the characters in this story, the first of a group, are all inventions together with the personality of the narrator, and bear no resemblance to living persons. only the city is real.

i am accustoming myself to the idea of regarding every sexual act as a process in which four persons are involved. we shall have a lot to discuss about that.

s. freud : letters

there are two positions available to us — either crime which renders us happy, or the noose, which prevents us from being unhappy. i ask whether there can be any hesitation, lovely thérèse, and where will your little mind find an argument able to combat that one?

d. a. f. de sade : justine

to

eve

these memorials of her native city