Justine Ou Les Malheurs de La Vertu

Orphaned at the age of twelve, Justine is expelled from the convent and thrown out on the streets with her sister Juliette, who chooses to engage in prostitution. She, on the other hand, besieged by the turpitude and cruelty of men, fights to defend her virtue. Accused of the worst misdeeds, hunted by the dogs of the odious Count of Bressac, captive of lecherous monks, kidnapped by bandits, pursued by a debauched judge … No insult, whip or rape will be spared to her morality.

Somewhere between a Voltairean tale and a libertine novel, Justine ou les malheurs de la vertu (Justine or the Misfortunes of Virtue), written in the Bastille in 1788, was the first work that the Marquis de Sade, freed under the Revolution, saw published during his lifetime. He went on to enrich it with ever more scandalous scenes, under the guise of noble intentions: ‘Woe betide those who set fire to these pictures,’ he warned, ‘but let no one accuse us: there is a kind of corruption that poisons everything, even the virtue that is presented to it’.