Marquis de Sade Books

Marat/Sade is an excellent script. for all of you out there who love the book and the story come To Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, november 20th through the 24th for a fabulous performance of the show. call the box office at 1-440-826-2240. ask for tony and if he's there tell him u saw this.

This book is written both as a script of the play and a narrative of the action of the players(inmates). It's fantastic. I loaned the book to someone years ago and never got it back. If anyone knows where I can get a copy, please email me!

I have to say that this is an absolutly beautiful piece of literature. The language rolls off the tounge like a symphony with a harmonizing dissonance. The story itself is so simple yet complicated all at the same time. The emotion that one feels after reading this is numbing. You sit there not knowing what to say and think.

The play was puton by actors from my school and it was terrific. I cannot wait to read the book. I give the play and book(in advance)5 stars and my gratitude that this play and book exist.

MARAT/SADE

"This play-within-a-play is about pushing at the limits", said Dramaturg William Lewis Evans.

I first saw the play performed by students of the Bishop's College School Studio Theatre in Lennoxville, Quebec. The text was phenomenally stimulating. The play was memorable, intense, and for the audience at least, indeed a little scary. Marat/Sade, after all, is the practical quintessence of what Antonin Artaud called the Theatre of Cruelty - theatre of the visceral and disturbing - theatre that "wakes us up, mind and heart". The highlight of that Canadian gala, for me, was when I witnessed an audience member and retired member of the French Foreign Legion (an outstanding citoyen-expatrie who should remain nameless) stand up - in the middle of this High School play - and leave the theatre in protest.

The play was, and remains, exceedingly powerful.

Years later I saw the play performed by Yale students in New Haven, Connecticut. If I remember correctly, Loren Stein directed. At one point during the performance, it became clear to the audience that one of the patients - an actor - had, during the course of the performance, in fact urinated on an audience member. As a reporter for Radio in New Haven, I interrogated that audience member at the end of the night, and caught a soundbite.

She said:

"It was wonderful. I don't know what else to say. This is Theatre, I guess. Real theatre."

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that this play should end up out of print, along with a dozen or so others like it, and be replaced on your roster with the latest celebrity-authored self-help books.

Maybe Oprah Winfrey will teach me how to fry tofu. It seems to be all we have a taste for anymore.

Franklin Pryce Raff

While certainly a brilliant play, I should mention that this edition differs slightly from the edition I used while in the United Kingdom. Aside from the typical spelling changes, certain words were changed slightly in meaning (Coulmier's "This is outright defeatism!" vs. "...outright pacifism!"). The biggest crime, however, was a drastic reduction of the final scene.

The UK edition features an extended Epilogue, including an explanation from Sade, the "resurrection" and counter-explanation of Marat, and a giant poster of Napoleon during the parade scene. In this edition, some of the Herald's lines were given to Coulmier to apparently bridge the gap.

All of the descriptions, introductions, notes, and even inclusion of musical scores remain identical. If given a choice, I would certainly look for that edition, as it is somewhat more fulfilling. (It features a standard black & white cover with no pink trim)

I found the title of Peter Weiss's play so interesting that I bought his play on an impulse. I half expected it to be unreadably pretentious, but in fact I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would love to see it actually performed, but I live over a thousand miles from where that might be happening. One advantage of reading the play is that the author's comments are available.

I knew very little beyond the superficial about Sade or Marat, so I was somewhat surprised to discover that Sade actually wrote plays while confined in Charenton that were performed by the inmates, and that Marat was a scientist who expressed ideas well ahead of his time. I was inspired to learn more about Marat, so I read his essay ARE WE UNDONE, in which he urges: "The cutting off of five or six hundred heads would have guaranteed your peace, liberty and happiness." In the play he justifies this savagery by insisting (p. 113): "We do not murder we kill in self-defence." (It might very well be our beloved president speaking). If Marat was made the scapegoat for the Reign of Terror, it was not without foundation.

