Marquis de Sade Books

The name "Marquis de Sade", has marked itself in the English language and few know why. He is a writer who is "...more talked about than read." However, after reading this text on the controversial author, the reader gets a more realistic view on who this man was and why he is controversial.

Margaret Crosland intertwines Sade's work with her own analysis and provides background and rationale behind his logic. Of course, there are several passages that can be quite stimulating (and just plain gross). However depraved you may think Sade is (and this is speaking from an avid researcher of his work) the value in de Sade's writing comes from your reaction to his work.

Bravo to Crosland for giving us an objective viewpoint into de Sade!

"Philosophy In the Bedroom" is probably the goriest, most sexually graphic thing I've ever read, yet strangely arousing, I was actually putting myself in Eugenie's place at some moments. In an age were we are bombarded with sexual innuendo all day every day, Sade figuratively shoves our faces in it and blasts away every taboo possible. No wonder this caused such a stir in the late 1700's; it's amazing Sade wasn't burned at the stake, but he is proven immortal because his shocking stories are still titilating readers' true carnal natures centuries later. This book should rightfully be seen as a classic, while it was once the most forbidden pornography. It's still pornography, but porography that tells some philosophical truths about unrestrained human nature. If you are not squeamish, religious, or faint of heart, I recommend it.

SdB wrote a book on Sade entitled Faut-il Bruler Sade? (Must We Burn Sade), and the title of this collection comes from hers. Sade is a great concern among the French left. Somehow they think that he is an important moralist (this is how SdB closes her book on him, and why she says we mustn't burn him, but must read him, and hold him close to our hearts).

I've read a lot of Sade's work, and a lot of this collection, but am left wondering whether once you dispense with God, whether this is all that's left.

Feminism has always struck me as institutionalized sadism. It burns men, and destroys them. This is the essence of it. Sade is a great justifier of acts as he puts a moral spin on what is the equivalent of getting fun out of hurting other people.

Women in recent years have turned towards Sade as a great explicator and justifier. This is why men on average are living five years less than women. It is all the things they do to us, and have always done, but that are now institutionalized. The feminist-sadist guru is Simone de Beauvoir, who loves the Marquis de Sade, and considers him to be a great moralist.

Read this book and smell the burning flesh of the concentration camps of the universities, the high schools, and the elementary schools. Sadism is the centerpiece of the left, and the very centerpiece of feminism. It is the black heart at the center of all the piety and self-importance, a black hole of rage that gets satisfaction through the humiliation, torment, and destruction of men and boys.

That a professor of philosophy should write a book on de Sade, an author decried by the prudish and dismissed as tedious and twisted by those who fail to engage themselves with his philosophical concerns, is without doubt a step forward for the arts. Airaksinen argues in particular detail concerning such matters as anti-ethics, the meaning of perversion, political implications and literary style, and in so doing makes de Sade's concepts accessible to those of us who have never been able to read an entire volume. The mixture of informal, Americanised English and highly technical philosophical terminology can wrong-foot the reader on occasions, but Airaksinen's own theories and the source material he has assembled make for a very valuable read. W.Hoban

Wonderful! The best, most readable book I have read by Barthes, and the best work I have read on Sade. Full of humor and insight with lots of savory biographical tidbits. The startlingly *natural* juxtaposition of Loyola, Fourier and Sade is cool and casual, not at all forced, and all the more remarkable for that. I read this in one sitting. You should too.

Worth searching for, this is up there with more well-known books by Pierre Klossowski, Roland Barthes or even George Bataille. Le Brun has an interesting mind.

Moore provides a quick tour on Sade's perspective in a very objective and comprehensive tone. The end of the book is devoted to therapeutics: form sadistic behavior to Sadeian perspective.
You have to be familiar either with sadomasochism or Sade's work to take the most of the book, as it doesn't provide easy answers. Though, this is one of the most empathetic works I'd ever read. In a theme commonly catalogued and limited as a sexual perversion, the text enables honest, practical discussion.

