Sade, << sahd, >> Marquis de (1740-1814), was a controversial French novelist and essayist. His works were considered so obscene that many of them remained unpublished until the mid-1900’s. Today, some people regard Sade as having been insane and his works as offensive. Many others regard him as an often brilliant writer who defied moral conventions.
Donatien Alphonse François Sade was born on June 2, 1740, in Paris. He served as a cavalry officer in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). During his 20’s, Sade began to show signs of being mentally disturbed. He became involved in many scandals over his acts of cruelty and his sexual behavior. Sade spent most of the years from 1768 to 1803 in prison for his writings and his actions. He was placed in an asylum in 1803 and died there on Dec. 2 or 3, 1814.
Sade produced many essays, plays, and short stories, as well as novels. His best-known novels include Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue (1791) and Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795). His 120 Days of Sodom was not published until 1904.
In his writings, Sade tried to show that criminal acts and sexual abnormalities are natural to human behavior. The word sadism comes from his name. Sadism is the enjoyment of cruelty, especially—as in the case of Sade—for sexual arousal. The unconventional aspects of Sade’s writings influenced writers of the surrealism movement of the early 1900’s. His works are often used to illustrate certain theories of abnormal psychology.
