This book seems to make fun of the Marquis de Sade more than anything else. I justify that statement by referring the reviewer to the puerile drawings and statements that are found throughout this book. To focus on de Sade's pornography is to misunderstand what it is all about. However, this book does give a brief insight into the heart of de Sade's work. Yet for the little it offers, it distracts too much by the author and illustrator trying to be witty, which they completely fail to do (which is a trend with this whole series of books). If you want an insight into de Sade's work or a retracing of the events in his life, pick up a more academic book like a thoroughly researched biography, which exists. The only reason I bought this book is for posterities sake because you cannot find it in a bookstore. Read de Sade's actual stories first, then get an intelligent, "grown-up" version of literary criticism. Do not rely on this book to give you anything other than a headache from its cheap porn-based drawings.

I read this book in preparation for directing a stage production of "Quills", a play based on the Marquis de Sade. Overall, It was worth the money. I had to go a lot further with my studies, but this book was a good primer, because it condensed his life into a quick read. If you just want an opening impression of the man and the myth, I would recommend this book. If you want a more critical analysis of his work you will need to look elsewhere.

I've just completed this book. I do feel it was extremely helpful in providing me with an overall introduction to Sade, and also in helping me to determine whether or not I wish to pursue the man and his writings.

While I consider myself an eclectic freethinker, I don't go in for something "just because" it may be vastly unusual or "off the wall." In short, Sade's sexuality isn't my cup of tea. He seems to presume that his sexuality was easily anyone's cup of tea, given that the characters portrayed in his novels seem to either instantly like to be humiliated and subjected to pain, or that they don't mind one way or the other (yeah, right). Stuart Hood, the author of this book, points out that Sade's descriptions of sexual encounters are "cold and mechanical." Sexuality for many people may be simple fulfillment of lust (nothing wrong with that, btw), but for many others as well there must be a component of affection, tenderness, and warmth (I'm in the latter category). The most peculiar aspect of Sade's sexual attitudes are the seeming misanthropy of it all; it's as if his characters are absolutely hateful and cold schemers, who set about projecting their self-loathing onto others. How would these stories have been viewed if it were animals subjected to these sorts of situations instead of young human females and males?

Most disturbing to me is Sade's justification of murder. If done in a SELF-DEFENSIVE situation, murder can be justified. But Sade seems to have thought that "just plain" murder was okay, as it serves as part of Nature's destructive aspect. While I acknowledge destruction as being part and parcel of the way in which the universe operates (it is the necessary opposite complement of creation), I think Sade confuses Natural Selection with Artificial Selection. In other words, if a lightning bolt strikes a person and kills him, that's Natural Selection. But the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks and murders on the WTC and Pentagon were Artificial Selection -- premeditated murder by humans who made the plan to do it. There is a difference here.

On the other hand, Sade was said to have been horrified by the massacres of the early 1790s, relative to the French political upset at the time. He seemed to decry the senseless butchery, and even assisted in sparing his hated in-laws from the guillotine. If he believed any sort of murder whatsoever was simply part of Nature, one has to wonder why he was disturbed by all the killing around him.

Sade did, at one point, make a stand for female sexual freedom via one of his male novel characters. He asserted a woman's body is hers to enjoy as she likes, and that she needn't be a "slave to her family." On the other hand, most of the victims portrayed in his novels were helpless females. Go figure. I think his early abandonment by his mother was a major element at play in this man's psyche.

This is an interesting book, and I do recommend it. Sade is the most strangely complex person I've ever read about. I hope this review has been helpful for you.

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