Over the years the Grand Marquis has been receiving a pretty bad rap. Has he been misunderstood? What Thomas Moore shows in this book is that without the dark side we would not have the bright side, the light. There is a purpose for the dark; it can be both instructive and healing. If you plan on reading anything by de Sade, read this book first. If you are a firm believer that everything is black or white, good or bad, this book might change the way you think. And isn't that what books are for?

For now, i would only like to thank you for your insight into the Marquis De Sade and i have not read the recommended book yet. Suffice it to say i was about to slip back into the depravity he has gifted us with. I am into bondage and sadomasochism and i've recently seen the movie "Quills". It gave me the thirst again....for the perversion and depravity of the mind...for the pain and the pleasure intermingled. I was searching for anything ABOUT the Marquis.....but i started to get drawn into the ones BY the Marquis. Until i saw your review, and i wanted to say thank you for that. Because, now i will start the research with the recommended book and post my review. I have a feeling you've helped me tremendously, how much you may never know.

Mention the word "sadism" and the results it produces will vary from an embarrassed Victorian blush to righteous indignation that such things should exist at all, not to mention it being a topic for discussion among proper and civilized human beings. Yet to Thomas Moore, a former monk and Jungian analyst and writer, it is precisely this topic that needs to be explored mentally, even spiritually, in order to prevent it from erupting into anti-social, or even criminal acts in the flesh.

Examining the writings of the infamous Marquis de Sade, Moore delves into the healing role of de Sade that digs deeper than the surface appearance of de Sade as pornographer to find value in what is cursorily dismissed as naught but tasteless perversion. According to Moore's analysis of de Sade's writing, the virgin needs the libertine to complement her chastity, as much as he needs her pristine purity to define who he is.

Yet, a deeper understanding of Moore's treatise on de Sade reveals that wholeness is the object of the soul's journey, and that experiencing the self as holy--at the expense of being whole-- unjustly deprives the psyche of its completion. He believes that every human being should be in touch with his Sadean side-- at least mentally-- for human potential not explored is what cripples the soul. Just as there is no stick that has but one end, human potential and creativity must at least acknowledge, without necessarily favoring, the dark side of the psyche so that it's full complexity can be known and appreciated. For Moore, as well as for de Sade, the perverse side of the personna that is forbidden to manifest itself mentally becomes the powerful driving force for enactment in the psycho-socially mal-adjusted person.

It is perhaps society's denial of our own dark eros that enrages and offends most when we see it demonstrated in others, for that denial surely perverts any attempt at self-knowledge, and forces the soul to assume a posture of balance and completeness that is false,lame, and ultimately unhealthy. Moore hints that without personal aknowledgment of the darker depths of our psyches, as de Sade so blatantly illuminates, we cannot hope to soar to our greatest heights, for what we resist persists, and the chains of denial keep us tethered to terra firma instead of flying the limitless skies of our Divinity.

This book is not a quick read, nor is it for the judgmental or faint of heart. It requires time, and a certain willingness examine our own depths, not favoring the dark, forbidden aspects of our psyche, but rather admitting that a Sadean dark eros lies hale and hearty within us all, waiting to be revealed to honest introspection for spiritual growth through courage of heart.

Thomas Moore's "Dark Eros" has a clear agenda to achieve -- to show that Sade was a genius who saw the reality of the human mind and emotional needs. Unfortunately this agenda clouds his logic at times and limits the quotations and questions he addresses in his book. If you haven't read Sade yourself, please do so before you get this book then judge the comments and theories promoted in this book. This is not to say that Moore analysis is poor or completely incorrect, just that by being so focused on finding the genius in Sade and the sadism in everyday life he is blinded to historical and gender questions and evidence to answer these questions.

