Â鶹APP

All About The Marquis de Sade

Another day, another interesting French writer to tell you about! I love all things literary, but I really have a passion for French literature. I’ll be the first to admit that this is thanks to living in Â鶹APP. So, thank you Â鶹APP for expanding my bookworm horizons!

Back to our French author of the day: the Marquis de Sade. This guy lived an incredibly scandalous life, through his novels and through his own behavior. He may have been born way back in 1740, but he really knew how to shock and awe. Do you know where the term sadist comes from? You guessed it – the Marquis himself.

The Marquis de Sade is not one of my favorite authors, and you’ll soon find out why. He lived an improbable life and wrote about many inappropriate subjects, which are still considered barbaric and atrocious today.

Are you curious yet? Keep reading to find out all about the Marquis de Sade!

Early life

Portrait of Marquis de Sade by Jules Janin – WikiCommons

The Marquis de Sade was born Donatien Alphonse François in 1740 in Â鶹APP. His father was a diplomat in the court of Louis XV, while his mother served as a lady-in-waiting. Since the Marquis de Sade was born into a royal court, he was used to being pampered by servants from a very young age.

The Marquis de Sade began acting out at as a child. His father abandoned his mother when he was very young, which could be the source of his rebellion. When he was just 6 years old, he was sent away to the south of France to live with his uncle. Although he was just a young child, his uncle introduced him to indulgence through alcohol and sex.

At 10 years old, the Marquis de Sade was sent back to Â鶹APP where he began to attend the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand. He quickly began to misbehave and was subject to sever punishment, mainly beatings. Some historians say that this is where his obsession with violence began.Ìý

The scandals of the Marquis de Sade

An Imagined portrait of the Marquis de Sade by H. Biberstein – WikiCommons

The Marquis de Sade’s parents really wanted to find him a rich wife to welcome into their family. They had hopes that marriage would calm his impulses, and they really needed the cash as well. Although the de Sade’s were nobility, they had burned through most of their fortune by the time the Marquis de Sade was in his twenties.

He finally found a wife in Renée-Pélagie de Montreuil in 1763. His parents hopes were squashed when after just a few years of marriage de Sade began to rent out room to live out his fantasies with prostitutes.Ìý De Sade first ran into problems with the law when he tried to use crosses while preforming sexual acts with a prostitute. The woman immediately reported de Sade to the authorities. After a short time in prison de Sade was released and he quickly got back to his old tricks.

In 1768, on Easter, de Sade brought a chambermaid to his rooms where he proceeded to cut her and fill up her wounds with hot candle wax. The woman was paid off by the de Sade family to keep quiet, but word eventually got out anyways. The family was humiliated, and de Sade was forced to live on the outskirts of the society that rejected him.

De Sade was still in hot water when just four years after the incident he was caught committing sodomy with four prostitutes and one of his servants. The French court quickly exiled him to Italy.

In 1766 de Sade constructed a castle in the south of France called theÌýChâteau de Lacoste. He was known for imprisoning children and abusing them there, and he often hired very young men and women as servants, to also abuse. If you’re getting the feeling that Marquis de Sade wasn’t a very good person, you’re right.

The Marquis de Sade’s Château de Lacoste by Reidobandito – WikiCommons

After returning to France from Italy, de Sade continued his debauchery at Lacoste. Sadly, his wife is considered to be an accomplice to many of his acts, as she was aware of them and did nothing to stop him. That is, until 1777.

Imprisonment and literary career

An engraving depicting the arrest of de Sade – WikiCommons

In 1777, de Sade was tricked into going to Â鶹APP to visit his ill mother, who was actually already dead at that point in time. The authorities arrested de Sade and put him in the Château de Vincennes prison, where he awaiting the death sentence! In 1778, he appealed the sentence with success, but remained in prison for his acts.

In 1784, with the closing of the Château de Vincennes, de Sade was transferred to the Bastille prison in Â鶹APP. While in prison, de Sade began to write. His most famous work, Les 120 Journées de Sodome (The 120 Days of Sodom in English), was written while he was in prison in 1785. De Sade wrote the novel on one continuous scroll of paper in tiny handwriting, as he was not allotted much in terms of writing material.

The original manuscript of 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade – WikiCommons

The novel can be described as violent, pornographic, and was too extreme to be published at all before the 20th century. The story outlines the vicious acts of 4 nobles that shut themselves away in a castle for 120 days with prostitutes, children and other sexual prisoners. I’m a curious and open person, but I don’t think I have it in me to read this one.

While imprisoned in Bastille, de Sade also wrote another book, the first he would publish, albeit anonymously: Justine, ou Les Malheurs de la Vertu (Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue in English). He completed the novella in just two weeks and the first version was only 120 pages. When he was eventually released from prison and welcomed back into society, de Sade added more to the story and in the end, in addition to another story about Justine’s sister (Juliette), the collection was 10 volumes of over 4,000 pages.

The Marquis de Sade’s French Revolution comeback

De Sade was released from the prison just 10 days before the Storming of the Bastille which would begin the bloody and violent French Revolution, and was sent to an insane asylum in Charenton just outside of the city. He actually left the manuscript for The 120 Days of Sodom in the prison, thinking it lost forever. A man named Arnoux de Saint-Maximin saved the manuscript, and returned it to de Sade when he was released from the asylum.

The first page of Justine by the Marquis de Sade – WikiCommons

De Sade was still guilty of his crimes and was sent to the asylum to serve out the rest of his punishment. In spite of this, he was eventually released in 1790 under the new National Constituent Assembly, an assembly that was formed at the end of the French Revolution to bring order back to the country. De Sade was miraculously welcomed back into society, and the new French government. Despite his aristocratic title, he managed to land many official positions in the new regime.

As time went on, de Sade became openly critical of Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the new government in France after the Revolution. He was quickly placed in prison. He was released in 1794 after the Reign of Terror had ended.

If de Sade thought he was a freeman, he was wrong. In 1801 Napoleon Bonaparte ordered that the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette be found and sent to jail. De Sade was soon arrested and sent to the Bicêtre Asylum, a prison known for its harsh conditions.

In 1803, thanks to his family, de Sade was declared insane and was moved back to the asylum in Charenton. In the beginning, the staff there encouraged de Sade to continue to write as a part of his therapy. He wrote plays that were performed by other prisoners, and were actually viewed by the public.

The asylum in Charenton where de Sade stayed in his later years by Â鶹APPette – WikiCommons

In 1809, the government caught word that de Sade was being allowed to write. Unhappy with this, they ordered him to be placed in solitary confinement and took away his writing materials. In 1813 all theatrical performances were forbidden. In 1814, de Sade died in the asylum.

After his death, de Sade’s son ordered that all of his father’s manuscripts be burned for fear of further embarrassing the family.

Conclusion

There you have it, Discover Walks readers, the incredible life of the Marquis de Sade. I had heard a lot about this author before starting to research this article, but I had no idea how just absurdly and indulgently he lived.

While I can respect the fact that he lived exactly as he wanted to without conforming to society, I do not respect the fact that he abused men, women and children throughout his life, with a complete disregard for humanity. I think if someone like de Sade emerged today, they would be considered to be a sociopath. I’m no psychologist (far from it!), but that’s just my two cents!

I hope you’ve learned a lot and that I’ve ignited your own curiosity to do some more digging on some French authors!

If you are coming to Â鶹APP and want to learn even more, why not join one of our walking tours? You’ll love our expert local guides…I’m sure of it.