie de Franval, one of de Sade's most respected short stories. Grove Press (who also put out Henry Miller's banned work) has also Juliette, the companion piece to Justine, and The 120 Days of Sodom and other writings as well. This book is the best of the three, in terms of its content (even thought Sodom's prose is much better than Justine. Justine is a more thought out book). It is a difficult read, and it's terrifying to be in de Sade's universe. But he also displays a dark humour (especially in Philosophy and Eugenie) that most people never give him credit for. And as one reviewer noted, the movie "Quills", while entertaining, is historically inaccurate. De Sade did die in Charnenton, but nothing like it was in the film. He died quietly in his sleep. Read this man's work. We're lucky to have these works, as most of his work was destroyed....

if you've read the book, why don't you know the bio??.......2006-04-14

two of the reviewers here apparently read the book after viewing the fictional movie 'quills'--de sade was NOT jailed by napoleon, nor did his life end in a madhouse... do your homework, folks--you make fools of yourselves otherwise...

A sick genius.......2006-03-21

In many periods of his life De Sade deserved to be in Jail, and in those periods he deserved whatever happened to him. But the place he died in was because of this book. Let that be known as a fact, that he was arrested and held by Napolean because he was believed to be the Anonymous writer of Justine, which he was. This book is what placed him in the asylum until his death. He was a sick mad man. But he was also a sick genius. And in the end it wasn't his bad nature that put him in jail, but his "bad" words. Napoleon's orders on the grounds that his writings expressed a state of 'libertine dementia'.

Justine is the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination.

The book is a piece of literature, with simple prose, and average writing, probably from translation. Must buy book.

The Marquis De Sade: The Complete Justine Philosophy in the Bedroom and Other Writings

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as shocking today as 200+ years ago

The Marquis De Sade: The Complete Justine Philosophy in the Bedroom and Other Writings
Marquis De Sade
Manufacturer: Grove/Atlantic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802131034

Customer Reviews:

as shocking today as 200+ years ago.......2004-05-26

"Philosophy In the Bedroom" is probably the goriest, most sexually graphic thing I've ever read, yet strangely arousing, I was actually putting myself in Eugenie's place at some moments. In an age were we are bombarded with sexual innuendo all day every day, Sade figuratively shoves our faces in it and blasts away every taboo possible. No wonder this caused such a stir in the late 1700's; it's amazing Sade wasn't burned at the stake, but he is proven immortal because his shocking stories are still titilating readers' true carnal natures centuries later. This book should rightfully be seen as a classic, while it was once the most forbidden pornography. It's still pornography, but porography that tells some philosophical truths about unrestrained human nature. If you are not squeamish, religious, or faint of heart, I recommend it.

Three Complete Novels; Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, Eugenie de Franval and Other Writings

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Three Complete Novels; Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, Eugenie de Franval and Other Writings
Marquis De Sade
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JW07FW

The Complete Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom and Other Writings. Compiled and Trans. By Richard Seaver and Austryn Wainhouse. Intros. by Jean Paulhan and Maurice Blanchot

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The Complete Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom and Other Writings. Compiled and Trans. By Richard Seaver and Austryn Wainhouse. Intros. by Jean Paulhan and Maurice Blanchot
Marquis De Sade
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0R6DU

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The Complete Justine; Philosophy in the Bedroom; and Other Writings
The Marquis De Sade
Manufacturer: Grove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JPZH6I

Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, Eugenie De Franval, and Other Writing

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Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, Eugenie De Franval, and Other Writing

Manufacturer: Grove Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HU9PB8

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The Marquis De Sade: the Complete Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom and Other Writings

Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GL21VE

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The Marquis De Sade: The Complete Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings
Richard & Wainhouse, Austryn (Compiled and Translated by) Seaver
Manufacturer: Grove Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O8D3PW

The Compleat Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom and other Writings.

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The Compleat Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom and other Writings.
Marquis (Trans. by A. Wainhouse and R. Seaver) Intro. by Jean Paulhan and M. Blanchot. de Sade
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NGWY14

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The Complete Justine Philosophy in the Bedroom and Other Writings
Marquis De Sade
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O88LWM

Book Description

From the New York Times bestselling author of Ransom comes an exquisite tender tale of love, adventure and passion!

