Sade: Critique of Pure Fiction SADE: CRIT I Q U E O F PU RE F I CT I O N Catherine C usset What is l ibertinage in its Sadean version? I n L 'Histoire de Juliette, Sade lets a woman defi ne I ibertina g e . This woman is La Durand , a brothel-keeper, magic ian and po isoner, as well as Ju l iette 's l ast c ompani o n : Li bertinage, L a Durand sa i d , i s a wandering of senses which presupposes the total r upture of all restraints , the most sovereign contempt for all prejudices , the total reversal of all c ults , the most profound horror for any k i nd of morals . ] The repetition of the adjective ' al l ' and the use of superlatives reveal the radi c al ism of th is I ibertinag e , which grounds itself upon the negation of any l i mit on the freedom of body or m i n d . L imit is t h e main problem o f S a dean l ibertinag e : how is it possi b le to go endlessly beyond the boundaries of t ime , spac e , laws, norms , biological ties? How is it p ossib le to ' enfranchise ' o neself, s ince this is the etymological meaning of I ibertinage?2 We know the answers g iven by Sade 's heroes: atheism , pl easure, cr ime, apathy . These are the pr inc ip les wh ich ru le Sade's novels unti l L 'His toire de Juliette. In the latter, Sade g oes beyond Sadean l ibertinage as it was repres ented in the former novels : he reveals the aporia of l i bertine p rinc ipl es and depi cts the deadlock to which they lead, a deadlock which I shal l cal l 'the despair of l i mit lessness ' . With JU l iette , Sade i nvents a female ch aracter who replaces these p rincip les with the freedom of a volcanic imagination, and thus renews Sadean l ibertinage at its very groundi n g .3 Ju l i ette is the only Sadean character who has a 'story ' : h er story is also th at of the condit i ons of poss ibi lity of l ibertine fiction. 1 . The paradox of the unlimited Whether they com mit their cr imes in the fi re of passion or in the c o l d l i g ht of reason, Sadean h eroes always justify them with the des i re for emancipati o n : ' I h ave always understood that the i dea of this imaginary l ink restra ined and bound passions i nfinitely more than one might think; and it is in propo rt ion to the wei ght it has on human reason that I want to destroy it before your eyes ' (VI I I , 1 73 ) . Libertines see any l ink to the other, 1 1 5 Catherine Cusset any l imit on desi r e , as purely imaginary ties whi c h d o not withstand rati onal analysis : their purpose is th erefore to analyze , that i s , to dissolve in the etymological sense of the term (in Greek , ahaluein) , everything which they name ' p rejud ic e ' , ' ch imera ' , ' g h ost ' , or ' i l lusion ' . Such things inc lude, for i nstanc e , love, faithfu lness , g ratitude, moral insti nct, and , above a l l , any re l ig ious be l ief . In the tradition of 1 7th-century l i bertine phi l osophers , Sadean l ibertines analyze God 's existence as an imaginary projecti on of human fears and desires: ' Th is ghost ( . . . ) cannot exist outs ide the mind of those who c onsider h im, and he is therefore noth ing but an effect of the i r minds ' inflammation ' (V I II , 45) . Th is c rit ique o f i maginary bel iefs explains the long and numerous phi losophical discourses in the Sadean nove l : we know that l ibe rt in es , whatever crime they c ommit, always start or end with a l o n g speech in whi ch they demonstrate that mora l , soc ia l or natural obstacles to cr ime are n oth i n g . Sade quotes, p lag iarizes or cr it ic izes al l 1 8th-century material ist phi losophers from D ' H olbach to La M ettr ie , p ush ing their reasoning to its extreme logical consequence, and strongly attack ing the bel ief which is , for h im. the basis of a l l others , the bel ief in God and the immortal ity of the sou l .4 But this God so rational ly el imi nated by l i bertines is far from disappearing from the Sadean text. as P i erre Kl ossowsk i first and many cr it ics after h i m h ave noted as a way to q uestion Sade ' s atheism. s At t h e m oment of c l imax. c a l l e d b y Sade t h e m oment of ' cr is i s ' , l ibertines scream a name with h ate and rage: that of God. Whi le victims are assassinated in co ld b lood , the mere name of God p rovokes the l ibertines' fury: ' Go d ; my blood boi ls at h is mere name' (VI I I , 30) . When l ibertines free themselves from physi cal tensio n . they all utter blasphemies: ' God fucked twice ! ' (VI I I ; 437) . ' Damned fucking God ! You bu gger, God , whom I don't g ive a fuck about ! ' ( IX . 393) . The name of God is used to desi gnate a stqte of paroxysm: 'We were al l on fire , in an excitement that would have made us p lunge the d agger into . God 's heart, if this id iot had existed ' ( IX , 273). The l ibertines' c l imax resurrects God through his name, to repeatedly stage his murder. The violence of bl asphemy, not the affirmatio n of Go d ' s nonexisten c e , characterizes Sadean fi cti on : a s t h e subject of such h atred , God is no longer a mere fantasy, but gains 1 1 6 Sade: Critique of Pure Fiction consistency. The question of God's existence or inexistence confronts us with the paradox of the Sadean system . While rational discourses within the novel and the coldness of description are meant to prove the l ibertine's apathy in the crime, the name of God, uttered during cl imax, suddenly gives rise to pathos . At the moment when Sadean heroes explode with pleasure , they paradoxically explode with anger: ' I had never seen his prick in such anger ' , Jul iette says of Saint-Fond (VI I I , 334) . The paradox is the following : as soon as God is named i n L 'Histoire d e Juliette, the idea of a n insufficiency returns : t h e only l imit that l ibertines meet in the end is God ' s nonexistence. They resuscitate God as the l imit that makes them despair because of its non-existence: " God, vi l lain idiot l ' , he screams, 'do not l imit thus my power, when I want