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Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to classics, fiction lovers. Within the castle there is a system of punishment, which the reader never has full access to, but which we are informed will be barbaric, potentially fatal. The situation within the castle is, therefore, absolutely not the form of sadism that is currently en vogue, it is not a consensual exploration of mutual fantasies involving a master and a slave, a dom and a sub, although there is some of that within the stories the first prostitute tells.
First of all, one never believes in the characters or the situation. The four libertines are cartoonish, vaudeville, over-the-top; they stop just short of twirling their moustaches and laughing in an exaggeratedly sinister fashion.
These men all have an insatiable sexual appetite, to the extent that they appear to be turned on, to be able to fool around, all day, every day; and most of them come multiple times.
They are truly Herculean! Consider also, some of the acts, the shitting in particular. It is no exaggeration to say that the libertines devour three or four turds a day each, and none of them end up unwell. They even put their captives on a special diet in order to have them produce especially tasty shit. In other areas, the repetition was more of a issue. I am aware that de Sade wrote the book in prison, and that it is, at noted previously, unfinished.
For example, I do not know how many times one needs to be told that the Duc thigh-fucked Zelmire, but it is certainly less than forty. Nor does one really need to be told, over and over again, who took who into the cupboard, especially as you are never informed as to what happens in there.
There are, moreover, other instances of this sort, whereby de Sade will keep things, certain acts or events, from the reader, because, he states, they are too extreme for this particular part of his narrative and would be out of place. Which begs the obvious question: why tell us at all then? Why hint, why suggest? In any case, my enjoyment was not spoiled by these flaws. I did not think, even for long periods during which I read it, that I would be able to say that I love days of Sodom; and yet I do.
Perhaps I am even more jaded than I thought. The shadow of the pot-bellied man looms ever larger. What is this horrible, frightening, unreadable novel about? The End. The end of illusion, the end of hope, the end of confidence; the end of a century and its promises to mankind. Donatien de Sade has been called pornographer and philosopher, lunatic and intellectual, hero and criminal: Sade was much more than that. He was the spiritual offspring of a century, the 18th - the age of Enlightment and Darkness that began with the triumph of Reason and ended up with the apotheosis of Madness.
A tragi What is this horrible, frightening, unreadable novel about? A tragic adventure between two extremes: the philosophers writing the Encyclopedia and the illiterate shitting in the churches in the name of philosophy.
From Voltaire to Robespierre Sade's life and work tell us the tale of how Reason devoured itself. Their plan is to spend four months - hence the days of the title - enjoying the pleasures of sex, food, wine and ferocity, surrounded by any sort of luxurious finesse. There will be no boundaries to their desires: incest, sodomy, bestiality, murder: it's the empire of the senses unleashed, the absolute freedom of debauchery.
As for the four Mistresses great-grandmothers of Toulouse-Lautrec's decadent pimps , they have been assigned the task of entertaining their Masters with the tale of their past life and professional experience, including all the weirdest sexual excesses they have been witnessing since childhood - thus exciting the Masters' fantasy at the expense of their young slaves, upon whom the pervertions are immediately put into practice. The tales become more and more violent, according to a plan in which any perversion described by the women is rigourously categorized.
The logical conclusion will be the sacrifice of all the victims in a final orgy of blood and lust. Sade's masterpiece is certainly an essay on sexual deviance that is still thoroughly analysed by psychiatrists, philosophers, criminologists In fact this book belongs to the same line of Voltaire's and Rousseau's 'philosophical novel'.
May God protect us from ourselves. Because Sade's Masters are not demented hyenas giggling at the sight of humiliation and torture: quite the contrary. They're educated and cold-blooded intellectuals.
The narration is regularly interrupted by philosophical dialogues on religion, history, anthropology, science Sade depicts human beings who lack any sense of humanity; men whose Reason has murdered the Soul simply because it had become utterly useless.
Sade wrote this novel in his cell in the Bastille, where he had been imprisoned for his immoral behaviour. He saw the Parisian rioters and insurgent crowds, he heard the cannons and the agonizing victims of the Revolution, he shared their hopes and their hatred He was aware those desperate crowds were being used as cannon fodder by a sinister, greedy bourgeoisie waiting behind the barricades.
