synopsis:

in the cynical first half of this book the narrator, a French bourgeois and corrupted politician, exposes the rottenness of politics, commerce and the petit bourgeois; in the second half, the totally corrupt narrator travels to China and meets the extraordinary Clara. she takes him on a depraved journey through the most terrible and divine place on earth.

The Torture Garden is a beautiful, lush garden in China, hidden within the walls of a prison (a Bagnio), in which the most horrible and exquisite punishments are inflicted upon the human body as a work of art. The garden itself it extremely fertile, and thrives from the nourishment that enriches its soil, 'through the excrement of the prisoners, the blood of the tortured', defying the atrocities of it's vile surroundings by producing the most lush, exotic and fragrant flowers in all of China.

It is in this magnificent and repulsive setting that the desires of the delicate-looking English woman are uncovered. Clara, born an aristocratic, has all the perversities and bored exterior of a woman of her breeding and era. Unable to obtain sexual pleasure from the usual methods, she is driven to the limits of sensation, seeking and becoming increasingly obsessed with beauty, torture, blood and death. Clara seduces our narrator with promises of the ultimate passion that human's can experience.

The narrator is captivated by Clara, even though her very nature sickens and repulses him. He finds himself being drawn into her wild web of enchantment and eventually falling prey to her sinful and wicked delusions.

on this book:

way ahead of its time, The Torture Garden is exceptional for its detailed descriptions of sexual euphoria and exquisite torture; its political critique of government corruption and bureaucracy; and its revolutionary portrait of a woman, which challenges even contemporary role models of female autonomy. The Torture Garden grants glimpses of ecstasy and exhilaration which can only spring from a relentless probing of passion and pain. the book was adapted on film (as le jardin des supplices) by christian gion in 1976.in many ways, richey edwards used this book to express his misery and depression prior to his disappearance.in 1976 a film based on this novel came out, directed by christian jion.see also: * "You're obliged to pretend respect..."