Yes, I've read "Justine" and "Juliette" and a plethora of other de Sade odds and ends, but this collection was true enjoyment. I think Donatien should have kept to short stories; these tales are priceless, devoid of the boring repitition of his novels; and ripe with evidence of self-supressed talent. I was mystified as to why he didn't apply this flare in "Justine" and "Juliette". A real shame, le Marquis.

the book is kinda boring if you've already read his more explicit novels.i started out w/juliette,so the mytified magisrtate is vanilla compared to his other novels,but for those who just want a peek,i recommend this book to the fulliest.but for those who want ot jump feet first into sadism,read the 120 days of sodom.

This was an excellent collection of some of De Sade's shorter works. The stories are quite funny and nice for a lite reading of Sade. I highly recommend this to those who dare not venture into some of his other more explicit works, but also to those who are looking to round out their Sade readings.

If you like this, or if you found it too mild, i highly recommend the 120 Days of Sodom and Justine, both fantastic books.

This is a fantastic collection of short stories. "Fraternal Cruelty," was probably my favorite "dramatic" story in the collection, and looks like it could be the basis for an Academy Award winning short film. "Love's Strategy," was interesting, I guess, and "The Teacher's Philosopher," was another strange one. "The Gascon Wit," was hilarious. These stories are for the most part easy to read, very funny, very dramatic, and at times exhilarating.

Although the Marquis De Sade was harshly judged for his works, people of this day and time shoud have more of an open mind. Napoleon burned De Sades books in outrage, and although our consitution is based on the Napoleonic code....we have freedom a speech and press. All of De Sade's writings can be taken librally but one does need an open mind. This book is sexually explicit as are practically all of his writings. But for those with a open mind....and no children looking over their shoulder, it is a wonderful read.

The poor Marquis has such a terrible reputation, having his own sexual disorder named after him and all, but behind all the hoopla lies a sharp, dark wit.

Imprisoned by his mother-in-law for 14 years under a lettre de cachet, 29 years in prison total, these letters to his wife uncover a very different sort of man than you would imagine. In here you will find his obsession for counting, mood swings, his search for himself, and his sexual obsessions. More importantly herein lies his philosophy and development as a writer, and a strength of spirit.

"Either kill me or take me as I am, because I'll be damned if I ever change..." -- De Sade

The letters that make up this volume, written by the infamous Marqus de Sade, show more about the man himself in terms of his daily thinking than he his erotic fictions ever could. Whereas his fiction is born of his imagination, what he writes here are his own opinions and ideas of his life and his surroundings.

He writes frequently to his wife from prison and has what I think of it as, a scathingly dark sense of humor about it all. If your already a devote fan of the Marquis or just a curious reader, (then even before you pick up his own works, I would recommend reading this first to get an idea of the man) then you should find this collection of curious correspondence to your liking.

I have read many things about the Marquis de Sade and I've also read his erotic stories, but this book shows a whole different side of the man with the dark sense of humor and off-kilter philosophies. Letters from Prison is a memoir of sorts -- a series of letters, entries and overall views on his life and things in general. His letters to his wife are especially insightful. The reader gets to know the Marquis on a more personal level, without his rather interesting erotic fiction standing in the way. What transpires is an interesting book that explores a more human side to the Marquis de Sade, a side that is seldom mentioned in biographies.

I recommend this book to those who have devoted time to reading various biographies based on this unique man's life. This is something far more personal than anything you could ever read about the Marquis. And the fact that he wrote these letters and entries from prison makes them all the more riveting. You cannot help but appreciate the complexity of his mind and wonder if he was an evil genius or just a philosopher with a penchant for controversy.

Annie LeBrun, perhaps better known for being a self-described hermaphrodite than a scholar, has provided the sort of critical review which the Marquis de Sade and his writings have not received since Guillaume Apollinaire branded him "the divine Marquis." In recent years, criticism about Sade has been limited to comments such as "boring," "repetitive", and "predictable". Rather than attempting to justify Sade to the critics who use such subjective adjectives to dismiss Sade both as a writer and philosopher, LeBrun ignores the critics and stakes out new, although also subjective, territory of her own. It is literary criticism with personality, a much-overlooked genre, as she suggests new theories concerning Sade's masterpiece _The 120 Days of Sodom_, and tries to look, unflinchingly, into the abyss through the eyes of the very, very human Marquis.