to imitate you and commit evi l l ( . . , ) Put , i f you dare, for one singly moment, your thunder between my hands ' ( IX , 579) , Noi rceuil addresses God during the nove l 's final orgy, when al l l imits are transgressed and all k inds of crimes committed. While human and divine law is negate d , God is named the 'vil lain idiot' who l imits the l ibertines ' power. Another scen e , well before this final o n e , has attracted the cr it ics' attentio n , I t is the scene in which Saint-Fond , J u l i ette 's master, reveals h is secrets , the only way in which h e can rem edy the deadlock of l i mit : 'To prevent vi ctims from tak ing part in celestia l joys, he had to make them sig n , with blood taken from near thei r heart , that they would give their soul to the d evil , and then h e would thrust this n ote i n thei r ass hole with his pri c k ' (VI I I , 357 ) . Even if Saint-Fond cal ls this l ittl e ritual a 'weakness ' , and the more r igorous Cla i rwi l a ' fo l ly ' , readers wi l l remember it as an essent ia l moment in L 'Histoire de Juliette: it seems to prove that S ad e , in spite of his proclaimed atheism , stays in a system d om inated by the sacre d . Saint-Fond refuses to give up his weakness, bec ause it a l lows him to escape the despair of l imit : 'This idea drives me to despair; ( . , , ) when I immol ate an object, I would l i k e to lengthen its pain beyond the immensity of centur ies ' (VI I I , 356) , The very name of Saint-Fond symbolizes the solution through which he remedies his despair : by thrusting in his victim's anus an eternal damnati on, he does not simply commit the cr ime of so domy punishable by death in the eighteenth century, and therefore breaks a law, but he also sanctifies the bottom, he 1 1 7 Catherine Cusset . sacralizes sodomy: this sanctified bottom, this 'saint fond ' opens the gate to an infinity of suffer ing. Why do l ibertines always associate the question of God 's existence and that of sodomy? Because they are both questions of power: no more than God can l ibertines prove their power. The 'fucked ass ' , l i ke the ' damned fucking God ' , proves nothing . The sodomistic act ca'n be endlessly repeated: it hits only its own l imits , which are the l imits of the penetrated body. What does the endless chal lenge to God's power prove? That l ibertines have something to prove: that the simple fact of God's inexistence does not satisfy the l ibertines , who, beyond their rational atheism, look for an absolute of non-belief, which only could fulfill their need of an infinity of evi l . Because there is n o Go d , no sacred l imit , it is p ossible to conceive of and co mmit everything . But it is precisely when everything can be done that the absence of l imit becomes a l imit : 'Only th e law made the c ri m e , and ( . . . ) the crime fal ls away as soon as the law no l onger exists ' , La Delbene told Ju l i ette at the beginning of the novel (VI I I , 74) . 6 Four hundred pages l ater, this cold statement becomes a cry of fury with Cla i rwi l . the woman who had reproached her young friend Ju l iette for her lack of sang-fro i d : ' I am desperate to find only prejudice, i nstead of the crime that I desire and fi nd nowhere. o fuck , fuc k ! When wi l l I be able to commit one?' (V I I I . 429) . The deadlock is the absence of l imits defin ing cr ime: it is this ' nowhere' to which crime leads Clairwi l , Saint-Fond and th e other l iberti nes , and which dr ives them to despair. Th e unl imited i s desire ' s l im it . G o d , as a ' chimera ' , as ' ghost ' , is sa id to be on ly 'the effect of the mind 's i nfl ammati o n ' (VI I I , 45) . However, Sade descr ibes h is own work as the product of an i nflamed imaginati o n . 7 The arguments which al low him to negate God ' s existence can also be used against Sade's c l a i m t o reveal the truth in a novel , s ince Sad e , in his short essay Idees sur les Romans, states that men started to write novels only because they bel ieved i n gods : 1 1 8 N o sooner d i d m an begin to suspect the existence of immortal beings than he endowed them with b oth actions and words . Thereafter we find metamorp hoses , fables, parables , a n d n ovels : i n a word, we find works of fi ction as soon as fictio n took hold of the minds of m en ;8 Sade: Critique 01 Pure Fiction God , for Sade, is fi ction that 'took hold of the minds of men ' . Wh at m akes G o d 's weakness , the i mpossibi l i ty of rational ly provi n g his existence, is precisely wh at constitutes his strength as fi ction . Negated as authority, e l iminated as the fi gure of the a lmighty father, God is non etheless everywh ere in the Sadean nove l : he exists as the fiction pr inc i p l e . Libertines are never done with God because his name represents the power, not of the law , but of the imaginati o n . In showin g their contempt for God , l ibertines reveal thei r anger against fiction , which does not have the power to prove its own truth : fi cti on and Sade chose to write novel s , not phi losophical essays is b ased on the des i re for i l lusio n . Sadean l ibert ines are never d one with G o d because his very name embodies the p ower of imaginati o n . The l ibert ines' anger does not a im to annih i late God 's existenc e , but to resurrect his power, as the ult imate guarantee of the p ower of fi ction. The i r destructi on of al l bel iefs confronts Sadean heroes with a lack of l i mits which does not leave them any other choice than the endless repetition of a p hysic a l act to which they c annot but g ive a m etaphysical meaning , therefore fal l ing again into the trap that their system should have al lowed them to escape: ' Fu c k i n g ' m e a ns chal lenging God. The Sadean system seems not to escape th i s deadl o c k . I t wou ld therefore be easy to conclude that there is an apor ia of the Sadean l i bert ina g e , by stress ing the repetit ion pr incip le which ru les the Sadean n ovel and does not lead to any 'end ' , to any reso l ution of the apor ia . P ierre Klossowski writes i n Sade mon prochain : ' By n arrati ng her (Ju l iette's) adventures which h ave no reason to ever end, Sade wants to forget the gr ief that the loss of Justi n e , imposs ib le to possess , caused h im' . 