 |
|
Title: The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings
ISBN: 0802130127
Author:
Marquis De Sade
Publicate Date: 1994-01-10
Publish: 1994-01-10
List Price: $17.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $10.02
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.25
Amazon Merchant Price: $12.21
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: The First Existentialist
The Marquis is deep, complex, simple, intelligent and in your face. Outside of "Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man" however, his work is definately hard to get into. For lack of a better term, this is advanced reading, but it's worth it.
|
2: Devastatingly poignant---- a Masterpiece of Literature
Many have said that the 120 Days of Sodom is a disgusting work, full of nothing but sado-masochism and torture. Though the latter may be true, one must look at this work objectively, and realize that it is a blatant statement against Fascism, and all the horror of what happens when absolute power is allowed to corrupt absolutely. I've finished this book with nothing but utter respect for de Sade. I have never been so horrified, disgusted, and left with such a cold conscience from reading a book, but this one has achieved what I assume it was meant to achieve. It is a masterpiece. And for those with an open mind, who are not arroused by such filthy things as the abuse of children and the eating of human waste, but are disgusted with such things, this would be highly recommended to read and ponder about.
|
3: Ah, de Sade... how you have influenced so much
After reading through such a phenomenal sequence of tales found in the Grove Press collection of "Justine" I was quite excited to read another book riddled with Sade's writings! Maybe my philosophical mind was set so afire that I was simply expecting far too much from Sade. Don't mistake me; I did like some of the tales, especially "The Crimes of Love". That story was simply superb. However, the main piece of this edition was not what I was expecting, so allow me to go over that in a little more detail.
"The 120 Days of Sodom" is legendary at this point and from what I've read of Sade, this is by far his most depraved and debauched. However, we must put this story into a bit of perspective. This was his first attempt at a great and overzealous work, thus I can't rightly compare it in full against "Justine" which he had written as a more mature author, someone who has grasped the concept of writing a good tale via practice (granted he rewrote and refined "Justine" numerous times). As anyone who reads "The 120 Days of Sodom" we all know it is an unfinished work. I must commend the publisher for including not only the first part of the four part tale, but also the drafts for the unfinished three sections. I confess that regardless how brutal Sade got, regardless of how fragmented and unfinished the tale, I still would have rather found out what happened via a draft than not at all! The way the introduction is setup and the way the actual parts play out, it feels more like Sade was going for being the playwright rather than just a novelist. It's no secret he was interested in theater and I think the setup of this clearly shows that, however, it would be a little while before he really refined his work to become the novelist. However, I have to agree with other people who speculate that Sade has merely tried to reclaim "The 120 Days of Sodom" in his other writings. It's as if this was his blueprint for the vices we would see visited in his future tales. It is no wonder he was surely outraged to have lost it when the Bastille was sacked. I am not so sure he was trying to rewrite this with his later stories, but I think this gave him a sure footing on what he would be able to bring to light in future stories.
"The 120 Days of Sodom" is like a veritable list of sexual manias by that time periods standards. Some of these "manias" have actually become fairly normalized as society has progressed, such as the vice of being whipped and dominated. That concept has been sent intermittently throughout society that it is not as bizarre of a notion as it once was. It makes one really think over Sade's point concerning pleasure and its vices, because if those pleasures can be considered ultimately a norm and thus "good" by some people's standards, then if society progresses further will those more extreme concepts become a norm? I must admit when Sade gets into the torturous and brutal vices it was far beyond my ability to handle such tastes and I had to mostly skip over those sections in the drafts. I could handle a good portion of them, but eventually they just progressed to something so brutal that it was beyond what I enjoy reading. Amidst this list one would expect to find just about everything, and Sade sure does cover just about everything. He spends a great deal of time on coprophagia and whippings, towards the end this develops into torture. Frankly, I'm surprised at the lack of bestiality presented. It's mentioned in a few tales, but it doesn't hold a great focus. Nor do any of his characters seem to practice it. I find this surprising because Sade seemed to be trying to make this a well rounded list, but he greatly neglects this. I see it as a fairly common notion that I would think it should be touched upon, both because it is not generally a normalized practice by the greater population, and it is simply an obvious notion. Perhaps it simply did not interest Sade in the least, or perhaps that he figured cruelty to other reasoning beings was far more evil than cruelty via animals. Either way I was sort of surprised, because he seemed to cover all the bases concerning the other smorgasbord of manias, just seemed a bit curious to me.
The problem that I had with "120 Days of Sodom" and felt was more refined in "Justine" were the philosophical explanations for the vices, basically their justifications. I felt they were glossed over far too quickly than they should have been. The four friends clearly were presented as intelligent men that truly internalized their vices and manias and deemed them to be a very pleasurable thing. However, we only see minute touches of their reasoning. I think Sade spent too much time thinking up crazy scenarios of libertinage for the ladies to tell to the gathering rather than really developing his characters in full. At least as Sade moved into his writing over the years he really developed his characters with a much stronger stance toward their particular interests and went over their justifications. However, there is one point that Sade briefly has his characters touch upon that I find to be paramount in his arguments and that is the relativity of evil. Such as one man may consider coprophagia to be a great evil, while another may see it as a virtue, especially when he finds another that shares the joy of it! Unless, of course, they are similar to the true Sadean motif where the only true pleasure can be found in committing evil, in which case that person would hunt down people that don't like it and do it with them anyway.
