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Marquis de Sade

For the French post-punk band, see Marquis de Sade (band).
"De Sade" redirects here. For the 1969 film, see De Sade (film).

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade
Marquis de Sade
Portrait of Donatien Alphonse François de Sade by Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo.[1] The drawing dates to 1760, when Sade was 19 years old, and is the only known authentic portrait of him.[2]
Coat of arms
Born(1740-06-02)2 June 1740
Paris, Kingdom of France
Died2 December 1814(1814-12-02) (aged 74)
Charenton, Val-de-Marne, Kingdom of France
Philosophy career
Notable work
EraLate 18th century
RegionFrance
SchoolLibertine
Main interests
Pornography, atheism, moral nihilism
Notable ideas
Sadism
Family
Spouse
Renée-Pélagie Cordier de Launay
​
​
(m. 1763; sep. 1790)​
Partner
  • Marie-Constance Quesnet (1790–1814; his death)
Children
  • Louis Marie de Sade (1767–1809)
  • Donatien Claude Armand de Sade (1769–1847)
  • Madeleine Laure de Sade (1771–1844)
Parents
  • Jean-Baptiste François Joseph, Comte de Sade (father)
  • Marie-Éléonore de Maillé de Carman (mother)
Signature

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (/sɑːd, sæd/;[3] French: [dɔnasjɛ̃ alfɔ̃z fʁɑ̃swa maʁki də sad]; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography. His works include novels, short stories, plays, dialogues, and political tracts. Some of these were published under his own name during his lifetime, but most appeared anonymously or posthumously.

Born into a noble family dating from the 13th century, Sade served as an officer in the Seven Years' War before a series of sex scandals led to his detention in various prisons and insane asylums for most of his adult life. During his first extended imprisonment from 1777 to 1790, he wrote a series of novels and other works, some of which his wife smuggled out of prison. On his release during the French Revolution, he pursued a literary career and became politically active, first as a constitutional monarchist then as a radical republican. During the Reign of Terror he was imprisoned for moderatism and narrowly escaped the guillotine. He was re-arrested in 1801 for his pornographic novels and was eventually incarcerated in the Charenton insane asylum where he died in 1814.

His major works include The 120 Days of Sodom, Justine, Juliette and Philosophy in the Bedroom, which combine graphic descriptions of sex acts, rape, torture, murder and child abuse with discourses on religion, politics, sexuality and philosophy. The word sadism derives from his fictional characters who take pleasure in inflicting pain on others.[4][5]

There is debate over the extent to which Sade's behavior was criminal and sadistic. Peter Marshall states that Sade's "known behaviour (which includes only the beating of a housemaid and an orgy with several prostitutes) departs greatly from the clinical picture of active sadism."[6] Andrea Dworkin, however, argues that the issue is whether one believes Sade or the women who accused him of sexual assault.[7]

Interest in his work increased in the 20th century, with various authors considering him a precursor to Nietzsche,[8] Freud, surrealism, totalitarianism,[9] and anarchism.[10] Many prominent intellectuals including Angela Carter, Simone de Beauvoir, and Roland Barthes published studies of his work and numerous biographies have appeared.[11] Cultural depictions of his life and work include the play Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss and the film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom by Pier Paolo Pasolini.[12] Dworkin and Roger Shattuck have criticized the rehabilitation of Sade's reputation, arguing that it promotes violent pornography likely to cause harm to women,[13] the young and "unformed minds".[14]

  1. ^ Sade, Marquis de (1999). Seaver, Richard (ed.). Letters from Prison. New York: Arcade Publishing. ISBN 978-1559704113.
  2. ^ Perrottet, Tony (February 2015). "Who Was the Marquis de Sade?". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Sade". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  4. ^ Phillips (2005), p. 1
  5. ^ Marshall (2008), p. 145
  6. ^ Marshall (2008), p. 144
  7. ^ Dworkin 1981, pp. 80–84, 92–91.
  8. ^ Phillips (2005), p. 22
  9. ^ Bongie (1998), pp. 293–94
  10. ^ Marshall (2008), pp. 143–49
  11. ^ Phillips (2005), pp. 116–117
  12. ^ Phillips (2005), p. 118
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Shattuck (1996), pp. 292–93, 298–99

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