9 1 n Sade, Fourier, Loyola, Roland B a rthes expresses a s imi lar i d e a , i n a narrato l o g i cal , not theological , context : Sad e ' s novels are ' ateleo log i cal ' , and it is this' absence of end (telos) which constitutes th eir specifi city and modernity. But L 'Histoire de Juliette contradicts this idea . It is the only novel which Sade entitl ed ' histo i re ' (story) , a t it le which s eems to contradict the common idea that the Sa dean novel does not tel l a story leading to an end, l i ke a l l traditional stories; it is also the only novel i n whi c h Sade gives the n arrative voice to a female l ibertine , whereas women, i n his other novels , most often 1 1 9 I ! I ' I I Catherine Cusset embodied the weak imagi nation that l i bertines seek to d estroy. Sade does not s imply rep resent the paradox of the unl i mited which l eads to the infin ite repetiti on of the same act, he also res o lves it in his last anonym o us and most important novel . Saint-Fon d and Cla i rwi l , the two l ibertines who used the word ' despai r ' to describe their i mpotence in front of the paradox of l iberti n a g e , are e l iminated in the nove l . Ju l iette survives . Her ' story' represents the solut ion through which Sade paradoxic al ly resolves the aporia of l i b ertinage. 2. The Italian journ ey or the volcanic imaginary N ot only does Jul iette survive, but also she leaves the country in which her masters had initiated her to l ibertinage. 'The Sadean journey teaches nothing ' , wrote Roland Barthes. 1 o This statement became almost a dogma among French critics of Sadean fiction. Yet, although the l esson is neither cultural nor moral nor ethnological , there is one, for Jul iette and for Sade's readers . Ju l iette 's departure for Italy marks a new step i n her story. Before her trip to Italy, Jul iette had never uttered a long discourse l ike La Delbene, Saint-Fond, Noirceui l or Clairwi l . It is in Italy that she speaks as a phi l osopher for the first time, when she faces Pope Pius VI and King Ferdinand of N aples. However, Jul iette's speeches are different from the other l ibertines' discourses: she seeks not simply to destroy victims ' prejudices and imaginary bel iefs , but rather to r idicule power, even when a l ibertine hero , l ike Pope Pius VI or King Ferdinand, benefits from this power. She shows that she is not impressed by authority of any kind . In some way, her discourses put an end to discourses: to the authority of a mascul ine and theorized l i bert inage. J u l iette 's fi rst disc overy in Italy is the P ietra-M ala volc ano . When Ju l i ette arrives in P ietra M a l a , she has just left France, the country of reason , the cou ntry of her l i bert ine teachers and masters . She d iscovers Italy as a vo lcan ic land, as the cou ntry of ' N ature's whims ' . The crOSSing of the Ital ian border means a real and symbol ic rupture with her past: she leaves the cou ntry of discipl in e and reason for that of fire and exuberant i mages . Two volcanos frame J u l i ette 's d escent into the Ital i an penins u l a : P ietraM a l a in the N o rth , Vesuvi o i n the South . Between the two volcanos, J ul i ette travel led through a l l Italy, fro m the Alps to Calabri a , and went through al l the steps 1 20 I . Sade: Critique of Pure Fiction of l ibertinage a n d corruption . Her d iscovery of the second volcano marks the acme of her sexu al , pol it ical and i ntel lectual power. In no other p l a c e in E urope is Nature as beauti ful and as i mposing as in this city 's surround ings . It is not the sad and uniform beauty of Lombardian plains, whi c h l eave i magi nation in a tranqui l l ity that resembles langour : here, it is everywhere infl amed. The disorders, the vol c a nos of this always cr iminal nature p lunge the soul i n a turmoi l that makes it capable of great actions and tumultu ous pass ions . 'Th is i s us , I t o l d m y friends , a n d virtuous people resemble these sad P iemontese fie lds whose uniformity annoyed us' (XI , 354) . What does Ju l iette proclaim with this image of vol canos, as opposed to Piemont's flat landscapes? She declares that flatness and uniformity are boring, be they geographical , moral or aesthetic. She establishes a dichotomy between virtue's boring flatness and i magination's volcanic infl ammation. In this dichotomy, l ibertines who taught Jul iette to commit crime with sang-froid, with 'apathy' , and fought against the power of h uman imagination, l i bertines who repeat crimes endlessly and get rid of imaginary i l lusions , seem to be closer to flat lands and virtuous people than to volcanic peaks and J ul iette 's imagination. In ' Kant avec Sad e ' , Jacques Lacon attempts an analogous comparison when he brings together Kant's imperative of moral law and Sade's imperative of apathy: l ike moral law, Sad eon l ibertinage intends to be p ure of any human motivation; it must be 'non-pathological ' . 1 1 Adorno and H orkheimer, in their chapter on L 'Histoire de Juliette entitled 'Jul iette , or Reason and Morals ' in Dialectics of Enlightenment, identify Sadean l ibertinage with a pure and disincarnate ' rati o ' . 