Complete in this book are two essays that really try to think about Sade's work and his motivations. I have read a few of these essays that really try to get behind the man and his madness. On some levels it feels like people are over thinking "The 120 Days of Sodom". In some ways I think that by the time Sade was locked up, he was quite outraged at society in general. Granted I'm sure his writing was a therapeutic form to deal with his imprisonment, but with "The 120 Days of Sodom" I think he was out to enact some semblance of revenge on society via the ideologue of writing. No stone could be left without corruption! One of the essays speculates that Sade himself practiced a good deal of these debaucheries, but flatly points out that little is known of Sade in his younger years. I submit that an author merely needs to imagine, which is limitless, it does not mean he was completely speaking from experience. Granted I'm sure he experienced some of the things he wrote of, for there are quite a few vices that he repeats consistently throughout a great deal of his tales, such as coprophagia, whippings and sodomy.
At this point I've come across a rather interesting observation, based on other novels I've read, Sade's work, and just life experience. I've tended to notice that the greater majority of people that have these so called "vices" tend to be male. In Sade's work the females are always presented as being adaptive to the male genders particular mania. Take the character Duclos, for example, while she participated heavily in a varying degree of these vices, she was presently happy to be at the whim of these "heroes". I find this an interesting notion. If you read through his works, the people he speaks of require a very specific ritual in order for them to reach the desired level of "joy". The females act out these rituals as necessary, but don't seem to display any major strict vices of their own. My question is, can this be applied to the greater population? Sure there will be some females out there with quite stringent requirements, just as these fellows are, but I have a feeling they will be in the minority. I simply wonder why that may be.
There are three other creative works included, as I've already mentioned, "The Crimes of Love" is probably the best. It has the shocking Sade styled ending that I have really grown to love. He really faked me out on this tale because I really felt it was going to be a typical happy story, and Sade was just showing off his diversity as a writer, but then it ended on a great note. Most people would think it's cruel, but I like the ending you don't expect. The two tales concerning "Ernestine" were less than interesting, and personally I thought the play was better, mostly because it was the shorter. "Ernestine" the short story is decently written with a great deal of drama and a fairly brutal ending, but a rather happy ending overall. Frankly, I just had a hard time getting into this story and thus it was just okay. Maybe it's because I was expecting a twist like we get in "The Crimes of Love" and I just never really got that.
It was unfortunate, but this collection doesn't seem to collect a lot of Sade's most solid work. I know some fans will probably disagree with me, for many herald "The 120 Days of Sodom" as Sade's best work. The overly thought out justifications just weren't present enough and I think some people find Sade's philosophical points either repetitive or simply unnecessary. Which, I can understand this viewpoint, but I happen to enjoy that aspect of Sade's writing quite a bit. Regardless of how much he beats a point to death or how circular some of his logic is at times, I think it's a very interesting thing to read and try to unravel. Granted a poor work by Sade still gets a great rating, because even at his worst he would still surpass many others by my book. I really enjoyed "The 120 Days of Sodom", but I spent this review time to merely compare it to other works I had read by the same author. When compared against other author's Sade still remains supreme on many levels and I certainly cannot deny the man that.
|
4: PSYCHOTIC, NAUSEATING, AND BRILLIANT
Upon first reading "120 Days....", I could not believe that it was ever published: although not graphic pornography, It is sickening in the extreme; encompassing coprophagia, child rape and murder, tortures that the Devil himself could not conceive, and an overall sense of slavery that is very depressing. Everyone in this story is a victim in one way or another. The children, of course, are enslaved by the four
"friends", and the libertines are the helpless slaves of their own fiendish desires.
Contrary to other reviewers' opinions, I like Sade's style of writing, and view him as a literary giant. Even his repetition makes a point.
The second time I read this book, I took a different point of view. By the time that it was written, Sade had already been imprisoned, vilified by nearly everyone, and HATED by Napoleon. To my mind, Sade was merely using his art to thumb his nose (so to speak) at the very thin, phony veneer of 'civilization' that paraded as "normalcy" [of the time]. When you re-read the endless lists of "passions", they still hold their shock value, but with a subtle difference. Most of the tortures are so ridiculously preposterous as to be funny. The Marquis must have laughed his head off while inventing them, and their bizarre
quality enhanced by Sade's desire to further infuriate the establishment.
Most of this novel is pure satire: a send-up of the worst things people can do to one another.
The groundwork and basic premise of the book, however, are NOT funny. There is nothing amusing about child rape, kidnapping, being forced to eat human waste, etc. The story itself is one of the most sinister things you will ever read.
This is what art is supposed to do: infuriate, delight, enrage: to provoke an emotional response; and boy does this one deliver.
The companion piece, "Salo", the infamous Pasolini film, follows the storyline (and even some exact dialogue from the book) almost to the letter, but also treats the subject allegorically to the evils of Fascism. If you could not stomach the film, by all means do not read the book.
I believe that in years to come, no other author will ever equal the detailed depravity of Sade. As long as books are read, critics and readers will praise, curse, and debate his work. The Divine Marquis would have been delighted.
|
5: NOTHING HAS TOPPED IT YET
Although this is far from being the greatest book ever written it is still the most disgusting which after so many years (even WWII) is an amazing achievement in and of itself. The most amazing thing about this book is that you do not have to read it from cover to cover for it to stick with you for the rest of your life. Don't want to waste the money on such "trash"? Fine. Just track it down in a bookstore (Boarders sells it), and read a few pages and see for yourself. You won't soon forget the words or the images your imagination conjures up. And if you have already seen the movie but not read the book, the movie is only about 25% of the brutality of the book. As they say, "Let the buyer beware."
|
|
|
|
|
