Incest

At once outrageous and fascinating, sacrilegious and deeply religious, the story of the Franval family is marked by events and ideas that take courage to even imagine. As the name suggest, the book is about an incestuous relationship between a father and daughter. However, it is not merely that. It reaches the realms of philosophy, religion, morality, sociology, and psychology, at the same time. This book will shatter unquestioned beliefs, and reaffirm them at the same time. For the post modern, it lays bare what happens when social order was all but lost. And while ideationally, the notions put forth seem logical, I found them at the same time strangely repulsive. The strength of the language in evoking strong emotions cannot be undermined. De Sade has written with an inherent judgment which is at once judgmental of the notions put forth by society and of those going against it. The least it would do, is to make you think.

Reading Incest, and I am guessing other works by him, would leave you with a sense of awe at his imagination. It is not surprising that the term ‘sadism’ is accorded to this author. 

I picked this book up as it seemed to be a think book and I needed to come to a round figure when buying books a dime a dozen. I had never heard of the author and I thought it would be one of those mindless reads. Was I in for a surprise! I must admit that this is the first book that I have come across in which I am a bit relieved that the protagonist/antagonist, and almost everyone else of any consequence in the book, dies in the end!