Letters to a Libertine
From Valwiki
| Author: | John Walte. |
| Subtitle: | Virtue's Misfortune. |
| Language: | Common(A version in Elvish). |
| Document Type: | Novel. |
| Genre: | Philosophical Gothic Erotica. |
Letters to a Libertine (or Virtue's Misfortune) is a classical erotic novel by Rotare Bileht, his real name being John Walte. Misfortune is set just when things started settling after the Flood, in Bridgeton and tells the story of a young woman who goes under the name of Theresa. Her story is recounted to the (fictional) Lady Maria while defending herself for her crimes, en route to punishment and death. She explains the series of misfortunes which have led her to be in her present situation.
Contents |
Plot summary
The plot concerns Justine, a 12-year-old maiden who sets off, impecunious, to make her way in Valikorlia. It follows her until age 26, in her quest for virtue. At every turn she is presented with vice and abuse, hidden under a virtuous mask that lures her. The unfortunate situations include the time when she seeks refuge and confession in a monastery for Setengar, but is forced to become a sex-slave to the monks, who subject her to countless orgies, rapes and other abuses. When helping a gentleman who is robbed in a field, he takes her back to his castle with promises of a post caring for his wife, but she is then confined in a cave and subject to much the same punishment. These punishments are mostly the same throughout, even when she goes to a Magister to beg for mercy in her case as an arsonist, and then finds herself openly humiliated in court, unable to defend herself.
These are, of course, described in true Sadistic form. However, unlike some of his other works, the novel is not just a catalogue of sadism. Rather it purports to show, albeit in a hideously extreme way, an inversion of poetic justice: how those who live a life of vice prosper, whilst the virtuous suffer.
The story is told by "Therese" in an inn, to Lady Maria. It is finally revealed that Lady Maria is her long lost sister. The irony is that her sister submitted to a brief period of vice and found herself a comfortable existence where she could exercise good, while Justine refused to make concessions for the greater good and was plunged further into vice than those who would go willingly.
The story ends with Lady Maria relieving her from a life of vice and clearing her name. Strangely though, Justine quickly becomes introverted and morose, before finally being struck by a thunderbolt and killed instantly. Lady Maria joins a religious order of Setengar.
Major themes
Walte was strongly involved in both the development of his own philosophies and an investigation into the changing nature of his country. As, later in life, he became very involved in politics, we can see many of his ideas introduced in this, one of his earlier works.
Key philosophical ideas as follows:
- going against accepted tradition
- the subjectivity of virtue and vice
- the pursuit of desire and the consequences of it
- the evils of absolutism for either the purposes of good or evil
- man's self as being the only true ruler of man
- the good of reason and selfishness
- the notion of will as dominating disinterested system
The more political ideas focus on:
- the hierarchy and force within society
- the corruption of the justice system and most major institutions
- the good of selfishness in economics
- the important of individual sovereignty
- the supposed respective roles of the sexes
- the necessity of reliance upon yourself and yourself alone
OOC Information
This is a fairly new book only published with in the last year. It's based upon The Misfortune's of Virtue by The Marquis de Sade. It was signed with Walte's usual pen name, Rotare Bileht.
Availability
The book it's self is fairly taboo but still in wide circulation among the intellectual elite yet also in seedy locations and among Black Market book peddlers.
