Man Ray's
Portrait imaginaire de D. A. F. de Sade, 1938"Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell, and kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change."
—de Sade, from his
Last Will and Testament
The Marquise de Sade, whose name gave rise to the term sadism, was the most infamous author in French history. de Sade led the scandalous lifestyle of a libertine, spending the majority of his adult life imprisoned for deviant behavior. During his long imprisonment he recounted his crimes of rape and torture in graphic novels and plays that depicted sexual brutality.
"There is a kind of pleasure which comes from sacrilege or the profanation of the objects offered us for worship. . . One must do violence to the object of one's desire; when it surrenders, the pleasure is greater. . . Crime is the soul of lust. What would pleasure be if it were not accompanied by crime? It is not the object of debauchery that excites us, rather the idea of evil."
—de Sade, from
The 120 Days of Sodom
illustrations from a Dutch printing of
Juliette cir. 1789.His crimes included the molestation of Rose Keller—he ordered her to undress, threatened her with a knife, and brutally flogged her before locking her in a room.
Unfortunately for de Sade, she escaped to tell the authorities. Other accusations included poisoning and sodomizing four young girls and a prostitute who resisted the advances of de Sade and his valet Latour. For the latter, he was "condemned to be decapitated. . . and to be burned and his ashes strewn to the wind," but he escaped that fate due to the error of a prison guard who forgot to bring him, as well as several other prisoners, to their executions.
illustrations from a Dutch printing of
Juliette cir. 1789."It has, moreover, been proven that horror, nastiness, and the frightful are what give pleasure when one fornicates. Beauty is a simple thing; ugliness is the exceptional thing. And firey imaginations, no doubt, always prefer the extraordinary thing to the simple thing."
—de Sade, from
The 120 Days of Sodom
Even threats of execution didn't stop de Sade's pursuit of his unusual tastes. Once again, he was subject to accusations of kidnapping young people to "indulge in excesses of every kind." One young maid, Nanon, escaped and told tales of "a thousand horrors" at de Sade's estate of LaCoste. Yet de Sade managed to recruit a young girl from Montpellier to be his cook—Catherine Trillet. Catherine became known at the chateau as Justine. When her father heard of the horrible offenses that befell his daughter, he attempted—but failed—to shoot de Sade. And Catherine
begged not to be sent back to Montpellier.
illustrations from a Dutch printing of
Juliette cir. 1789."If the objects who serve us feel ecstacy, they are much more often concerned with themselves than with us, and our own enjoyment is consequently impaired. The idea of seeing another person experience the same pleasure reduces one to a kind of equality which spoils the unutterable charms that come from despotism."
—de Sade, from
The 120 Days of Sodom
His novels include the infamous "Justine," or "The Misfortunes of Virtue," which he denied authoring but was imprisoned for without trial. "Justine," written in 1791, is the story of a young girl victimized with a variety of cruelties due to her unnaturally innocent and virtuous nature. He also wrote the even more depraved "Juliette," or "The Prosperities of Vice," in 1798. "Juliette" is about Justine's worldy and corrupt sister who lives happily as a prostitute. These both portray de Sade's belief in man's ‘incestuous relationship with nature', in which he has a fundamental need to inflict pain, and by denying these basic instincts man goes against human nature.
"Has not Nature proved, in giving us the strength necessary to submit them to our desires, that we have the right to do so?. . . We are no guiltier in following the primative impulses that govern us than is the Nile for her floods or the sea for her waves."
—de Sade, from
Aline and Valcour
illustrations from a Dutch printing of Juliette cir. 1789.While imprisoned, de Sade was accused of "suffering from the most dangerous of insanities, contact between him and the other inmates posed incalculable dangers, and for as much as his writings are no less demented than his speech and conduct..." He was then taken into seclusion to prevent his communication with others and deprived of pencils, pens, ink, or paper and all books because they "over-heated his head and led him to write unseemly things."
Juliette cir. 1789. 
illustrations from a Dutch printing of"I have supported my deviations with reasons; I did not stop at mere doubt; I have vanquished, I have uprooted, I have destroyed everything in my heart that might have interfered with my pleasure."
—de Sade, from
Aline and Valcour
His other works include 'The 120 Days of Sodom' (or The School for Libertines), which was written after thirty-seven days of work in 1785 while imprisoned at Vincennes fortress on a twelve-meter-long roll of paper. This manuscript was then hidden between the cracks in the walls and not discovered until 1904. Later works consist of `Aline and Valcour' (1795), `Philosophy in the Boudoir' (1795), and `Crimes of Love' (1800). Many other manuscripts including ‘Les Journées de Florbelle', were seized by the police in his room at the Charenton lunatic asylum where he spent most of his remaining days until his death in 1814, after which they where "burned, pillaged, torn up and carried off." His writings were considered obscene and banned well into the 20th century.
"Certain souls seem hard because they are capable of strong feelings, and they sometimes go to rather extreme lengths; their apparent unconcern and cruelty are but ways, known only to themselves, of feeling more strongly than others."
—de Sade, from
Philosophy in the Bedroom
Juliette cir. 1789. 
illustrations from a Dutch printing ofde Sade has become champion to many whom attest that he was more than meerly a depraved pornographer and sadist, but portray him as a philosopher and a celebrated visionary who rejected the constraints of society and challenged every aspect of civilized authority including the church and the government. The life and works of this notorious aristrocrat whose immoral behaviour and obscene writings brought him immortality are well-known today and have even been made into movies such as: Marquis De Sade's Justine (1977), Dark Prince: Intimate Tales Of Marquis De Sade (1997), and biographies about his life such as A&E's Marquis de Sade: The Depraved Aristocrat.
illustrations from a Dutch printing of
Juliette cir. 1789."How delightful are the pleasures of the imagination! In those delectable moments, the whole world is ours; not a
single creature resists us, we devastate the world, we repopulate it with new objects which, in turn, we immolate. The means to every crime is ours, and we employ them all, we multiply the horror a hundredfold."
—de Sade
Bibliography:
1. The Marquis de Sade: The 120 Days of Sodom, and Other Writings. Translated by Richard Seaver and Austryn Wainhouse. New York: Grove Press, 1966.
2. Time Line of the Marquis de Sade:
http://www.drcasey.com/cabinet/timeline/sade.shtml
3. Artchive, Man Ray: Man Ray's Portrait imaginaire de D. A. F. de Sade, 1938:
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/man_ray.html
4. World Museum of Erotic Art: de Sade:
http://www.opkamer.nl/amea/members/sade.htm
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