When the guillotine quenched its thirst for royal blood, it started to enjoy the blood of the poor and abused masses it was supposed to represent. This is what Sade saw through the barred window of his cell, preaching in vain like a modern Isaiah and writing his pages of blood and depravity. This novel is an elegy to a stillborn child: the liberating power of human Reason.
Previously reviewed in French, see other edition View all 8 comments. No-one can mix eroticism and horror like Sade, and here he is at his best. Definitely not for the faint of heart. So appalling you can't put it down. Jul 09, Mizuki rated it really liked it. What should I say? Oh yes I bought this book, I haven't yet read to the end. But it's a thought provoking book, and Marquis de Sade's great sense of humor and satire is quite charming.
Well, if you don't want to chew through the full pages of this thick book, at least try Salo or The Days of Sodom! A "fearsome work of art" it is! Jun 12, Jay Green rated it it was amazing. Thoroughly ridiculous and all the better for it. View all 5 comments. Didn't like it, didn't care about the imagery, think it overrated, boring and a distasteful mess, badly written at that, believe that it became notorious only due to lack of good porn at that time, etc etc etc.
Jul 14, Brittni rated it did not like it Shelves: classics , horror. A word to those who put this on their to-read list: I'm fairly certain this version of the book is the watered down version. If you want to read the original, there's an e-book version floating around online. That's what I read. Of course I didn't like it. This was the most disgusting book I've ever read, and I doubt there is any as vile out there in the world. For grammar and wording it would receive 5 stars; de Sade is certainly intelligent The book is about four disgusti A word to those who put this on their to-read list: I'm fairly certain this version of the book is the watered down version.
The book is about four disgusting men who decide to assign men to kidnap hundreds of children, choose from ten young boys and girls the others are sold as prostitutes , then hole themselves in a secluded location. Along with them are four old women employed to keep watch over the chilren , several well-endowed men used for the purpose of you-guess-what to the four men in charge and the children, and four women storytellers who amuse the main men the self-proclaimed libertines by recalling stories from their lives of prostitution.
The libertines are disgusting However, they like to prolong everything, which is why they don't deflower the children from the very beginning, and why the stories start out only slightly shocking. As time goes on, the stories get more disgusting bodily functions come into play , but still readable. After the stories are told, the libertines like to re-enact much of that told in the stories. Over time one begins to feel like Sade exhausted all of his perverse ideas The real horrors begin in the second-to-last chapter, the forty-third day, in which violence begins to mingle with sexual acts.
It's like a Saw series from the s, but with violence AND sex, which makes it all the worse in my opinion. There are innumerable horrors done to pregnant women, toddlers and even an infant mentioned to have been raped, teeth being pulled out to be replaced with red-hot nails, arms twisted I'm only scratching the surface here. As I read, I felt like I was going to faint from horror, disgust, and shock, or puke There was even a point where I felt like screaming in terror because of what I read.
I had to use my courage to press on, and even then I had to skim sometimes. The whole thing is more terrifying if you imagine what went through the children's minds during those months of sexual and violent torture. Of course, the libertines can't control their violent lust, so the elders, the studs, the storytellers, their own wives, and even some of the hired help are tortured.
They start declaring who's to die each day: one of the deaths is described in great detail and is probably one of the most squeamish events in the book. At the very end, de Sade lists the number of all those holed up in this secluded place, and the number who survived: 16 out of 46, and not one of those survivors left without missing some fingers, an eye, a broken bone, etc. Most who end up reading this story, like me, did so just to prove they can finish.
I sincerely hope there weren't any who got enjoyment out of it This is one of the books people read and come away feeling a complete despair for humanity; most can only stomach a chapter a day.
If you want to sicken your friends at a party, whip the book out and have them read a certain portion out loud. View all 11 comments. May 06, Neil rated it liked it.
I must confess, even as a very avid consumer of literature, I have never before been compelled to actually write a book review — this one did. This book explores the absolute depths of human corruption, and is the most depraved piece of text I have ever read. Unlike many of the reviewers here, I endured the whole, and reached the end — day As it is unfinished, the book is mostly based on the simple passions, with some of the more complex as well.
The rest of the complex and all of the criminal and murderous are not in full prose, but only note form. Everything is included, with no taboo avoided: bestiality, sodomy, incest, paedophilia, buggery, necrophilia, sapphotizing, depucelation, rape, flagellation, sacrilege, kidnap, torture and mutilation all with lashings of coprophagia; ending with the final pages devoted to murder.