12 But they blame Jul iette for being sti l l idolatrous: she keeps bel ieving in pleasure , she does not reach the perfection of l iberti nage l ike other characters in the novel , her companion Sbrigani for exampl e . Shou ldn't we ask , the n , why Sade recounts J u l iette ' s , not Sbrigani or even Saint-Fond 's story? During her Ital ian journey, J U l i ette swerves from her teachers ' lessons to l e a d the reader on another p ath , that of a metaphorical language which seems to contradict the meaning of Sad eon l ibertinage. After she and 1 2 1 Catherine Cusset Cla i rwi l murder her friend Olymp e Borghese by throwing her into the Vesuvio , Ju l iette superstitiously interprets the shower of stones which fal ls around the m , b ut Cla i rwi l immediately c orrects her : 'Ah ! Ah! ' , I sa id without even c o n descending to get up. ' Olympe takes her reveng e ! These p i eces of su lphur and bitumen are her farewel l : she w arns us that she is a l ready in the bowels of earth ' . 'There is a very s imple cause to this phenomenon ' , C l airwi l answered me. ' Each time a h eavy body fal ls into the volcan o ' s bowels , it puts in motion the matters which never stop b o i l i n g in the bottom of its wom b , a n d provokes a l ight erupti o n ' ( I X , 4 1 7) . Cl airwi l , a serious l ibertine, corrects Ju l iette with a scholarly tone to give her a precise and clear explanation of the volcanic phenomenon. She refuses, even just for fun , to be the dupe of nature. But Clairwil does not get the last word . Jul iette rejects her explanation and replaces it with a more poetic interpretation: 'You are wrong a bout the cause of the shower of stones which just overflowed us; it is nothing but Olympe's request for her clothes: we must g ive them back to her' ( IX , 4 1 8) . 'There i s a very s imple cause t o th is phenomenon ' , C la i rwi l had sai d . Precisely, the s impl ic ity of phenomena does not interest J u l i ette . She is attracted to volcanic n ature as a poet , not a volcanol ogist. She asserts a metonymic c ontinuity between the volcan o 's fl ame and that of her des i r e : 'The fla m e whi c h evaporated from this so i l inflamed m y m i n d ' (VI I I ,553). Vol c an i c fire inflames her mind . Ju l i ette uses this f i re as a metaphor for her imagi nati on and for l i bertine passions : it is the process of metapho rization that i nfl ames her mind and sti mul ates her d esi r e . W e sho u l d n o t mistake J u l i ette 's c h o i c e of an oneir i c interpretation for ignoranc e . Sade , ear l ier in the novel , careful ly demonstrated h is heroi ne's sc ient i fi c knowledg e . He d escr ibed a scene i n which J u l iett e , an enl ightened ph i losopher, i ntends to d estroy her l iste ners ' be l ief i n the supernatura l : 'The lake Asphaltite ' s surroundings where they (Sodom and Gomorrha) were l ocated were only volcanos whi c h had not real ly gone 1 22 Sade: Critique of Pure Fiction out: why should we persist in seeing someth ing supernatural , when our surroundings can be produced by such s imple means?' (VI I I , 553) . I t is therefore by choice , not i gn orance, that Ju l iette disp els a scientific explanation which is as boring and fl at as P iemontese plains, bec ause it e l i minates legends by rati onal iz ing them. For the sake of play, Ju l iette chooses metaphor, and d o es not try to ' unvei l truth ' e nti re ly . 1 3 JU l i ette dist inguishes herself from her teachers and masters through her re lation to imagination . At the beginning of the nove l , this d i fference appeared as a youthful error; l ibertin es reprimanded thei r young pupi l : ' You should d imi nish this sensibi l i ty which ru ins you ' , Noirceui l advised J ul i ette , echoing Cla i rwi l : ' I sti l l fin d the same fault i n her : she commits crimes only with enthus iasm , she needs to g et excited ' (V I I I , 455) . F ar from correcti ng her fault , Ju l iette c la ims it as a qual ity: during the d ifferent steps of her Ital ian journey and p artic ularly the discovery of the volcano, she asserts her d ifference from the other l ibertines . And J u l i ette 's story proves that she is r ight: she survives , wh i le two of her main teachers , Saint-Fond and C lai rwi l , d i e . The end of the novel confirms J U l i ette 's choice of a playful ima gination. 3. Juliette 's p assion Infidel ity and treason are the preeminent pr incip les of l iberti nag e . The more a l ibertine expresses her love for Ju l iette , the more sure she is to d i e . JU l iette sacrifices M adame de Donis to her d a u g hter, Honorine de Gri l lo to Olympe Borghes e , Olympe Borg hese a n d the Queen Char lotte t o Cla i rwi l , and Cl ai rwi l to La Durand . C la i rwi l 's death nonetheless modifies the scenar io: she is not sacrificed to the pr inciple of i n fid el ity, but to the passi on of another woman who wants to be the only one to possess Ju l iette 's heart , and who , in turn , is never sacrifi c e d . ' Jul iette , I adore yo u . The only pr ice I wanted for a l l I have d one was to adore you without riva l : I was jealous of Cla i rwi l ( .. . J ' ( I X , 430) . Jealousy, r id iculed through out t h e novel b y t h e l iberti ne p h i l osophers , reappears suddenly toward the end, and serves even to justify , in J ul iette 's eyes, La Duran d ' s cr ime: 'The rascal ! It is because of jealousy; this motive excuses her i n my eyes ' ( I X , 455) . Verbal exchanges between J U l i ette and La Durand make not only the l ove vocabulary, b ut also the generous p ract ices banned by l i b e rt ines, reappear. 