Brief Lives: Marquis de Sade

Brief Lives

by David Carter

As explicit in his prose as he was in his private life, the Marquis de Sade remains one of the most controversial writers of all time. This new biography, by the acclaimed translator and author David Carter, promises to shock as much as it informs. Arrested many times for sexual misdemeanors, the Marquis de Sade was imprisoned in the Bastille, where he was writing 120 Days of Sodom and The Misfortunes of Virtue at the time that it was stormed in 1789. After the French Revolution he was again imprisoned and sent to an asylum, where he wrote diaries and plays. This concise biography offers a fresh look at a relentlessly compelling figure with a fascinating life of scandal and imprisonment.

120 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2009

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a challenge writing about the de Sade since the is so much to tell and so much of it needs to be relayed with a sort of delicacy since it is not for everyone's ears. But reading Carter's short biography of the Marquis was enjoyable and studied both sides of the coin regarding the criticism and the praise for de Sade and his works. It is a life worth knowing about.

[Fifi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope. The marquis' life isn't made for this type of book - too brief and too dry. It needs the wetness of sensuality; the lightness of debauchery; air, because de Sade never felt the weight of his action; length because there would be hilarity in amplifying and expanding on the man's repeated debauchery. I know the concept of these series is brevity but it simply doesn't work here.