Weiss writes that what interested him "in bringing Sade and Marat together was the conflict between an individualism carried to extreme lengths and the idea of a political and social upheaval. Speaking to Marat, Sade says (p. 131), "these cells of the inner self are worse than the deepest stone dungeon as long as they are locked all your Revolution remains only a prison mutiny to be put down by corrupted fellow-prisoners." This dovetails interestingly with Sade's comment to his wife when she complained that one could not approve of his mode of thought (p. 147): "My mode of thought is the result of my reflections, it is a part of my life, of my own nature. It is not in my power to alter it, and if it were in my power I should not do it." This brings to mind Schopenhauer's reflection that "You can do what you want, but you cannot want what you want." Thus do Sade and Marat imprison themselves within their own grubby little minds. Sade claims, in this play at least, (p.72), "In a criminal society I dug the criminal out of myself so I could understand him and so understand the times we live in." His mode of thought makes this sort of understanding improbable.

However, as with all pessimistic assertions, this is not really true. With just a moment's honest reflection it is obvious enough that most of what makes up our "nature" is purely haphazard, and our "reflections" are just an obsessive rehashing of petty grievances and sexual fantasies that that we come to mistake for our true nature.

Maybe you have seen the film "Quills" and it has sparked an interest in you about the Marquis de Sade. Or maybe you are a history buff and are interested in the time of the French revolution, or perhaps you just love a really good thought-provoking play. If any of those things holds your interest you are in for a really marvelous read. 'The Persecution and Assassination of Jean Paul Marat as performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under The Direction of Marquis de Sade"(by Peter Weiss) is the full title of this book, but is AKA "Marat/Sade" and various editions may be found under either title. The edition I am reviewing is the English version(original is German) by Geoffrey Skelton.

So Marat/Sade is a play within a play with definite messages concerning "Revolution" and the effects on both the masses and the leaders. The setting is a fictional one, but uses the basis of historical events and characters to tell the story. The play inside this play is written and produced by Sade and performed by the inmates of Charenton where he spent so many years imprisoned for his writing, considered socially unacceptable and outrageous. The year it is being performed is 1808 but the events surrounding the story are happening on July 13, 1793, the day Charlotte Corday stabbed Jean-Paul Marat.

It is the day of the assassination. Marat, Sade, Corday,and political activists of the time argue back and forth about the reasoning and atrocities surrounding the Revolution and the state of Terror. The points going back and forth(sometimes in song) has the inmates(the rest of the cast), being easily swayed and worked up into a state of frenzy, all the while building to the stabbing. What is morally right and wrong? Heads are rolling - literally - who are the sane ones here - are the inmates running the asylum - so to speak?Even Columier(progressive director of the institution and supporter of freedom in arts)has trouble with the play when he feels it goes to far against the establishment.

This book, first published in 1965 grasps not only the horrific events of the 18th century, it is also certainly a statement on the international events of the 1960's. It will still provoke thought and may translate to some of the atrocities going on in the world today. Author Peter Weiss, seems to have really gotten into the heads of Sade, Marat and the others giving intellectual and provocative dialogue to the players. The scenes are well set for the stage, and excellent descriptions are given for each character making it very easy to visualize the entire play.

The books includes character descriptions - even down to subtle items in the wardrobe that would distinguish their roles, author's note on the historical background of the play,the music and words to the songs, and a brief bio of Weiss. I don't speak German(the 2 semesters I took in college nearly 40 years ago is long forgotten), but I have to say I don't feel like anything was lost in the translation of this play.

I would highly recommend this play to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, politics, infamous characters, and even if you are part of an acting group looking for an interesting and provocative play, you should have a look at this one.

This is a keeper and one to be read repeated times...enjoy the read...Laurie

Written in the early sixties, the play frequently abbreviated as Marat/Sade is set in 1808, yet many of the comments are distinctly directed toward current events, notably the upheavals in Eastern Europe. Now, with the fall of the Soviet Union behind us, the play takes on even greater significance. Despite the reassurances of the asylum director, whether a mere fifteen years or well over two hundred years have passed, the nature of revolutions, and the fanatics who cause them, has not changed. Combining historical events with modern theatrics, Weiss has produced what has been and will continue to be one of the most disturbing, as well as one of the most important works ever to be performed on stage.

