A collection of witty, transgressive tales from the great Enlightenment thinker, best known for his inimitable blend of philosophy and scandalous sexuality
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‘A bawdy burlesque’ Guardian
‘A wonderful introduction to Sade's diversity…among the most accessible of his fiction.’ Literary Review
‘Sade, who seemed to represent nothing throughout the nineteenth century, may well dominate the twentieth.’ Guillaume Apollinaire
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The Marquis de Sade is one of the select group of authors whose name has become an adjective, inspiring the word 'sadism' with his shocking works of philosophical fiction. But for all his scandalous reputation, Sade was a moralist and a philosopher above all, and the stories collected here show him in his full range, using his kinky imagination to poke fun at convention and decry social ills.
In the longer stories, 'Florville and Courval' and 'Eugénie de Franval', we see one of the greatest taboos of all – incest – employed to criticise the corrupt social order of the time. Shorter pieces such as 'The Horse-Chestnut Flower' and 'The Husband Who Played Priest', meanwhile, show Sade's sharp sense of humour at play. This collection reveals France's most infamous libertine as an author whose literary range and psychological insight can still astonish, centuries after he first shocked polite society.
About the author
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) was a French writer and libertine, known for his transgressive yet philosophical works in an astonishing range of genres. Born to great privilege in pre-revolutionary France, he spent much of his life imprisoned for both his scandalous behaviour and his shocking literary output. The acts of depravity he described in works which challenged social convention, such as Justine, Juliette, and The 120 Days of Sodom, gave birth to the word 'sadism' and earned him a place among the select group of authors to inspire an adjective.
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