1 23 Catherine Cusset La Duran d , for i nstance, refuses the m oney that Ju l i ette wants to give her to pay for the poison used to k i l l C lairwi l : ' I don't want t o be paid for a favor given b y my heart ' ( I X , 430). Whi le mo netary payment serves precisely, in t h e l ibertine system , to reverse the traditional system o f values , here , for the first tim e in the novel . sentimental value prevai ls over mo netary value. Ju l iette also insists on their de l icate feel ings and a cts : ' I receive d , I m ust say, her attentions with the same del icacy as she in g iv ing them to m e ' ( I X , 436) . This de l icacy, never heard of in the relations between l ibertines who mean by ' d el icacy' only the refin ement of some sexual fantas ies , leads Ju l iette and La Durand fo utter the m ost tender declarations of l ove and oaths l i ke in the most tradit ional of l ove relationsh ips: ' In the name of the most tender love , stop worrying , my angel ' , La Durand tel ls Ju l iette ( I X , 438 ) . ' I repeat that I give myself up to you , that you c an count on my heart as I rely on yours; our union makes our strength , and noth i n g wi l l ever d isso lve it ' , Ju l iette tel ls La Durand ( I X , 439) . How should we read these decl aratio ns o f l ove, so abundant at the end of L 'Histoire de Juliette? Is it a p arody of the ' metaphys ica l ' vocabulary of love , l ike in al l the love declarations which a re uttered throug hout the novel and which al l lead to treason, fol lowing the l aw of l i berti ne desire? 14 Why, then , is La Durand never betrayed ? La Durand h a s a p articular status in t h e novel . Compared to Cl airwi l or even to Olympe Borghese , and mostly to Noi rceui l or Saint-Fond, her presence is quantitatively rather un important. Her role is c o mposed mostly of ecl i pses : she appears for the first t ime at the middle of the novel . to reappear only four hundred pages l ater and disappear again after fi fty p ages, before she reappears i n the l ast three pages. H owever, d espite such a rare presen ce, she is not a secondary character. I t is she, indeed, who d etermines the p l ot 's main peri petei as . Dur ing the first encounter between J u l i ette and La Duran d , when Cla i rwi l takes her fr iend to vis it a fortune tel l e r, she predicts C la i rwi l 's and Ju l iette 's future (V I I I . 509) . Four hundred pages later, her prediction c oncerning Cla i rwi l ' s d eath is careful ly real ized by her own ag ency. Before th is , if Ju l iette left France for Italy, it was because of a dream i n which she sudd enly remembered the fo rtune tel ler's p redi ction , as though her superstitio us bel ief in the predict ion and her own dream were stron ger than her 1 24 I i 1 I i 1 I " I Sade: Critique of Pure Fiction phi losophical and l ibertine reaso n , When La Durand reappears in Italy, we suddenly learn that she s ecretly accompan i ed J u l iette throughout her journey: ' I never lost s ight of you , my dear and tender friend , I fo l lowed you to Angers, to Italy, whi le doing my bus iness; I always had you under' my g aze, My hope disappeared when I saw yo ur various l iaisons with the Donis, Gri l l o , Borghese, a n d I w a s even m u c h m o r e desperate w h e n I disc overed that you had found Clai rwil again " , Eventual ly I fol l owed you here from Rom e , an d , tired of seeing m y pl ans thwarted for so long, I decided to unravel the adventure : you see how wei l l succeede d ' (IX , 434) , ' I decided to unravel the adventu re ' : it is indeed La Durand who gives the n ovel a reason to end, s ince she ' unravels' L 'Histoire de Juliette, To unravel means to untie a knot , to solve (or dissolve) i t , It is also La Durand whom Sade entrusted with defin ing l i berti nage as 'the total rupture of a l l restraints ' , N o l ibertine would disavow such a defi n itio n , H owever, L a Durand 's acts seem to strangely contradict her pr inciples : it is by tightening the most sol id bond that of her eternal al l iance with Ju l i ette that she unravels the novel . L 'Histoire de Juliette ends on this bond , that no treachery wil l ever cut, The narrative of Ju l iette ' s adventures thus appears as a q uest leading to the indestructib le a l l iance of Ju l iette and La Durand, When J u l i ette ends her narrative, her l ibertin e l isteners decide to h and over J ustine to nature, which fulf i l ls their exp ectation by k i l l ing J u l i ette 's sister with a thunderbolt : ' A thund erbolt str ikes her down, crossing her through and throug h ' ( I X , 583) , This final thunderbolt e l iminates sentimental weakness embodied by J ustine (who could not stop c rying whi le l istening to her s ister ' s narrative), and strengthens l ibertine princ ip les : ' C o me and l o ok at Heaven's work , come and see how it rewards vi rtu e' ( IX , 583 ) , God C Heaven ' ) is once again r id iculed and his powerlessness (or impotence) is stressed i n this fi nal scene , upon which many critics have co mmented: n ature 's fi re serves to prove the val id ity of l ibert ina g e , J u l i ette's adventures thus seem to end with the sacr i leg ious rupture of the fami l i al l in k , with the symbol ic annih i latio n of sentimental i l l us ions , But we most often forget that this thunderbolt i s not the l ast event in th e novel , It is fol l owed by a second g i ft of heaven: 1 25 Catherine Cusset They had h a rdly arrived at the castle when a travel l ing coach arr ived through the other road; ( . . . ) A tal l woman , * very wel l d ressed , g ets out, J u l i ette walks toward her. Good Heavens! It is La Dura n d , it is this dear fr iend of M adame de Lorsange, condemned by the inqu isitors in Ven i c e , whom J u l i ette th ought she had seen h anged to the cei l ing of the room of her terr ible judges. ( . . . ) ' Dear soul ! ' , she excla ims while rushin g i nto her fi end ' s arms ( . . . ) ' by which aventl . . . great G o d . . . explain . . . I don't know what t o be l ieve any more ( . . . ) ' ( I X , 584-585) . Sade uses the expressi ons ' Go o d heavens' and ' great God' to expresses J ul iette 's violent emotion : G o d ( h eaven) , r idiculed when J ustine was struck by the thunderbolt , now reflects Ju l iette 's incapacity to utter an entire sentence , as if she were hit with a metaphor ic and senti mental thunderbolt (in French, a coup de foudre) . The n ovel d oes not end with J u l i ette 's final word , but with La Durand 's a rr iva l , narrated by an external narrator. The novel ends because J u l i ette ' s and La Duran d ' s relatio nship l eaves nothing to a d d : ' I therefore run up to you, my angel ' , La Du�and went o n , ' I make you h