Marquis de Sade

Marquis de Sade

Marquis de Sade (Donatien Alphonse François de Sade) was born on June 2nd, 1740. Marquis passed away December 2nd, 1814 at 74 years old. Marquis de Sade was born in Paris, France.

Marquis de Sade was a writer, political activist, libertine, and nobleman that was best known for his libertine novels and his imprisonment for blasphemy, sex crimes, and pornography. Marquis’ work includes dialogues, short stories, novels, plays, and political tracts. Some of these were published under his own name during his life, however most appeared posthumously or anonymously.

Marquis was born into a noble family that dated back to the 13th century, and he served as an officer in the Seven Years’ War before this series of sex scandals led to his detention in various insane asylums and prisons for much of his adult life.

For a time he had a good reputation as a soldier, however one who was a gambler, spendthrift, and libertine, which damaged all prospects of further promotion. His dad was frequently infuriated with de Sade’s womanizing and gambling issues.

During his first extended imprisonment (from 1777 to 1790) he wrote this series of novels and other works, some of which his wife smuggled out of prison for him. Upon his release during the French Revolution, he pursued a literary career and he became politically active, first as a constitutional monarchist then as a radical republican.

During the Reign of Terror he got imprisoned for moderatism and barely was able to escape the guillotine. He got re-arrested in 1801 for his pornographic novels and got incarcerated in the Charenton insane asylum, where he later died in 1814.

His graphic novels feature explicit descriptions of sex acts, torture, rape, murder, and child abuse with discourses on politics, religion, philosophy, and sexuality. The word sadism derives from his fictional characters that take pleasure in inflicting pain on others.

Justine tells the story of the devout and beautiful Justine, whose naive trust and steadfast faith destine her right from the start for sexual exploitation and later martyrdom. The unending catalog of disasters which befall her, during which she’s subject to numerous perverse practice, only illustrate Sade’s belief in the primacy of Nature over civilization.

Virtue isn’t any match for vice, and as violence and criminality triumph, Justine’s just doomed to suffer. Indeed, this book mounts a ferocious intellectual and physical on absolute notions of evil and good.

120 Days of Sodom: The School of Debauchery relates the story of four wealthy men that enslave 24 primarily teenaged victims and sexually torture them as they listen to stories told by prostitutes.

The book was written when Sade was imprisoned in the Bastille and the manuscript got lost during the storming of the Bastille. He once wrote that he wept tears of blood over the loss of this manuscript. Numerous people consider this to be Sade’s own crowning achievement.

Related Authors

Fans of Marquis de Sade also enjoy these authors:

1. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series.
2. J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings Series.
3. Jane Austen, author of: Pride and Prejudice.
4. Joe Hill, author of the NOS4A2 Series.
5. Dan Brown, author of the Robert Langdon Series.

Marquis de Sade: F.A.Q