Justine (Sade) - History of The Work

History of The Work

Justine (original French title Les infortunes de la vertu) was an early work by the Marquis de Sade, written in two weeks in 1787 while imprisoned in the Bastille. It is a novella (187 pages) with relatively little of the obscenity which characterized his later writing as it was written in the classical style (which was fashionable at the time), with much verbose and metaphorical description.

A much extended and more graphic version, entitled Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu (1791) (English title: Justine, or The Misfortunes of the virtue or simply Justine) was the first of Sade's books to be published.

A further extended version La Nouvelle Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu (The New Justine) was published in Holland in 1797. This final version, La Nouvelle Justine, departed from the first-person narrative of the previous two versions, and included around 100 engravings. It was accompanied by a continuation, Juliette about Justine's sister. The two together formed 10 volumes of nearly 4000 pages in total; publication was completed in 1801.

Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette, and as a result Sade was incarcerated for the last 13 years of his life. Napoleon called Justine "the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination".

The book's destruction was ordered by the Cour Royale de Paris on May 19, 1815.