In feudal England, Elizabeth Montwright barely escaped the massacre that destroyed her family and exiled her from her ancestral castle. Bent on revenge, she rode again through the fortress gates, disguised as a peasant...to seek aid from Geoffrey Berkley, the powerful baron who had routed the murderers.

He heard her pleas, resisted her demands, and vowed to seduce his beautiful subject. Yet as Elizabeth fought the warrior's caresses, love flamed for this gallant man who must soon champion her cause...and capture her spirited heart!

Customer Reviews:

GARWOOD DID IT AGAIN!.......2007-10-04

I have just read this book and ill admit I was worried at first because of all the bad reviews I read but this book was great! Garwood has a way of writing that makes me apart of the book and I love that. It was funny and cute and I'll deffinetly read it again!

Garwood's historicals are always on point.......2007-10-01

Elizabeth Montwright was just a teenager when she watched her entire family be slaughtered at the hands of brutal warriors. Taking to the woods near her childhood home, Elizabeth waited for her father's overlord, Baron Geoffrey Berkley, to return to the Montwright lands and dispel the raiders who invaded her home. When she meets the fiercesome, arrogant knight called The Hawk, Elizabeth can't help but fall under his spell. She wants nothing more than for her family's deaths to be avenged, but she can't help it if she falls in love along the way...

Whenever you're in the mood for a well thought out and elegantly told romance novel, look no further than Julie Garwood. From Honour's Splendour to The Prize to The Bride, Garwood's historicals are always on point. Gentle Warrior is no exception. Elizabeth was a passionate and fiesty heroine who was just headstrong enough that I admired her, without being so over the top and impetuous as to be annoying. In contrast, Geoffrey was a strong, dominant presence who would do anything to protect his bride, though he may have been ruled a bit too much by reason and order for my liking. Still, I enjoyed these two characters and this book served its purpose--to entertain and engage me with an artfully told story about two characters I could root for. And that's about all I could ask.

I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE CHARACTERS!!!.......2007-09-18

It is most unfortunate that it has taken me a long time to discover Garwood and her unique talent of bringing a historical period to life. The anguish that Elizabeth felt over a promise made to her murdered kinfolk versus her undeniable loyalty and love in which she feels for her husband is soul-shattering. This is one romance that I will not forget. This book was also a reminder as to why exactly I read historical romance. Alas, the true love of faded eras no longer exist...but one can always read, right?

Skip this one.......2007-09-08

One of her first and definitely not her best. Very stiff, uneven, choppy writing. Borrow it, don't buy it, if you really want to read it.

bored out of my mind.......2007-07-01

I usually have a book on my nightstand to read before i go to sleep. this book puts me to sleep within a few pages. this is one of the few Garwood Historicals that [...], and I'm discovering why. once Elizabeth marries Geoffrey, she decides she's in love with him. It was like she realized how far into the book I was, and said, "Oh yea, I'm supposed to be in love at this point."
Not great. But good for sleeping.

Therese of Lisieux: God's Gentle Warrior

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Gentle Saint with a Will of Iron
Outstanding
A Remarkable, Breakthough Study of a Great Saint

Therese of Lisieux: God's Gentle Warrior
Thomas R. Nevin
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195307216

Book Description

Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), also known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, is popularly named the Little Flower. A Carmelite nun, doctor of the church, and patron of a score of causes, she was famously acclaimed by Pope Pius X as the greatest saint of modern times. Therese is not only one of the most beloved saints of the Catholic Church but perhaps the most revered woman of the modern age. Pope John Paul II described her as a living icon of God. Her autobiography Story of a Soul has been translated into sixty languages. Having long transcended national and linguistic boundaries, she has crossed even religious ones. As daughter of Allah, she is venerated widely in Islamic cultures. Therese has been the subject of innumerable biographies and treatises, ranging from hagiographies to attacks on her intelligence and mental health. Thomas R. Nevin has gained access to many untapped archival materials and previously unpublished photographs. As a consequence he is able to offer a much fuller and more accurate portrait of the saints life and thought than his predecessors. He explores the dynamics of her family life and the early development of her spirituality. He draws extensively on the correspondence of her mother and documents her influence on Thereses autobiography and spirituality. He charts the development of Thereses career as a writer. He gives close attention to her poetry and plays usually dismissed as undistinguished and argues that they have great value as texts by which she addressed and informed her Carmelite community. He delves into the French medical literature of the time, in an effort to understand how the tuberculosis of which she died at the age of 24 was treated and lamentably mistreated. Finally, he offers a new understanding of Therese as a theologian for whom love, rather than doctrines and creeds, was the paramount value. Adding substantially to our knowledge and appreciation of this immensely popular and attractive figure, this book should appeal to many general readers as well as to scholars and students of modern Catholic history.

