Marquis de Sade: Celebrating sexual freedom and violence. Marquis de Sade

A man of ill repute, the Marquis de Sade had no qualms about turning the world inside out. Combining philosophical speculation with pornography, the writer depicted sexual fantasies in his works, with particular emphasis on violence, criminality and blasphemy against the Catholic Church. His name led to the birth of such words as "sadism" and "sadist"...

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was born in Paris, at the Chateau de Caudet, on June 2, 1740. His education was carried out by his uncle and teachers of the Jesuit Lyceum. While building his military career, de Sade served in a dragoon regiment and took part in the Seven Years' War. In 1763, he began courting the daughter of a wealthy magistrate, whose father opposed the wedding, but arranged a marriage with his eldest daughter, Rene-Pélagie Cordier de Montreuil. In 1766, the Marquis celebrated the opening of a private theater in his castle and survived the death of his father.

For many years, de Sade's descendants denounced his life and work as a terrible disgrace that needed to be covered up. This attitude did not change until the mid-20th century, when Count Xavier de Sade restored the title of Marquis, long out of use, on his business cards. He also showed a special interest in the “divine marquis,” legends about which were a taboo topic in the Xavier family. Many manuscripts of the libertine freethinker are in universities and libraries, others disappeared without a trace in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of his father's works were destroyed at the instigation of his son Donatien-Claude-Armand.

De Sade led a free and scandalous existence, repeatedly purchasing prostitutes for cruel pleasures and sexually exploiting his workers, men and women, at his castle in Lacoste. He was accused of blasphemy, a serious crime at the time. He had an affair with Anna Prosper, his wife’s sister, and his mistress lived right in his castle. Several prostitutes complained of abuse by Donatien, and the police began surveillance of the sadistic aristocrat. He was arrested several times short terms, including being kept in the castle of Saumur, until in 1768 they were taken into custody in his own castle in Lacoste.

The first serious scandal broke out at Easter in 1768, when de Sade paid for the sexual services of the beggar widow Rose Keller, who approached him for alms. He tore off the woman's clothes, threw her on the sofa and tied her hands and feet. The Marquis whipped his victim, poured hot wax over the wounds and beat Rose. The process was repeated in a circle seven or eight times until the poor thing was able to escape from him through the window.

In 1772, an unpleasant episode occurred in Marseille. De Sade and his lackey Latour went up to the room where there were several prostitutes, according to the protocol, who had anal sex and flagellation with the Marquis. They were not fatally poisoned by candies with Spanish fly (at that time considered an aphrodisiac harmful to health), as was later another girl whom the Marquis offered to engage in sodomy.

The victims turned to the police with stomach pain, and the culprits were sentenced to death in absentia. Donatien was to be beheaded, Latour was to be hanged. The criminals managed to escape to Italy, where the Marquis also took his wife’s sister. The men were caught and imprisoned in the Miolan fortress at the end of 1772, from where they escaped four months later.

Subsequently, taking refuge in Lacoste, de Sade was reunited with his wife, who became an accomplice in his actions. He kept a group of young workers, most of whom complained of sexual abuse and left the owner. The Marquis was forced to take refuge in Italy again. During a quiet period, he wrote the book "Voyage d" Italie". In 1776, upon returning to Lacoste, the dissolute philosopher took up his old ways. In 1777, the father of one of the employees hired by de Sade went to the castle with demands to give him his daughter and tried shoot at the marquis at point blank range. The weapon misfired.

In the same year, Donatien, under the pretext of visiting his sick mother, who in fact had long since died, went to Paris. His

detained and imprisoned in the castle of Vincennes. The Marquis successfully appealed his death sentence in 1778, but remained in custody under a writ of extrajudicial arrest (lettre de cachet). The repeat offender escaped again and was caught again. He resumed his writing and met another slave, Count Mirabeau, who also covered his pages with erotic prose. Despite the common interest, the relationship between the men ended in fierce hostility.

In 1784, Vincennes prison closed and de Sade was transferred to the Bastille. On July 2, 1789, he reportedly shouted to the crowd on the street from his cell, “They are killing prisoners here!”, sparking a riot. Two days later he was taken to a psychiatric hospital in Charenton, near Paris. A few days later, the main event of the French Revolution began - the storming of the Bastille.

In 1785, de Sade literally wrote the novel “120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Debauchery” in just a month, about four rich debauchees who decided to experience the highest sexual bliss through orgies. The immoral experiment ends in sophisticated torture and general murder. A free adaptation of the novel, "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom" from 1975, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, takes us to the fascist republic of Salò, in 1944.

