Justine ili nedaće kreposti

The novel by the Marquis de Sade, first published anonymously in 1791 in Paris (later expanded versions in 1797 and 1801), is one of the most controversial works of world literature. The main character Justine (who introduces herself as Thérèse) is a young, beautiful, pious and naive girl who, after the death of her parents and the loss of her property, leaves the convent and tries to live an honest and virtuous life.

The novel is structured as a series of Justine's misfortunes: fleeing from evil, she falls into the hands of bandits, thieves, sadistic nobles, corrupt priests, pseudo-scientists and tyrants who rape, torture, humiliate and use her for their perverse pleasures. Every time she tries to help others or rely on morality, faith and justice, she is punished even more cruelly. Opposite her stands her sister Juliette (in the later novel Juliette, or the Prosperity of Vice), who chooses the path of vice and crime and achieves wealth and power.

Through the characters' philosophical discussions (atheistic, nihilistic, materialistic monologues), Sade presents a radical critique of Christian morality, providence and social norms: virtue is weakness, nature is amoral and favors the strong over the weak, and God does not exist or is cruel. The work is a philosophical pornographic treatise – it explicitly describes violence, incest, sodomy, torture and other extreme scenes to illustrate the thesis that vice is rewarded and virtue is condemned. Published at the time of the French Revolution, the novel caused a scandal, led to Sade's re-arrest and influenced later literature (romanticism, existentialism, surrealism).

Today it is considered a key work for understanding sadism (a term derived from Sade's name), but also a deep critique of the hypocrisy of society and religion. Because of the explicitness, it is not for everyone - warning of violence and sexual perversions.