Justine, Or the Misfortunes of Virtue

My soul hurts. This is the origin story to 2 girls 1 cup (that I have not seen and never planned to see, but my god I never expected to read it either). I don't know why this is considered a classic.

The Introduction provided a lot of great context into Sade's life and how his own anger and bitterness could lead to a sensationalist book about a young girl who is taken advantage of in every which way possible (over and over and over again), to demonstrate the absurdity of adhering to her virtuous beliefs (or demonstrate how futile it is to adhere to virtue when the rest of the world is corrupt).

Two of the Introduction's stances I agree with and probably the sole reasons why I finished this book (though I had to skim the last scene because I was fatigued and just wanted to get to the part where Justine wraps up her story).

John Phillip's summations in the Introduction -
1. “Fate does exist, but it is evil, not good.”
2. “It is as if Sade were constantly drawn to dialogue with the victim that he himself had become, to interrogate the reasons for his own victimhood through Justine, to put the victim's side of his own nature to the test of logical reasoning and debate.”