The name of the Marquis de Sade is synonymous with
the blackest corners of the human soul, a byword for all
that is foulest in human conduct. In his bleak,
claustrophobic universe, there is no God, no morality,
no human affection, and no hope. Power is given to the
strong, and the strong are murderers, torturers, and
tyrants. No quarter is given; compassion is the virtue
of the weak. Yet Sade was a man of savage intelligence
who carried the philosophy of the French Enlightenment
to its logical extreme. His writings effectively release
the individual from all social and moral constraint: for
many, Sade is the Great Libertarian. The Victorians
considered him 'Divine' and Apollinaire called him 'the
freest spirit'; the Surrealists recognised him as a
founding father, and he is a key figure in the history
of modernism and post-modernism. With Freud and Marx,
Sade has been one of the crucial shaping influences on
this century, and reactions to him continue to be
extreme. But he has always been more talked about than
read.This selection of his early writings, some making
their first appearance in this new translation, reveals
the full range of Sade's sobering moods and considerable
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