Juliette is a novel written by the Marquis de Sade and published 1797 - 1801, accompanying Sade's Nouvelle Justine. Whilst Justine, Juliette's sister, was a virtuous woman who consequently encountered nothing but despair and abuse, Juliette is an amoral nymphomaniac who ends up successful and happy. Portrait of the Marquis de Sade by Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo (c. ... See also: 1796 in literature, other events of 1797, 1798 in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 1800 in literature, other events of 1801, 1802 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The misfortunes of virtue (original French-language title Les Infortunes de la virtu) was an early work by the Marquis de Sade, written in two weeks on 8 July 1787. ... Virtue (Greek αρετη; Latin virtus) is the habitual, well-established, readiness or disposition of mans powers directing them to some goodness of act. ...

The full title of the novel in the original French is Histoire de Juliette ou les Prospérités du vice, and the English title is "Juliette, or Vice Amply Rewarded".

Both Justine and Juliette were published anonymously. Napoleon ordered the arrest of the author, and as a result Sade was incarcerated without trial for the last 13 years of his life. Napoleon I of France, by Jacques-Louis David Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution, and the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from 11 November 1799 to 18 May 1804, then as Emperor of the...

Plot

Illustration of a Dutch printing of Juliette, c. 1800

Juliette is raised in a convent, but at the age of 13 she is seduced by a woman who immediately explains that morality, religion and other such concepts are meaningless. There are plenty of similar philosophical rants during the book, all attacking the ideas of God, morals, remorse, love, etc, the overall conclusion being that the only aim in life is "to enjoy oneself at no matter whose expense." Juliette takes this to the extreme and manages to murder her way through a huge number of people, including various family members and friends. Image File history File links Juliette_Sade_Dutch. ... Image File history File links Juliette_Sade_Dutch. ... This article is about an abbey as a religious building. ... ... God is the term used to denote the Supreme Being believed by many people, and especially followers of monotheistic religions, to be the creator, ruler and/or the sum total of, existence. ...

During the novel, which follows Juliette through the ages of 13 to about 30, the wanton anti-heroine engages in virtually every form of depravity and encounters a series of like-minded libertines, such as the ferocious Clairwil, whose main passion is in murdering young men, and Saint Fond, a 50-year-old multi-millionaire who commits incest with his daughter, murders his father, tortures young girls to death on a daily basis and even plots an ambitious scheme to provoke a famine that will wipe out half the population of France. Libertine is the name given to certain political or social groups active in Europe in the 17th century. ... Incest is sexual activity or marriage between very close family members. ... A famine is a phenomenon in which a large percentage of the population of a region or country are so undernourished that death by starvation becomes increasingly common. ...

Analysis and influence

Significantly, as with most of de Sade's work, it is the female protagonists who are the most interesting and colourful. The male characters are generally quite two-dimensional and often absurdly over-the-top, such as the Russian giant Minski, who lives in a huge castle in the middle of nowhere, with dungeons full of hundreds of women and children.

One of the essays in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) is titled "Juliette or Enlightenment and Morality" and analyzes Juliette as the embodiment of the philosophy of enlightenment. They write: "she demonizes Catholicism as the most-up-to-date mythology, and with it civilization as a whole[...]her procedures is enlightened and efficient as she goes about her work of sacrilege[...]She favours system and consequence." Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg Max Horkheimer (February 14, 1895 - July 7, 1973) was a Jewish-German philosopher and sociologist, known especially as the founder and guiding thinker of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno (September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969) was a German sociologist, philosopher, musicologist and composer. ... Dialectic of Enlightenment, written by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno made its first appearance in 1944 under the title Dialektik der Aufklärung by Social Studies Association, Inc. ... The Age of Enlightenment refers to the 18th century in European philosophy, and is often thought of as part of a larger period which includes the Age of Reason. ...

Andrea Dworkin, who vilified Sade as the archetypical woman-hating pornographer, nevertheless modeled her first novel Ice and Fire (1986) on Juliette. Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 – April 9, 2005) was an American radical feminist and writer. ... See also: 1985 in literature, other events of 1986, 1987 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

External links

• Online exhibition on illustrations of Juliette, by the World Museum on Erotic Art
• Full text of Juliette, in French