Justine Illustrated

Justine (original French title: Les infortunes de la vest) 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 that characterized his later writing, as it was written in the classical style (which was fashionable at the time), with much verbose and metaphorical description.<br> <br> A much extended and more graphic version, entitled Justine o Les Malheur. de la (1791) (English title: Justine, or The Misfortunes of the Virtue or simply Justine), was the first of de Sade's books published.<br> <br> A further extended version, La Nouvelle Justine Les Malheurs.de la (The New Justine), was published in the Netherlands 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.<br> <br> Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette, and as a result de Sade was incarcerated for the last 13 years of his life. The book's destruction was ordered by the Royale de Paris on May 19, 1815.