appy, and this makes me content' ( IX , 585). H ow should we understand this unex pected denouement to which crit ics have not given its deserved attention? How should we understa n d the return * to a rhetor ic of pass ion in a novel which r id ic u les any l ink to the other and s anctions this deris ion with murder? With regard to her cr imes and pr incip les , La Durand is not very different from the other l ibertin e characters in the novel . However, h er socia l status makes her d istinctive : she is not an aristocrat, she h as n o social or pol it ical p ower, and she does busi ness out * of necessity. She comes fro m a low socia l rank , and she has to work to earn her l iv ing . She is introduced in the novel as a maker and sel ler of poison, and a fortu ne tel l er. She is cal led 'La Durand ' or ' M adame Dura nd ' , which ind icates her plebian or ig in ; when she narrates their first encounter, Ju l iette even names her 'the witch ' or 'the shrew ' . J u l i ette , a r ich aristocrat (through h er marr iage t o M . de Lorsange) chooses La Durand, who is her socia l other. Their 1 26 \ j .\ j r t i , i � ) 1 t i Sade: Critique of Pure Fiction social d i fference is one of the paradoxical causes of her attra ction for this woman. When JU l iette meets La Durand again in Italy, she has independ ent means. But she decides to c arry on all of La Durand ' s trades: 'There was no d ay that this q uadruple trade of whore , procuress , witch and p oisoner would not br ing us a thousand sequins, and often much more' ( IX , 544). J ul iette forms with La Durand the parado xical couple of the aristocrat a n d the procu ress , and chooses to let h erself be prostituted by her. The * contest between Ju l iette and La Durand is not on ly socia l , but also physical . We learn indeed of some strange characterist ics of La Durand : ' Durand had never been able t o enjoy sexuol p l easure i n an ordinary way: she w a s obstructed , but ( . . . ) her cl itoris , as long as 0 finger, inspired i n her the m ost ardent taste for women. She fucked them, she sodomized them ' ( IX , 43 1 ) . La Durand is anatomical ly c loser to man than wo men, s ince, being obstructed , she can not be pen etrated , and uses her c l itoris l i ke a penis . I f the homosexual relationsh ip between JU l iette and La Durand represented a transgressio n o f the norm , the transgress ion itself i s now transgresse d : what w e fin d at t h e end of t h e d ouble inversion is a homosexu a l relationship w h i c h parodical ly reproduces t h e scheme o f a heterosex ual re lat ionship . The meaning o f the two women's a l l iance i s b oth pol itica l and poeti c . Pol iti c al ly , l ibertinage is condemne d , at the end o f the e ighteenth c entury , b y novelists w h o i dentify i t with the decadent phi losophy of an aristocracy locked in its p ast and cut off from a new pol it ical consciousness which takes control over real ity away from this h igh social c lass . Bec ause La Durand is a p l ebeian woman, because her obstructed b ody embod i es l im it whi le transgressing the gender l i mit, and opposes her parodical ' impenetrabi l ity ' to men 's sexual vi o lence, because she is J u l iette 's p hysi cal and social other, her a l l i ance with Jul iette indicates a revol utio nary rupture with the l ibert inage of the ancien regime. Poeti cal ly, J u l i ette 's choice g ives back the p l e asure o f i magi nation t o l ibertinag e . L ibertines who made a boast o f destroying a l l i l l us ions , prejudices a n d bel iefs l imit ing m i n d and pass ions, had to i nvent an object of hatre d , God, i n order to sti mu late their desire and resurrect the lack ing l i mit . Ju l iette recreates this l im it , first by replacing analysis with metaphor, 1 2 7 I I Catherine Cusset then by tyin g a paradoxical a l l iance with La Duran d : she substitutes the l ibertines ' discourses which theor ize pleasure with out theory. The ult imate cult reversed by ju l iette and La Durand is that of l ibertinage, Ju l i ette and La Durand do not try to e l iminate every bel ief . They accept to escape from the rati onal iz ing power of words. Ju l iette tel ls her l isten ers how , dur ing their first encounter, La Durand i m posed s i lence on Clai rwil who was repeating the obvious truth of l i bertinage: 'S imple creatures ' , La Durand answered, ' i t is not a man who e njoys your body, it is God ' . ' You are m a d , Madam ' , C l airwil s a i d . ' There is n o God ( . . . J ' . ' Shut u p ! ' L a Durand said. ' Give yourself u p to the i mpressions of the flesh , without wondering about those who make you feel them: i f you say another word , everyth ing is ru i n e d ' (VI I I , 508) . La Durand orders the l ibertine to keep s i lent , to bel ieve i n t h e ' G o d ' that she i nvented f o r the m , and t o h ave pleasure. She c hooses i magi nation over reaso n ari d mocks the two l ibertines who pay her to discover her secrets , thus affi rming her pr imordial freed o m . I t i s t h e same freedom that J ul iette exerts at t h e e n d o f the novel , during the grand final orgy, when she orders her former master N oirceui l to shut up and ' fuck ' . Because this last orgy takes place on Noirceui l ' s property and is organised by him, one could think that J ul iette 's return to France also means her masters' fantasies . H owever, the way in which she interrupts Noirceui l , who is speaking to the horrified victim he is sodomisi n g , reveals how much their power relation has changed . ' Just t h i n k , Madam ' , said the ferocious Noi rceui l st i l l sodo mis ing , ' that it would be enough to cut the divi d ing membran e , to completely nul l i fy the action against which you protest; and if you want, J ul iette , with a razor ( . . . J ' . ' Fuck , fuc k , Noi rceu i l ! You are talk ing nonsense ( . . . r (VI I I , 560) . N o i rceui l was on the point of ask i n g Ju l i ette to cut the membrane divi ding her victi m ' s vagina from h er anus: he wants 1 28 , I I I t 1 i 1 I I 1 j , I I I � ! • I t I I i 1 , ,. 