(1740-1814)
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SADE, Marquis de (1740-1814). The word sadism, referring
to sexual perversion involving the infliction of pain, is derived
from the name of Donatien-Alphonse-Francois de Sade, usually
called the Marquis de Sade. He was a French author who, because
of his remarkably scandalous life, spent more than 27 years in
prison. Most of his works, still considered obscene and
unpublishable, were written during his prison years. They include
`Justine', published in 1791, 'Juliette' (1798), 'The 120 Days of
Sodom' (written in 1785 but not discovered until 1904), `Aline
and Valcour' (1795), `Philosophy in the Boudoir' (1795), and
`Crimes of Love' (1800). Later writers saw in him an example of
the eternal rebel.
Sade was born on June 2, 1740, in Paris, pursuing a military
career as a youth during the Seven Years' War (1756-63). He then
married, but at the same time he began living the scandal-ridden
life of a libertine. He was soon convicted of acts of violence
and debauchery and sent to prison. He was sentenced to death in
1772 but was given a reprieve. He fled briefly to Italy. No
sooner was he back in Paris in 1777 than he was again arrested.
He was imprisoned at Vincennes, in the Bastille in Paris, and
finally in the insane asylum at Charenton. From 1790 to 1801 he
was free and living in Paris, where he offered several plays to
the Comedie-Francaise. In 1801 he was arrested for having written
`Justine'. In 1803 he was confined again to Charenton and
remained there until his death on Dec. 2, 1814.
Justine, or
Good Conduct Well Chastised (1791), is informed by the
confessional and picaresque narrative techniques developed in
France and England during the 18th century. The adventures of the
heroine also reflect a growing taste for Gothic romance. Justine
is the victim of a variety of cruelties--moral, sexual, and
physical. By holding tenaciously to her innocence and virtue,
Justine vexes and excites the men around her and causes her own
deep suffering. Her worldly and corrupt sister, on the other
hand, lives happily as a prostitute. Justine tends at times to
become a catalog of sexual activity, but the novel illustrates de
Sade's belief that self-restraint is not in accord with human
nature, which has a fundamental need to inflict pain. de Sade's
ideas have influenced many writers, notably Baudelaire and
Lautreamont. Her sister gives her name to a complementary novel,
Juliette (1797; Eng. trans., 1968).
Here are some interesting works from this preverse and seductive master mind....
- 120 days
of Sodom
(And some more interesting things...)
- Dialogue
between a Priest and a Dying Man
Aleister Crowley - Anne Rice - Anton Szandor LaVey - Arthur Schopenhauer - Charles Baudelaire - Charles Darwin - Edgar Allan Poe - Friedrich Nietzsche - Howard Phillips Lovecraft - J.R.R. Tolkien - Karl Marx - Lord Byron - Marquis de Sade - Mary Shelley - Sigmund Freud - Stephen King