Marquis de Sade: His Life and Works

by Dr Iwan Bloch, Dr Iwan Bloch

A detailed, analytical study of the life and times of this brilliant but bizarre personality (and the sexually erotic times he lived in), containing the essence of all his writings, based on research by Bloch in private archives of the French Government, and Bloch's discovery of de Sade's unpublished manuscript of 120 Days of Sodom in Marseilles. The work contains a precis of the 120 Days of Sodom, the first attempt systematically to catalog and describe abnormal sexual behavior -100 years before Krafft-Ebing. A serious academic study of France during de Sade's time, its sexual morality, de Sade's works, and the role of sadism in literature, etc., this biography precedes de Beauvoir's Faut-il Brule de Sade? and began the resuscitation and modern study of De Sade. The author Iwan Bloch, a German physician, won a distinguished name in the world of science in the fields, of medical history and anthropology.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, France

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1931

Reviews

[Matthew Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, many-angled introduction to de Sade. Bloch admits he is something of an apologist for the Marquis as he attempts to explain the culture of de Sade's France, how it could have produced such an amazing creature. It turns out de Sade, who seems to us of somewhat unusual tastes, was not quite so unique among his fellow eighteenth century French. De Sade was only really giving a colorful picture of what he himself called, "the age of complete corruption."

[Vane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante análisis.
Por otro lado es curiosos leer a Sade desde el punto de vista de un conservado. Por cierto, sera error de traducción, o edición que ...confunde "homosexualidad" con "pedofilia".

[Jesse Winslow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll sum up my feeling with a quote from the book.

"The gross debaucheries and atrocious cruelties are covered with a resplendent mental veil because of the systematic exposition of the philosophic principles in all fields of vice. Its justification by logical method as well as by precepts and examples only makes vice more horrible in effect, both for degenerate and normal beings"-Iwan Bloch