Sade, Donatien-Alphonse-François, count de

(1740-1814)

(marquis de Sade)

   writer

   Born in Paris, Donatien-Alphonse-François, count de sade (or the marquis de sade as he is better known), is best recognized for his erotic works. After spending a number of years in the military, he married Renée Pelagie de Montreuil (1763) and succeeded his father as lieutenant general of several provinces (1764). His libertinage, in part seen as an aristocratic privilege, increased and, in 1768, he was sentenced to prison and fined 100 livres following a morals scandal. After imprisonment for debt (1771), a new scandal broke, connected with an orgy in Marseille (1772). Sade and his servant were condemned to death for contempt and the marquis was finally incarcerated in the fortress of Moilans, from which he escaped in 1775. Recaptured in Paris, he was imprisoned at vincennes (1777). After another escape, he was caught and jailed until 1778. subsequently, he was imprisoned at various places, including the bastille (until July 4, 1789). During the revolution of 1789, Sade divorced and again served in the military. in 1791, he published L'Adresse d'un citoyen de Paris au roi des Français, as well as Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu and produced Oxtiern ou les Effets du libertinage (1791, published 1797). Arrested as a moderate by the Committee of Public safety, his life was saved by the fall of maximilien Robespierre. In 1795, he published La Philosophie dans le boudoir, then, in 1797, La nouvelle Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu, suivie del l'Histoire de Juliette, sa soeur, better known as Juliette ou les Prospérities du vice. imprisoned in 1801 at Saint-Pélagie, then moved to Bicêtre after having seduced some inmates, he was finally put in the insane asylum at Charenton, where he died, receiving a religious burial against his wishes as stated in his will. His other writings include Les Journées de Florbelle ou la Nature dévoyée (1804), a work seized by the police, Adélaïde de Brunswick, princesse de Saxe (1812, published 1964), and L'Histoire secrète d'Isabelle de Bavière (1813, published 1953). As a materialist poet, Sade must be read in the context of all the philosophic literature of the 18th century. Radically subversive, he questioned all systems of authority but stands apart from other libertine writers of the age because of his emphasis on violence more than pleasure, hence the term sadism.