I first heard of this play around 30 years ago when it was performed by the upper classes of my school in England. I never forgot it and decided recently to purchase the play and to read it.
The story takes place in an insane asylum in France around the time of the French Revolution, where The Marquis de Sade was kept for a number of years. He wrote a play about the revolutionary - Jean-Paul Marat, which was performed by the inmates of the asylum.
However, the play is much more than that. It really is a commentary about about how people behave toward one another during terrible periods of time.
I think it is a remarkable play - sometimes a little horrifying - but very well worth while picking up to read. I whole heartedly recommend it.

When he was born in 18th century Honfluer, George Latour was physiologically incapable of feeling pain. Obsessed by his abnormality and fascinated by the mysteries of pain, he loses himself in a dark spiral of death, murder and dissection as he attempts to fathom the secrets of the human body. Eventfully Latour meets the infamous Marquis de Sade, becoming his faithful servant and accomplice. De Sade's Valet is a chilling, historical fact-based, and highly recommended novel that grips the reader from the very first page and won't let go -- of the mind's imagination even after having been finished and set back upon the bookshelf.

I've just read this novel in the French translation. The French get their translations out before the English speaking countries. Perez Reverte was available in French long before the English translation.

Anyway, this is a fascinating novel and shouldn't be overlooked. It will appeal to anyone who enjoyed "Perfume" or Andrew Miller's "Ingenious Pain."

More and more, the 18th Century is a setting modern writers use for magical stories. Who was it who wrote, "He who hadn't the luck to live in the 18th Century has not experienced life"?

Revise here, in a few pages, your notion of the Marquis de Sade. Paz's growing comprehension of the depth of Sade's formulation of what is and is not "erotic" - Paz's 1947 poem, his 1960 essay on Sade's "ideas," and his 1986 essay that completes this progression of understanding - is only one joy in this slim volume. Paz's recollection of his conversation with Jean Paulhan at the Parc Montsouris, capturing the feel of Paris and that time, is worth the price of admission.

I've read de Sade, and studied him in class at Harvard. Only NOW--after having read Paz--can I understand what was underneath all the "frigging" and "embuggering."

External structures that are often inflexible and ultimately produce ludicrous, harmful people & behaviors. This is what Sade was getting at.

Paz shows us that Sade can't be dismissed as an inept writer of pornography. There's oh! so much more going on.

I read the book and love it. For anyone who found Justice too difficult, this rewrite is a must. It is a rewrite in easy to read English which flows naturally with easy prose, making it a pleasure to read.

As much as I enjoyed the original version of Justine, I found the language often hard to follow and heavy. My mind would flick off passages, dwelling on easier to read scenes. Such old English for me is often akin to taking a road with many detours which leaves the mind tired following the detours- with the story lost sometimes in the detours.

This new rewrite by Rex Saviour cuts out the detours, so to say, and at the same time retaining that special flowing prose, so unique of old English. Justine would not be the same without that haunting flavor of old English which makes readers feel they are in that era. It belongs to the genius of Rex Savior that he is able to effect an easier to read English yet losing none of that old English flavor.

Justine is a great read for anyone into the bdsm culture. I would highly recommend the book.

Anyone who thought de Sade inpenetrable is in for a big surprise! Rex Saviour strips away 80% of the philosophy, leaving enough to make de Sade's views on life crystal clear, and takes an axe to all the repetetive passages without losing the cruelty or flavour of the oh so long original. A skillful job of carving an engrossing and highly erotic read out of the somewhat forbidding masterpiece which originated the word 'sadism'.

The letters of the divine Marie have been celebrated for more than three centuries, from her time to ours. It is impossible not to be drawn in to the lost world of le Roi Soleil when you have such a charming companion as your guide. There is an immediacy and sensitivity to her writing that establishes a bond with the reader as palpable today as it was in the 17th century. The Marquise knew everyone and saw practically everything of note in the France of her time, or knew somebody who had seen it. She was a fixture at court, the companion of la Rochefoucauld and Madame La Fayette, saw the plays of Racine and Corneille, and heard the music of Lully. You can read about the trial of Foucquet, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and witness the terrible death of the odious Marquise de Brinvilliers. This Penguin Classics edition by the great Leonard Tancock features wonderful translations but could have done with a few more explanatory notes. And it should have been longer!