In all, the culmination of or there about separate soirees. As a previous reviewer said, I do think this text is a bit of a mind game for Sade, he challenges you to finish the book, always exploring further depravity expecting you to reel away in final disgust.
If you put the book down he wins! This doesn't mean it's full of Urban language slang words, but it reads extremely well. And oddly enough this is the first time I've read "The Days of Sodom.
It's not precisely a turn-on type of book or even a 'dirty book,' but more of a work that deals with the structure and how it tells its tales. On one level, it's a book that takes place in an imaginary landscape, especially regarding the castle that the action takes place. One has to walk to the location, so therefore it is highly unlikely no one will come unannounced. Also, the four main libertines are a duke royalty , a bishop religion , a judge the law and a financier economy.
After that, then we have groupings of family members, Harem of young girls, Harem of young boys, and Eight fuckers all well-hung men. It's very much a stage-set with everyone in the story playing an essential role in a social structure. The sex is crazed and usually exposed in a frenzy mode of action, with lots of poop offerings of all sorts. So it demeans people which is part of the turn-on but also to expose the power system in place as well.
Or at times, playing with the 'role' of power and it plays in a sexual context. For sure, Sade's book doesn't read like a sex book, but more of a critique of overall power, family structure, and political power. It's a dangerous book because it works on different levels. Very close to being an annotated edition, and readable. Burroughs novel, Sade's work is very much a cousin to those works.
Burroughs and Burgess expose a system in place, and Sade did that a few centuries ago. I honestly don't know if I can finish this book.
I was recommended this book after reading "American Psycho". I was looking for something that would feed my craving for a gore fest thriller. I don't know what this is. The first couple of pages left me questioning my sanity as to if I should finish it a question that I thought would be a clear NO for someone who was mentally healthy. But I continued. I bought this book about a year ago and am still grappling with how gross and utterly dehumaniz I honestly don't know if I can finish this book.
I bought this book about a year ago and am still grappling with how gross and utterly dehumanizing this book is. I keep on picking it up to see if these children will have some sort of vengeance in there favor. But I cant finish. The defecting and raping related torture they put these victims through is just too much. The only reason why I would try to finish it is because I have a craving for banned books. But if you think a book written in cannot be bad, just know the word sadistic sprung from the authors name de Sade.
I felt like everyone was judging me lol Aug 07, Ashlee rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Anyone and everyone who isn't easily shocked and a good deal of those who are.
I was pleasantly surprised. For one, I wasn't nearly as disturbed and disgusted as I was expecting to be although, to be fair, I had heard many things about how horrid it was. How anyone can be shocked when there's such a to-do about something, I don't know. For two, it is by far the most interesting book I have ever read.
Everything about it was interesting: the narrator, the kinks and fetishes, the discussions that the characters had, the word choice, the fact that it's a rough draft and even I was pleasantly surprised. Everything about it was interesting: the narrator, the kinks and fetishes, the discussions that the characters had, the word choice, the fact that it's a rough draft and even has his notes for the rewrite , among nearly everything else.
I definitely don't regret reading it, and will most likely read it again. Feb 05, Lisa rated it did not like it. Well I'm listing most of what the books covers in case anyone is dying of curiosity to read it, and upon getting the gist will maybe decide it's not worth the time.
But to be honest all of that falls flat. The book is a laundry list, not much more complex than the one I provided. There are metal songs that go more in-depth then this book.
It took me a solid 2 weeks to get through because it kept putting me to sleep without fail. As awful as it is to read an entire book of "The girl was disemboweled as she screamed and blood splashed everywhere", it's also tedious. Though I had to laugh at the idea of shoving a host up a swans ass and then having sex with it because it was so outrageously ridiculous. One has really reached the bottom of the barrel in terms of fetishes at that point. One of the only things I found truly disturbing was a quote by one of the 4 masters.
He would love to annihilate the sun, burn it into darkness, and destroy the entire universe in a sadistic display of intense suffering. I also know that this was meant to be more of a pornographic catalogue than anything else, but that is so boring, so I would have enjoyed a deeper exploration of the psychology behind swan fucking, or whatever.