Annie Le Brun is clearly the most thoughtful and honest interpreter of the Marquis de Sade extant. Beyond all the other books written on Sade during these past several decades, SADE: A SUDDEN ABYSS not only provides a cogent vision of Sade, how he worked and why he wrote his many books and plays, but explains why we moderns have had such a difficult time in accepting him for what he expressed -- not what critics too often impune that he expressed. With Annie Le Brun we now have a vehicle to return to Sade and to read him, not so much without preconception, but by way of recognizing whatever preconceptions we throw up so as to obscure our enounter with him. The title to Le Brun's book is also precise to its intent -- to open up, for anyone who dares to read him thoroughly, the moral abyss of a world he attacked with such vehemence, erotism, irony and humor, and which remains our world. SADE: A SUDDEN ABYSS is book of intelligence and courage. If you are at all interested in Sade or, more generally, in the relationship of thought to the body, I urge you to read Annie Le Brun's SADE: A SUDDEN ABYSS.

The difficulty of coming to a view of Sade is that he represents several things of widely different value. (1) As a man who routinely victimized people less powerful than himself, he deserves contempt. (2) To the extent that he suffered as a result of what he wrote, he deserves sympathy. (3) As a litmus test for intellectual freedom, he continues to challenge us today. (4) Sade's Crimes of Love, which includes a brief preface considering the history and theory of the novel, shows him to be a student of fiction and a practitioner who, though perhaps not of the first rank, can write entertaining stories; in this mode, he deserves respect.

Possibly taking for granted that the reader knows all about the first mode, and admiring him in the second and third, Annie Le Brun gives him passionate, perhaps excessive, praise in the fourth.

Le Brun presents Sade as driven to search for the truth, however politically incorrect, about human motives and human relations. He goes the Enlightenment one better: not content with his contemporaries' unmasking of the deceptions of religion, he proceeds to unmask their backstops in economics, convention, public opinion, ideology, law, and government.

In A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume declares with straightforward good humor that reason is the servant of the passions and can never be anything else. Sade plays out the implications of seeing this, and those of refusing to see it: everything that happens in the human world is driven by the personal desires (acknowledged or disguised) of the people involved, plus chance--but we are surrounded by constant efforts to wrap veils of hypocrisy around this fact.

Sade is out to cut those veils away. He insists that we are a part of, not above, nature. He focuses on sex as the field of our most powerful, and most veiled, desires. Through literary means ranging from philosophical discourse to shock therapy, he wants to make us face the reality of the physical world (and the reality of our own wishes) and reject the high-sounding abstractions that issued, before Sade's eyes, in the free use of the guillotine. Le Brun notes that Sade opposed capital punishment, at considerable risk to his own head. (To suggest the kind of argument he might have made: when a government denies its citizens the right to kill but claims that right for itself, it is claiming to stand above the people--when in fact it is a creature of the people and its "moral authority" is only power, the combination of majority rule and force.)

For Le Brun, Sade's mission is to free us to face the facts of spontaneous, individual human desire and its fate in the world of nature. This drive to clarity makes him a worthy member of a tradition that includes Machiavelli, La Rochefoucauld, Nietzsche, Freud, Rimbaud, and the surrealists. We might also add Stanley Milgram, whose book Obedience to Authority shows how fragile is the veneer of enlightened morality in the life of everyday people.

Le Brun considers earlier critics of Sade, pointing out how they shy away from, or bury under "blind erudition," certain aspects of his work. She herself occasionally falls into obscurity, and the translation suffers a bit from lack of close proofreading. But these flaws are minor beside the surprises and insights that appear on nearly every page. The book makes a passionate, if not entirely convincing, case for Sade as one of the greatest French writers, one whose challenge those who want to live without veils must face. It gets five stars, not because it is necessarily right, but because it is the work of a writer for whom writing is life itself.