One of the great defining moments of 17th century French literature was when Madame de Sevigne's daughter left Paris with her new husband for a life in the provinces. Always the doting mother, Madame de Sevigne began one of the great correspondences in history. The de Sevigne's were important enough to be close to the center of events during the reign of Louis XIV. This status allowed Madame de Sevigne to provide an invaluable record of the days events. But this is not the only reason to read these fascinating letters. Madame de Sevigne was an astute observer of the contemporary scene. She was also great friends with many of the leading cultural figures. These letters show not only the political machinations (Madame de Seigne was once courted by Louis XIV's finance minister Fouquet), but the very vibrant literary and theatrical scene. Anyone wishing to know what day-to-day life was like for the well-to-do in 17th century France should look no further than this book.

How delightful to know that some thoughtful publishing house chose to create a large-print version of the classic moral tale, "120 Days of Sodom" by the divine and instructive author, Marquis de Sade. Nursing homes everywhere would surely benefit from a donation of this philosophical work for their library shelves. And what a wonderful gift for an aging parent! I must recommend this book to anyone who seeks an thorough exploration of all of which man is capable.

My Roommate had this same book last semester in school, but he sold it back to the Bookstore for $30. I had to buy my own copy for $50 and ended up dropping the course. Therefore I never even opened this book that I am selling . . . Take a look . . . thanks, Good Read

Which is writing excellent stories. This 1963 anthology gathers together ten stories, several of which will be well known to Bloch's fans, and a short biographical essay on the author himself by Sam Moskowitz. The ten tales show Bloch's range to good effect. A Matter of Life is a crime/suspense story of a rather unique door-to-door salesman. The Model Bride is a gotcha horror short short, while Broomstick Ride is a "science-fiction" piece about space travellers investigating a planet where magic appears to be quite real. Memo to a Movie Maker is Bloch doing comedy as only he can. The Thinking Cap has a struggling writer gifted with a unique idea generator and The Shoes is a prime example of Bloch's ability to come up with a brilliant twist ending. The Man Who Collected Poe is a story about just that, and was adapted by the author for the horror anthology film Torture Garden (Jack Palance and Peter Cushing starred in that particular story). Bloch obviously drew upon his personal experience with fandom, not to mention his legendary correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft, for The Ghost Writer, which is another excellent story. The Man Who Murdered Tomorrow closes out the piece, and a more fitting finale could not be offered. Any fan of horror, suspense, crime, or science-fiction should immediately search out the stories of Robert Bloch, for he was one of the greats of the 20th century and he should never be forgotten. Highest recommedation.

'Lautreamont and Sade' is a compilation of two essays, each focusing solely upon the titular authors, the Marquis de Sade and the Comte de Lautreamont. While Blanchot's essay on Sade consistently reveals new insight into the work of this controversial deviant philosopher, his examination of Lautreamont (which is considerably longer for reasons obvious to anyone familiar with the two) is the true gem, being a much-needed and all-too-rare analysis of the two books that the enigmatic author wrote before his death at the age of 24: 'Maldoror' and 'Poems.' 'Maldoror' is the work to which the most time is devoted, as it is the more difficult of the two and, according to Blanchot, the first part of a two-part dialectic of good and evil of which the second was the oft-overlooked 'Poems.' 'Maldoror,' which consists of strange, often paradoxical metaphors and off-the-wall symbolism is given its long-overdue tribute here, as Blanchot attempts to give his interpretation of what is often referred to as the first true surrealist novel. He "decrypts" modestly, constantly reminding the reader (and perhaps himself) that 'Maldoror' is ultimately a work that, at the end of the day, speaks for itself in that no one save for the long-dead author himself could possibly explain the method behind the madness. Yet Blanchot still manages to make as much sense of the book as is humanly possible, and in reading the essay one can't help but get the feeling that one is reading the third and final chapter in Lautreamont's epic masterpiece. Highly recommended.