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The Torture Garden (The New Traveller's Companion Series) | 
 enlarge | Author: Octave Mirbeau
Publisher: Olympia Press
Category: Book
List Price: $10.95
Buy New: $5.86
You Save: $5.09 (46%)
New (19) Used (8) from $5.86
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 147561
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 122
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.4
ISBN: 1596540672
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781596540675
ASIN: 1596540672
Publication Date: August 28, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
Following the twin trails of desire and depravity to a shocking, sadistic paradise - a garden in China where torture is practiced as an art form - a dissolute Frenchman discovers the true depths of degradation beyond his prior bourgeois imaginings. Entranced by a resolute Englishwoman whose capacity for debauchery knows no bounds, he capitulates to her every whim amid an ecstatic yet tormenting incursion of visions, scents, caresses, pleasures, horrors, and fantastic atrocities.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Poorly done edition of notorious Mirbeau novel September 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
**** THE FOLLOWING REVIEW PERTAINS ONLY TO THIS "NEW TRAVELLER'S COMPANION" EDITION OF THE TORTURE GARDEN ****
Other reviewers here have eloquently discussed the merits of Mirbeau's The Torture Garden, and I have nothing to add about the book itself. This edition, however, is cheap and horrifically edited (the horror having nothing to do with the subject matter). It reads as if someone brewed a couple pots of coffee, opened up the word processing program on his/her computer, typed the novel out as quickly as possible, and then sent it straight to a publisher without making any corrections. The number of typos is unacceptable for a high school typing class, let alone a republication of an underground classic.
Whatever the merits of this novel, DO NOT BUY THIS EDITION.
 Slow and DULL August 9, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Don't buy this book unless you're having trouble falling to sleep and need something that will guarantee that you're heading will be nodding in a few minutes. Ever read a book that was so dull that you're not sure what you just read on the last page? Give this book a try! You'll be sleepy in no time.
Scathing view of humanity and its coarse, ignorant brutality May 14, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The story opens with a select group of elitist swine sitting down to a fancy supper. Many banal topics of conversation are broached with levity and mocking sarcasm, until the topic of murder comes up. Specifically, murder as an innate biological human need, much like procreation. I liked where this book was heading...
Our protagonist fancies himself a most vile and debauched jack-of-all-trades; actually, he is more of an impostor of all trades, and liar extraordinaire. However, while on a steam ship, en route to his next great scheme, he meets his match in Clara. A deep love blossoms between them, and our protagonist's heart, weakened by her purity and chastity, falls prey to her charms. But Clara is not as she appears, the chaste little cherry blossom, no, no, Clara can be likened to a great degree to Venus, in Masoch's Venus in Furs. So, mad, stricken with love, our protagonist confesses the sins of his life to Clara, and she comforts him, assuring him that his confession has not diminished her love for him. Subsequently, she, with the skill of a serpent, leads him astray into her world, a world where he will not only question the depth and breadth of his own depravity but his sanity as well. For Clara's soul is as black and consuming as a tar pit.
Political intrigue and hypocrisy abound, not to mention the ever-prevalent scathing view of humanity and its coarse, ignorant brutality, motivated by dogma and prejudice. And then there is the Garden...inspired by the ethereal beauty, our protagonist at this point in the story becomes quite poetic. The words are rich and romantic, and they mirror the duality of the story - the duality of mankind - the heavenly garden juxtaposed against an artistic milieu of horrific torture. Why is it that we cannot see the beauty of the world until we are stripped naked, face down at the bottom of the abyss with our heads shoved in our own bile? Maybe this story will shed some light.
As I mentioned, this is not the best presentation of the work, but, if you can get past the frustration of formatting issues and endless typos and grammatical errors, this is a story not to be missed, simply for its profound view on the brutal nature of humanity. Warning - the torture depicted in this book is quite gruesome, by 1899 standards anyway. Today's Saw and Hostel hack-and-slash movie generation will more than likely find it rather mild.
 duality February 18, 2008
This is one of the few books I've read which continually resurface in my consciousness. To say that this is a book of depravity, lust, and horror is to miss the point. It is such a book, but it is also a commentary on the natural evolution of social order and the dualistic nature of society. The central theme? Life arises from death, beauty from decay, civil society from brutality. Yes this notion is cliche' but Mirbeau's portrait of it is nothing but masterful. Of all the works of this genre I've read, nothing comes close to this work. I can not recommend it enough.
You want some anarchistic deconstruction of reality? November 27, 2007
A stunningly beautiful, disgusting, shocking book. It's hard to find a piece of work that actually accomplishes even one of those things, much less all of them. Mirbeau deftly illustrates the dichotomy of the human condition. Love is death, beauty pain, and torture ecstasy. A great sadomasochistic work of art.
It's interesting how addiction to experiences of horror and pain is explored. It is as though one can only be made whole by witnessing the extremes of existence (gee... funny thing, that). This is a concept that only the French, light-years ahead of the rest of the western world in terms of emotional maturity, have ever truly mastered.
Not for the weak of heart or mind, this book is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery for those of a truly "alternative" nature.
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