Marquis de Sade: Selected Writings

An eighteenth-century philosopher and libertine whose name is synonymous with sexual cruelty, the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) was among the first writers to explore the dark, hidden impulses of human nature. The French aristocrat demanded complete sexual freedom and political liberty, and his acts of perversion, criminal depravity, and blasphemy led to his confinement in the Bastille and other prisons. While in jail, he wrote the graphic erotic works that ensured his lasting notoriety and l...