Marquis de Sade’s semi–autobiographical protagonist, Monsieur de Franval, is rich, handsome, intelligent, and thoroughly immoral. When he marries a pious woman and fathers a daughter, he is determined to educate his progeny to be “free.” The ultimate proof of his daughter’s unfettered liberty? That she become his secret lover. But when the beautiful and accomplished Eug&#eacute;nie spurns an eligible young bachelor, instead declaring her intention to remain with her father, her naïve and doting mother’s suspicions are at last aroused. Confused and distressed by her daughter’s behavior, Madame de Franval confronts her husband—with tragic results. A challenging and breathtaking masterpiece, Incest is a sober portrait of catastrophe in the midst of excess. French author Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) is best known for his licentious novels and pornographic writings, many of which were penned during his frequent stays in prison and, ultimately, a mental asylum.
]]>Readers will also discover a mind as free as de Sade’s adventures were uninhibited, for he discusses natural evolution 25 years before Darwin’s birth; postulates the existence of the unconscious mind a century before Sigmund Freud; and probes social mores decades before the work of Margaret Mead. He also espouses political ideas that were put into practice by such diverse figures as Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler and Fidel Castro.
Born into French nobility in 1740, Marquis de Sade continues to open minds to new human experience more than 250 years later – in this dramatic new release from Holloway House Publishing.
]]>The Ghosts of Sodom offers a unique insight into the workings of the mind of this aristocratic sadist and literary revolutionary. Sade was 67 years old when he wrote this journal (one in a series of four, two of which have yet to be rediscovered) during his seven years spent at the "hospital-prison." The journal reveals how his days were slow and grim, full of everyday preoccupations, worries about money, nasty quarrels with the people around him-but were also lit up by a final erotic adventure: the last flames of his senile passion. At the Charenton asylum, Sade's death approached, darkening the colors of his life and tearing apart his feelings.
The Ghosts of Sodom also includes a selection of Sade's letters from Charenton, as well as the working notes for his terminal novel The Days of Florbelle.
Still a controversial figure two centuries after his death, the Marquis de Sade is increasingly becoming thought of as a significant voice and a man for our times, rather than simply an aristocratic pervert. During his life, he spent a total of 27 years imprisoned on charges of obscenity as he consistently expounded his philosophies of "libertinage," a manifesto of sexual liberation and dominant theme of his works. Two major feature films based on the life of Sade were released last year.
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