Customer Reviews:

Gentle Saint with a Will of Iron.......2007-08-21

I am the third customer to review the book and the third to give it five stars. Nevin is an incredibly talented writer and in him Therese finds a worthy biographer, student, expositor. I would say he is the brother Therese wanted in her life...I wish that they could have corresponded. Therese would have found someone who knew how to really read her, question her, and trace the complexities of a life that was far from simple. He invites us into her solitude with love and understanding.

Outstanding.......2007-04-02

I originally purchased this book for a bit of pious reading. To be honest, I did not expect anything "new" could easily be found or said about our beloved Therese and her family. What I found was an outstanding study that looks at Therese with "new eyes," so to speak. And the conclusions are extremely powerful and spiritually very strong and nourishing. I especially appreciated Dr. Nevin's use of new sources (the circulaires read in the refrectory during St. Therese's life that would have been a source of inspiration to Therese), along with some photographs that I don't think had ever been published before. I recommend this book highly.

A Remarkable, Breakthough Study of a Great Saint .......2007-03-15

Having read much about her and visited her conventual home in Lisieux, I did not expect this book to be more than another take on the life and spirituality of this most beloved of modern saints. Yet, this book reveals much new biographical detail and sheds new light on the theological writings of this remarkable young woman. Dr. Nevin has also somehow retrieved photographs associated with St. Therese and her family that were not, it seems, available to the general public, including a previously unpublished photograph of the saint's mother. Here, the saint and her family emerge as people with practical problems, wrestling with poor financial investments, billeted soldiers, the death of loved ones and perplexing life choices. In this book, the struggles, character flaws and uncertainties are not airbrushed out. But neither does Dr. Nevin set out to find villains to slay among the Martins or the nuns with whom Therese shared her convent life. In the end, this book is about the love-centred, Jesus-focused path that Therese chartered at the end of her life. Eschewing excessive preoccupation with dogma and self, she dispensed with a mercantile approach to religion (if you're good to God, God will be good to you) and plunged head on into the abyss of love. Dr. Nevin discusses, with awesome command of the biographical facs and the primary sources, the still unfolding implications of Therese's writings. She died at 24, but not a moment of her life was wasted.

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Lucretia Mott Gentle Warrior
Dorothy Sterling
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GNVV36

The Gentle Warrior: General Oliver Prince Smith, Usmc

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The Gentle Warrior: General Oliver Prince Smith, Usmc
Clifton LA Bree
Manufacturer: Kent State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Tomo-Chi-Chi: Gentle Warrior
Sandstone , and Sara H. Banks
Manufacturer: Talking Leaves Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Fierce and Gentle Warriors- Three Stories

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Fierce and Gentle Warriors- Three Stories
Mikhail, Illustrated by Milton Glaser Sholokhov
Manufacturer: Garden City: Doubleday & Co. 1967
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MZUY4U

Amor Y Venganza / Gentle Warrior (Cisne)

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Amor Y Venganza / Gentle Warrior (Cisne)
Julie Garwood
Manufacturer: Nuevas Ediciones De Bolsillo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 8497594533

4 Titles By Hockett - Sweet Savage Surrender - Outlaw Seduction - Gentle Warrior - River of Passion

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4 Titles By Hockett - Sweet Savage Surrender - Outlaw Seduction - Gentle Warrior - River of Passion
Kathryn Hockett
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: B000PB0SA6

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4 massmarket paperback Titles By Hockett - Sweet Savage Surrender - Outlaw Seduction - Gentle Warrior - River of Passion

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Fierce and Gentle Warriors
Mikhail Shokolov
Manufacturer: DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OKUTHA

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Fierce and Gentle Warriors
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov
Manufacturer: DoubleDay
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9997507789

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