1 i J ! r r ! t i T i t ; Sade: Critique of Pure Fiction to ' nu l l i fy ' the cr ime by destroying the physical l i mit which transforms s od omy i nto a cr ime. H owever, Ju l iette e nerg etical ly interrupts h im and accuses h im of tal k ing nonsense ( in the French text , deraisonner) . of l os ing his reason . L ibert ine reason faces i ts own contradi cti on: i t destroys every l imit , and this el imi nation (of l i mits , of d ifference, of ' d iv id ing membranes') gives l i berti nes a l i mit less power. But th is rat ional e l im ination of difference confronts reason with madness : with its other, with its own l imits . Ju l iette establ ishes the l imits o f reason: she reveals the imposs ib i l ity of an enti re rat ional isation of pleasure: she c a l ls the concrete representation of the d isappearance of the cr ime (through the d isappearance of the ' membrane ' which del imits it) the beginning of i rrational ity . She was the pupi l . she has become the master, and she g ives an order to No i rceui l : to 'fuck ' , and to shut u p . T h e volcano episode a n d t h e final relationship with La Durand repr esent Sade's choice of l imit . With these two episodes, Sade i nvites us to read his texts as fictive and humorous texts , and n ot, as suggested the French feminist E l isabeth Badinter who wanted to censor Sade 's novel . as rational d emonstratio ns i nvit ing readers to commit murder. 1 5 Ju l iette ' s transformation throu g h the novel a l lows us to understand why Sad e entitled h is last long novel L 'Histoire de Juliette . Ju l iette chooses fict ion , without try ing to prove its truth ; she c hooses pleasure , without tryin g to annih i late every bel ief , s ince imagi nary bel i ef is a component of p leasure . What Sa de tel ls us with the invention of J u l iette is that freedom is the very choice of l i mit . 'The total rL!pture of al l restraints ' i m p l i es the acceptance of one restraint, i n o rder that l ibertines d o n ot stop on their way, in a chal lenge they ad dress to God or to themselves. L 'Histoire de Juliette is Sade 's cr it ique of pure fi cti on . J ust as Kant wrote a ' cr it ique of pure reason ' to examine the conditi ons of p oss ib i l ity of reason as wel l as its l imits , so does Sade outl ine the c ond itions os possi b i l ity of ficti on in L 'Histoire de Juliette, and i n so d oing he reveals the power of the i maginary. 1 29 Catherine Cusset N OTES 1 . Sad e , Oeuvres Completes. ( Paris : C erc le du l ivres prec ieux , 1 962-4) , I X , 5 1 1 . A l l translations are mine . 2 . The word ' l ibertinag e ' comes from the latin word ' I ibert inus' which d es ignates a specifi c social category i n Roman society : that of slaves who have been freed , b ut are not yet Roman citizens . 3 . I n Soudain un Blo c d 'Abi Sade ( Paris , J . J . Pauvert, 1 986) , translated into Engl ish i n 1 990. Annie Le Brun thus defines Ju l iette 's character : 'A being i n search of its form beyond al l forms , Ju li ette is the b o dy of the most beautiful idea one can have of freedom' (p . 295) . 4 . These disc ourses , w h i c h a i med to edu cate t h e reader a s w e l l as t h e l ib ert ine pupi l and ch aracterize Sade 's prosen o other E ig hteenth century author of l ibertine novels d em onstrate such a need to ' unvei l truth ' have been more studied than any other part of Sadean n ovel , and critics , from Maur ice Bl anchot to Ph i l ippe Rog er, have more often analyzed the Sadean 'system ' , Sadean ' reason ' or l ibert ine ' pr incipl es ' than Sa dean fi cti o n ' s strategy. 5. P ierre Kl ossowski , Sade mon prochain ( Par is : Seu i l , 1 967) . Sade My Neighbor, transl ated by Al phonso Lingis ( Evanston : Northwestern U n ivers ity Press , 1 99 1 ) . 6 . This paradox has been remarkably stu died by G eoffrey Benni ngton in ' Sade: Layi n g down the Law ' , Oxford Literary Review, 6 ( 1 984) , 38-56 . 7 . ' You have enough i nte l l i g ence to understand that a vi c e whose o r i g i n is in t h e b l o o d ' s effervescence can n ot b e a m e n d e d by ( ... J i nflaming imag ination thro ugh secl usio n ' ( Letter t o Madame de Montreuil, March 1 3th. 1 7 7 7 , O . C . . X I I , e d . c it . ) . 8 . Idees sur les Roman. O . C . , X , e d . cit . , 4 . 9 . Klossowski , p . 1 49 . (Translation and ita l ics a r e mine) . 1 0 . Rol and Barthes , Sade, Fourier, Loyola ( Paris : Le Seu i l , 1 980) , p . 2 1 . 1 1 . Jacq ues Lac a n , ' Kant avec Sade ' , in Ecrits ( Par is : Le Seui l , 1 966) . 1 2 . Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, translated by J o hn Cumming ( N ew York : The Seabury Press , 1 972) . 1 30 t I " I L � \ t I r � ! , i ;. I * \ '.- ! , r T • • , ; t ;. I t 1 J l' I t t r I T l t 1 i Sade: Critique of Pure Fiction 1 3 . Furthermore , Sade chose not just any k ind of natural phenomenon , but the volcano , which, i n the E ig hteenth century, prec isely embodies nature 's ambiguous c haracter: it is at the same time an object of sc ientific knowledge and the source of real terrors and mythic l egends. Volcanic peaks fi l l the E ighteenth century imagi nary; thei r eruptions , fi res and l ava flows serve as metaphors, i n pol it ics , for revolutionary explos ion, in the psychology, for outbursts of pass ion . 1 4 . For Lucienne Frappier-Mazur, J u l i ette and La Durand's relationship is purely parodical . She affi rms that La Durand would certainly h ave also b een betrayed by Ju l i ette i f her adventures had c ontinued: she d oes not take into consid eration the fact that Sade precisely chose to end his novel without having La Durand betrayed by Ju l i ette . See Lucienne FrappierM azur, Sode et / 'ecriture de / 'orgie (Par is : N atha n , 1 99 1 ) . 