At Home With the Marquis De Sade
Marquis de Sade was educated as a man of letters in France in the 18th century, but lived with a need to shock society as well as a need to gain social approval. He also became well-known for his "round-the-clock ecstasy" in sexual exploits, and if that was not available, he wrote about it.
The Marquis de Sade was born into the French nobility in 1740, a time when noblemen were seldom faithful in marriage. His father was bisexual and his mother had no love for children. Still their son was a handsome lad whom women stopped to stare at. At the age of 14, he became a soldier, and years later, when he received an honorable discharge, the document appraised him as "Deranged, but extremely courageous."
When in his 20s, the marquis married Renee-Pelagie, who became his loving and dedicated wife for some twenty-five years. She was aware of her husband's sexual escapades with young girls or whores. But to Pelagie, he was a warm and talented man, and regardless of his temper and recklessness, he did not deserve 13 years in jail. However, her mother, Madame de Montreuil, believed that jailing the marquis, accused of performing rape and sodomy upon young women, saved their family name.
The marquis escaped from prison several times, even though he was treated as nobility. His wife sent him food, writing material, and a wardrobe of clothes. And during those years, he wrote twenty plays and accumulated over 600 books in his prison library.
In the late 18th century during the French Revolution, Marquis de Sade was freed from jail and became an active citizen leader. In one speech, he renamed the Virgin Mary as the "Galilean Courtesan." And being an atheist, he claimed that "blasphemy is amply justified whenever it is a stimulus to erotic pleasure."
But during these turbulent times, after Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were beheaded and Napoleon came into power, Marquis de Sade's "written words would seal his fate." He was jailed again and spent the rest of his life both in prison and at an asylum, dying at the age of seventy-four.
The most infamous books that the marquis wrote were Justine, Philosophy in the Boudoir, and The 120 Days of Sodom. The only one he disclaimed was Justine, which was somewhat autobiographical.
Francine du Plessix Gray's account of the marquis's life was well-written, although she tests the reader's vocabulary, both in English and French. Her many resources portray the man as a martyr to some people, a misfit to others, but a sexual pervert and madman to most. The many letters he wrote while in prison seem to justify all these opinions.
At Home With the Marquis De Sade was published in 1998. The author contributes articles regularly to The New Yorker.