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Sade and the Sovereign Man1

Sade and the Sovereign Man1 MAURICE BLANCHOT Sade and the Sovereign Man Translated by Samuel Beckett To read Justine cursorily is to be misled by a narrative of considerable crudeness. We see this virtuous girl perpetually violated, beaten, tortured, victim of a destiny implacably bent on her destruction. And when we read Juliette we see a vicious girl reveling in pleasures. Such a plot scarcely succeeds in convincing us. But this is because we have not attended to its most important aspect; wholly intent on the sorrows of the one, the satisfactions of the other, we have failed to remark that the stories of the two sisters were fundamentally identical, that everything that happened to Justine also happened to Juliette, that both experienced the same vicissitudes, suffered the same ordeals. Juliette also is put in prison, beaten, condemned to death, tortured unceasingly. Hers too is a dreadful existence, with this difference, that her misfortunes give her pleasure, her tortures delight her. ‘Delicious are the shackles of the crime one loves.’ And we say nothing of those singular torments so terrible for Justine and so perfectly agreeable for Juliette. In a scene that takes places in the castle of a wicked judge we see the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Beckett Studies Edinburgh University Press

Sade and the Sovereign Man1

Blanchot, Maurice
Journal of Beckett Studies , Volume 31 (1): 9 – Apr 1, 2022
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh University Press
ISSN
0309-5207
eISSN
1759-7811
DOI
10.3366/jobs.2022.0356
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Abstract

MAURICE BLANCHOT Sade and the Sovereign Man Translated by Samuel Beckett To read Justine cursorily is to be misled by a narrative of considerable crudeness. We see this virtuous girl perpetually violated, beaten, tortured, victim of a destiny implacably bent on her destruction. And when we read Juliette we see a vicious girl reveling in pleasures. Such a plot scarcely succeeds in convincing us. But this is because we have not attended to its most important aspect; wholly intent on the sorrows of the one, the satisfactions of the other, we have failed to remark that the stories of the two sisters were fundamentally identical, that everything that happened to Justine also happened to Juliette, that both experienced the same vicissitudes, suffered the same ordeals. Juliette also is put in prison, beaten, condemned to death, tortured unceasingly. Hers too is a dreadful existence, with this difference, that her misfortunes give her pleasure, her tortures delight her. ‘Delicious are the shackles of the crime one loves.’ And we say nothing of those singular torments so terrible for Justine and so perfectly agreeable for Juliette. In a scene that takes places in the castle of a wicked judge we see the

Journal

Journal of Beckett Studies – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2022

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