1 5 . I am r eferr ing here to an ' Apostro phe' program o n Sade org anized by Bernard Pivot in the summer of 1 989, dur ing which the debate am ong E l isabeth Badinter, Annie Le Brun and JeanJ ac ques Pauvert was rather an i mate d . 1 3 1 CO NT R I B UT O RS Kathy Acker is the a uthor of Bloo d and Guts in High School, Empire of the Senseless, Great Expectations and My Death, My Ufe , by Pier Paolo Passo lin i. She is current ly wo rki ng on a new novel and teaches at the San Francisco Art I nstitute. David All ison i s a Professor of Phi losophy at the State U n ivers ity of New York, Stony Bro o k . He is the e d it o r of The New Nietzsche (Delta , 1 977) and is c u rrently co-edit ing a vo lume (with M a rk Ro berts and Al len Weiss) e nt it led Sa de Beyond Measure: Categories of Reading, which wi l l be publ ished i n t h e spring of 1 994. Justin Barton has been a m e m ber of PL/ 's editor ia l board s ince 1 99 1 a n d is a g ra duate student i n the P hi lo sophy department at t he U n iversity of Warw i c k . H e is c u rrently workin g on his PhD thesis about the role of the fut u re in N ietzschean and Dele uzian genealogies . Margaret C rosland i s the edito r of The Passionate Philosopher: A Marquis de Sade Reader (Minerv a , 1 993) , The Mystified Magistrate (Peter Owe n , 1 986) and The Gothic Tales of the Marquis de Sa de ( 1 990). She has written b iographies O n C o l ette , Coctea u , E d ith P iaf a nd S i m o n e de Beauvoir. Catherine Cusset is an Assistant Professor of Fre n c h at Ya le U n ivers ity . She h as published a novel entit led La Blouse Roumaine (Gal l imard , 1 990) and severa l art ic les on Sad e , earl ier l ibert ine noveli sts, a n d Rococo painters, i n L 'lnfini, French Forum, and Eighteenth-Century Fiction. Lucienne FrappierMazur is a Professo r of French Lite rature at the U n ive rs ity of Pennsylva nia. She is the auth o r of a book o n Ba lzac ' s Come die humaine, o f Sade et I 'ecriture d e I 'orgie. Pouvoir et parodie dans 'L 'Histoire de Juliette ' ( 1 99 1 ) and of many artic les o n Balza c , Stendhal , Nodier, Sand a n d the e ig hteenth century e rotic nove l . 1 75 Amy Hanson h as been a m e m ber of PLI 's e ditorial board s ince 1 99 2 . She received her Master of Arts i n E n g l ish fro m the U n ivers ity of Wa rwick special iz ing i n Fau lkner, M od e rnism , Post-Colo n i a l Lite rat u re , a n d Crit ical The o ry . She is c u rrently writ ing her first screenplay. Annie Le Brun i s one of her generat i o n ' s forem ost a ut h orities on Sad e . After a study on the late e ig hteenth century E uropean black novel entit led Les Chateaux de la Subversion (98 2) , she pro d u c e d two works on the Marquis de Sad e : Soudain u n bloc d 'abime, Sa d e ( 1 98 6) and Sade, aller e t deto urs ( 1 989) . She is a l s o the c o editor of Sad e ' s Oeuvres Completes. Oeepak N arang Sawhney has been a member of PL/ 's editorial board s ince 1 992 . H e received his M aster of Arts i n Conti nent a l P h i l oso phy fro m t he U n iversity o f Warwic k spec ia l iz ing i n N ietzsche a n d Bata i l l e . H e i s currently c o m plet ing his PhD t hesis o n fascism and technology in Dele uze . Stephen Pfohl is a writer, perform ing a rtist video maker and P rofesso r of Sociology at Boston Col leg e , where he teaches courses in social theory , social psychoqnalys is , c u lt ura l st ud ies and t h e socio logy of devi ance and soCial c o ntrol . Stephen ' s rec e nt w rit ings inc lud e Death a t the Parasite Cafe: Social Science (Fictions) and the Postm o dern (St . M a rt i n ' s Press/MacMi l lan , 1 992); Images of Deviance and Social Con trol: a Sociological History, 2nd E d . (McGrawH i l I . 1 993) and the forth c o m i n g Venus in Video: Male Mas(s)ochism and Ultramo dern Power. Stephen was also the 1 99 1 -92 p ' res ident of the Soc iety for the Study of Social Problems. Phil ippe Sollers i s an author and intel lectual who has been writ ing fo r fo rty years . H is wo rks include Sur Ie m aterialisme ( 1 9 74) , Femmes ( 1 983) , and Le Secre t ( 1 993) . In 1 992, h e received t h e G ra n d P rix d e Litterature from the Acad e m ie Fran<;aise for h is l ife 's work. 1 76 Pli Warwick Journal of Philosophy Back issues: Deleuze and the Transcendental Unconscious inc lud ing a rt ic les by Alphonso l ingis and Brian Massumi Kant: Trials of Judgment i nc lud ing art icles by Jean-Luc Nancy and H oward Cayghi l l Feminist P h i losophy i nc lud ing art ic les by M a rgaret Whitford and Luce I rigaray Forthcoming i ssues: The Responsibi l ities of Deconstruction Cyberotics Jean -Luc Nancy: Com m u n ity, Myth and the Polit ical I f you wo uld l i ke to subscribe to PLI o r c o ntr ibute an a rt ic le , p lease contact us at the fo l lowing address : PLI Department of Ph i loso phy U niversity of Warwic k Coventry CV4 7 AL ENGLAN D 1 77 r I , '. fJ1ie 'lJi'lline S acCe eaitea 6y t])eepaf(9{p,rang Sawliney PLI Warwic�Journa{ of Pliifosopliy The Divine Sade, the first compilation of essays on the Marquis de Sa de (1740-1814) published in Great Britain, is a ground breaking and innovative volume, With contributors ranging from Kathy Acker to Philippe Sollers, The Divine Sade presents an expansive philosophical exploration of this compelling figure. Furthermore, The Divine Sade examines the historical, literary, religious and theatrical framework of Sade's work, and includes translations of Annie Le Brun and Philippes Sollers' essays produced specifically for this issue. Kathy Acker Reading the Lack of the Bpdy: The Writing of the Marquis de Sade David Allison Sade's Itinerary of Transgression Margaret Crosland Madame de Sade and Other Problems Catherine Cusset Sade: Critique of Pure Fiction Lucienne Frappier-Mazur A Turning Point in the Sadean Novel: The Terror Annie Le Brun Sade and the Theatre Stephen Pfohl Seven Mirrors of Sade: Sex, Death, CAPITAL and the Language of Monsters Philippe Sollers Sade Contra the Supreme Being ISBN 1-897646-01-