The Corruptible Legacy of the Notorious Marquis de Sade
Sexual depravity and sadism found a welcoming quill amongst the writings of the Marquis de Sade. Debatably, no man has ever suffered more to pursue obsessive sexual perversity. His reputation and appetite for debauchery appeared insatiable. His era during the corrupt reign of Louis XV was an ideal accompaniment.
He was born on June 2, 1740 in the Conde mansion (since destroyed) to the Count and Countess de Sade. Their titles were legitimate and long standing. He was christened by accident with the name Donatien-Alphone-Francois instead of the intended first name Louis. His parents and godparents were absent for his baptismal the day following his birth at Saint Surplice Church. Instead two appointed members of the household replaced them.
Sade enjoyed a conventional upbringing, married, but by twenty-three began experimenting with prostitutes among Paris’ notorious rue Mouffetard. He inherited his father’s estates and rank upon his death at the age of 27. He would continue a predictable pattern of recruiting sex partners, plunging into debt and impregnating his wife. They would have four children together, but he spent little time with his family.
His dissent into sadistic sexual practices kept him frequently in prison and in legal disputes. He experimented with creating literature and even comedic theatre in Marseille. He became known for his erotic writings depicting sexual fantasies with an emphasis on violence. His work stressed absolute freedom unrestrained by conventional morality, religion or law. Many were published anonymously. During a brief stretch of freedom, he was elected to the French National Convention in 1790. He would imprisoned in the Bastille shortly before its destruction.
Napoleon Bonaparte was disgusted by Sade’s writings. He had him arrested and declared insane. By then, Sade was in a pitiful state, broke and divorced. His ex-wife and children had agreed to pay his pension. In 1803, he was transferred to the Charenton Asylum. Six years later, Sade would be placed in solitary confinement and deprived of pens and paper. He died incarcerated on December 2, 1814 at the age of seventy-four.
His birthplace and the majority of his Paris residences have been since destroyed. His writings, once considered unpublishable, resurfaced and were re-examined as censorship laws became relaxed. The sexual revolution of the 1960s made Sade’s work even more accessible and acceptable in some libertine quarters.
He remains a divisive figure of both fascination and revulsion.