In the end I gained nothing from this. Seriously, so much feces. A school where 4 heros DeSade's words not mine take children of both sexes along with their wives where they are schooled in the practice of complete submission to their masters.
This is my third DeSade and potentially my last as while I find him as a person fascinating his books can be very dry to read. There are pages and pages of descriptions on the castle where the school of Libertinage is set and pages upon pages in which the ru days of Sodom is reference to the school of Libertinage. There are pages and pages of descriptions on the castle where the school of Libertinage is set and pages upon pages in which the rules for the students read hostages are laid out.
Overall this was a good read to get an insight into the 17th century and DeSade's mind. To date there continues to be debate whether these were DeSade's fantasies of his lunatic mind as quoted in many texts regarding the author or of a lived experience however this does read very much like non fiction to me.
Two stars. It was OK but a very dry read. View 2 comments. Oct 26, Joe rated it liked it. This book taught me that I am still capable of being offended.
Rating this monstrosity was extremely difficult for me because, although it was the most atrocious thing I've ever read in my life, it affected me significantly. It did not affect me in a satisfactory way, rather it affected me in the sense that I need to scrape my brain to rid myself of some of the imagery and ideas painted in this sacrilege. Ultimately, I decid This book taught me that I am still capable of being offended. Ultimately, I decided on three stars solely because I simultaneously wanted to rate it one star because of content and five stars because of its powerful effect on me, which is what art is intended to do and the metrics of positive and negative values are immaterial.
I chose to read this book for a number of reasons. First, I wanted to see if I could handle it because I tend to enjoy offensive things that test the limits of what I can endure. Even more so, I found the possibility of traveling into Marquis de Sade's head fascinating. A veritable psychopath who spent many of his years in either prisons or mental institutions, it becomes immediately clear why the term "Sadism" has its etymology rooted in his name.
Also, of course, is the historical value of delving into a portrait of the moral free Libtertine movement, which proved to be It becomes clear early into the first book that it is mostly a collection of Sade's masturbatory fantasies set to a storyline to make it interesting for people to read.
If you make it through the introduction, you will be greeted with the first of 4 books, each book containing passions as told by storytellers ex prostitutes and derelicts intended to get the 4 main characters sexually excited and to inspire them to perform similar acts upon their captured sex slaves. The first book is the only completed book, and I don't believe I am alone in being thankful for that, as even Sade admitted at the end of book 1 that it got somewhat monotonous. Each book ups the passions in intensity and details given to the reader.
Books are presented in a more readable list format and significantly decreased page count considering that they are drafts that present the numbered passions with occasional digressions to update the reader on the actions being performed in the remote castle in which the story is set in.
Rather than getting into details, I'm just going to list a small number of things you have to be able to handle reading about in order to even contemplate attempting to tackle this abomination: -rape -kidnapping -physical, sexual, and mental abuse -child molesting -extreme torture -genital mutilation -incest -scat play and fecal eating -forced amputation -blasphemy -murder This is an extremely small sample of what the book actually contains.
I'd recommend it to very few people. However, if you are interested in the morbid reality of thoughts and ideas that have existed in this world, have a strong stomach and an even stronger psyche, maybe you should give it a chance. Just know that some of the most offensive experiences of your life are skimmed over as minor details in this book in order to get to the actual point.
The novel begins with a fifty-page Introduction presenting the characters and their grand plan. The main characters are a quartet of men who have great power and wealth -- enough wealth to get away with pretty much anything.
They are libertines who have lived lives of perverted excess -- and now look for the ultimate experience. What they decide to do is cloister themselves in a remote castle where they will live out their wildest fantasies, while being entertained by the stories four past-their-prime women who have experienced all there is to experience as far as debauchery goes will recount -- episodes each.
Each woman is to be a story-teller for a month, and from month to month the tales are to get progressively more scandalous: The first month is to be devoted to 'simple passions', "the least refined or most ordinary excesses" The second to 'dual passions' The third to 'criminal passions' The fourth to 'murderous passions' -- "the most outrageous to law, nature and religion" necessarily ending in murder Along with their young wives -- three of the libertines are married to each other's daughters The girls and boys are between twelve and fifteen, all innocent, and all from fine homes.
