Adelaide of Brunswick

by Marquis de Sade, Hobart Ryland (Translator)

English (translation)

Genres: Fiction

168 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1812

About the author

A preoccupation with sexual violence characterizes novels, plays, and short stories that Donatien Alphonse François, comte de Sade but known as marquis de Sade, of France wrote. After this writer derives the word sadism, the deriving of sexual gratification from fantasies or acts that involve causing other persons to suffer physical or mental pain.

This aristocrat, revolutionary politician, and philosopher exhibited famous libertine lifestyle.

His works include dialogues and political tracts; in his lifetime, he published some works under his own name and denied authorship of apparently anonymous other works. His best erotic works combined philosophical discourse with pornography and depicted fantasies with an emphasis on criminality and blasphemy against the Catholic Church. Morality, religion or law restrained not his "extreme freedom." Various prisons and an insane asylum incarcerated the aristocrat for 32 years of his life: ten years in the Bastile, another year elsewhere in Paris, a month in Conciergerie, two years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, three years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie, and 13 years in the Charenton asylum. During the French revolution, people elected this criminal as delegate to the National Convention. He wrote many of his works in prison.

Reviews

[Roderick Brunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s quite a pleasure to read the work of such a gifted artist. This is one of the lesser known tales of de Sade, though I can’t understand why; as it’s every bit as good as his more popular efforts.
My fascination with human nature always peaks when I consider the variation in which society at large perceives true genius and in turn responds to it. Take Donatien Alphonse François and Albert Einstein; an ideal comparison of two singular minds. The latter utilized his ‘gift’ specifically for society. In turn, the ultimate horror of his enduring ‘contribution’ has yet to reach its full manifestation, an impact on Humankind I shutter to think about. Still, the masses elevate him as a person to be admired by all and when possible emulated. While the former, pursued his natural endowment and honed it to an art form, for his own personal satisfaction and utilization. In turn, he was branded a madman and prosecuted by the masses, being placed as an individual, somewhere between Jack the Ripper and Adolph Hitler.
Well, there you have it – the skewed and foundationally inconsistent, or rather I should say perverse, nature of Humankind. None of which, can take away an iota from this little opus or the natural genius of its penner.

[Aman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The one who lives by himself must have nothing to fear from himself.