They are to serve as sexual objects and slaves -- though the masters pledge to wait with their defloration for a considerable time: to allow a burgeoning desire, endlessly inflamed but never sated, to excite the senses -- a situation that must inevitably lead to the kind of lubricious frenzy the fiends are endeavouring to provoke as one of the most delectable states of lubricity.
The Introduction describes the libertines making the arrangements -- and how they obtain the young flesh --, as well as the castle to which they retreat -- deep in the woods, truly indeed, ridiculously inaccessible: they will be in a world unto their own. The isolated setting is, of course, a necessity for de Sade's vision: One cannot imagine how well sensuality is served by these measures, and the things one undertakes when one can say to oneself, 'I am alone here, I am at the end of the earth, hidden from all eyes, and with no creature able to reach me -- no more constraints, no more limits.
Curiously, also, their preference is for sodomy -- "all four had themselves buggered regularly and [ After so carefully setting the stage, de Sade gives a final warning -- or makes a grand promise: The time has come, friendly reader, for you to prepare your heart and mind for the most impure tale ever written since the world began, for no such book may be found among either the ancients or the moderns The novel proper then is divided into four parts, each covering one month, each including roughly episodes narrated by the storytellers -- reminiscences from their bawdy days, where they witnessed, facilitated, or participated in all manner of sordid activity -- presented as entertainments for the libertine-audience.
The stories are often interrupted, as the libertines find themselves aroused or curious and eager to imitate what they've just heard. Beyond that, the libertines demand constant attention, day and night, and there's endless coming and going between those who serve them. Among the rules that are enforced is that the underlings can only relieve themselves at prescribed times in the chapel, by the way -- the room that has been transformed into the elaborate outhouse.
And the underlings are punished for their transgressions -- real or imagined. As the months go by, the activities and punishments are also increasingly violent and cruel. Some of the children's despair at their situation is presented -- largely then to show how heartless the libertines are.
Prayer is forbidden in this godless place and also punished. Only the first of the four parts is written out in full; it covers some two hundred and fifty pages here. The remaining three are only in outline -- basic for the middle two, of twenty pages each, and slightly more elaborated for the cruelest final one, extending to about forty pages. A nice touch is that some of the characters in the stories the storytellers relate recur in later ones, revealing their sealed fates inevitably: death.
Sade's novel is carefully constructed and mapped out throughout -- as is particularly obvious in the final three parts, which are in fact largely presented as blueprints rather than finished.
Helpfully, the translators of this new edition have translated de Sade's manuscript as is, including with the notes the author made for himself.
This includes lists of 'Mistakes I have made', or omissions, presumably to be fixed in the never completed clean final version. Among the most amusing is when Sade reaches the final story -- perplexed that he is numbering it '', leading to the parenthetical observation: "Check why there are two missing -- they were all there in the drafts"; the editors clear it up by noting he used the same number twice on one occasion and forgot to number one of the passions.
Only the first month, with the 'simple passions', is written in full and more or less final form, the stories that the storyteller relates truly little stories; the other activity at the castle is recounted in full here as well. The sadist-reader will be disappointed -- there's little brutal violence here -- and the stories tend to involves bodily excretions, from burps and farts to vast amounts yes, even barrels-full -- and you don't want to know There are many contenders for most disturbing image in the novel -- especially considering some of the later violence -- but I suggest: "It can never be too mouldy for me" ranks among them.
Again: you don't want to know The storyteller in this first month, Duclos, is experienced from earliest childhood, spending much of her youth and adult life in essentially a bordello, catering to all such tastes.
Curiously, as noted, many of the patrons she describes essentially satisfy themselves, sometimes requiring some exertion but more usually just excretions from those tasked with the helping them realize their perverted lusts: typically, simply: "the libertine would spill his come when his imagination was utterly ablaze".
At the same time, much of the activity at the castle is also limited -- in part because of the rules the youngsters are not to be deflowered until later in the show , in part because the youngsters are still being taught how to properly pleasure their masters yes, there are daily masturbation lessons , but also because de Sade actually shies away from closer examination: so, for example, on an evening when various parties plan to stay up all night, they do so behind closed doors, so that de Sade leaves it at: "though what they got up to in terms of obscenities and abominations in each room is unimaginable".
For all of de Sade's envelope-pushing, he knows enough about novel-writing to hold back at times as well.
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