In 1790, the Marquis was released from the psychiatric hospital after the new Constituent Assembly abolished extrajudicial arrests. De Sade's wife received a divorce. While free, Donatien, starting in 1790, anonymously published several of his books. He met the abandoned Marie Constance Renel, a former actress and mother of a six-year-old son, and remained with her for the rest of his life.

An angry mob destroyed and plundered de Sade's estate in Lacoste in 1789, causing him to move to Paris. In 1790, he was elected a member of the National Convention, where he represented the extreme left sector. Donatien wrote several pamphlets calling for the implementation of direct voting. There are suggestions that he was a victim of mistreatment at the hands of his fellow revolutionaries due to his aristocratic background.

In 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the imprisonment of the anonymous author of the provocative novels Justine, or the Miserable Fate of Virtue and Juliette, or the Successes of Vice. De Sade was arrested at his publisher's office and imprisoned without trial. From the first place of detention, where Donatien allegedly tried to seduce young inmates, he was transferred to the harsh fortress of Bicêtre.

In 1803, De Sade was declared insane and transferred to an asylum in Charenton. His ex-wife and the children agreed to pay for his maintenance. Marie Constance Renel was allowed to live with him. The head of the asylum allowed the Marquis to stage several plays in which prisoners became actors, for the amusement of the Parisian public. In 1809, by new order, de Sade was placed in solitary confinement and his writing instruments and paper were taken away.

The lustful philosopher entered into a sexual relationship with 14-year-old Madeleine Leclerc, the daughter of an employee in Charenton. The affair lasted about four years, until de Sade’s death in 1814. In his will, the Marquis forbade his body to be opened, ordered it to be kept in a cell untouched for 48 hours, and then placed in a coffin and buried. His skull was removed from the grave for phrenological examination.

The Marquis de Sade recognized only the division into rulers and masters. Denied the existence of God and moral norms and rules. Admitted murder the best way resolving issues with overpopulation and lack of resources. Finally, he considered cruel and vile desires to be natural, basic elements of human nature

Sade Donatien Alphonse François de (1740–1814), French marquis, writer; eponym of sadism.

Born June 2, 1740 at the Chateau de Condé in Paris. Sade's ancestry goes back to the semi-legendary Laura de Noves (c. 1308–1348), lover of the Italian poet Petrarch, who married Count Hugo de Sade around 1325. According to early historical chronicles, all of Sade's male ancestors bore the title of count. However, his grandfather Gaspard François de Sade began to call himself the Marquis. Father - Jean Baptiste Francois Joseph de Sade (? - 1767), officer and diplomat; at one time he was the French envoy to Russia. From the surviving police reports it follows that Sade’s father was detained in the Tuileries Garden for “immodest pestering of young people.” Mother - Maria Eleonore de Maille de Carman, a distant relative and maid of honor of the Princess of Condé.

As a child, Sad suffered from a lack of parental attention. He studied at the Jesuit College of Louis the Great. On May 24, 1754 he entered the Royal Guard. During the Seven Years' War he rose to the rank of cavalry captain (captain). By all accounts, he had the ability to achieve his goals at any cost. Already in his youth he enjoyed a bad reputation as a person who did not recognize the norms of generally accepted morality. By his own admission: “... it seemed to me that everyone should give in to me, that the whole world was obliged to fulfill my whims, that this world belonged only to me.”

In 1763 Sad retired. At the insistence of his parents, he married Renée Pélagie de Montreuil, daughter of the president of the Supreme Court of Taxation. The wedding took place on May 17, 1763 in the Church of Saint Roch in Paris. The family had three children: Louis Marie (b. 1767), Donatien Claude Armand (b. 1769) and Madeleine Laura (1771). In all likelihood, Renee Pelagie knew very well about her husband’s vicious inclinations, but could not or did not want to prevent them.

Marital ties did not at all limit Sade's freedom of action. It is known about his connections with best friend wife Colette, actress La Beauvoisin, etc. In his country house, Sad organized group orgies with prostitutes and commoners whom he picked up on the streets of Paris.

He was repeatedly accused of abusing his casual partners. On October 29, 1763, Louis XV ordered an investigation into the accumulated complaints. A half-month imprisonment in the royal prison of Vincennes did not bring Sade to his senses. Later, he continued to engage in his sexual experiments and spent a total of about thirty years behind bars.

On April 3, 1768, the widow Rose Keller contacted the gendarmerie, asking for alms on the occasion of Easter in Victoria Square. She stated that Sade subjected her to spankings and sexual assault for several days. A loud scandal broke out, agitating the entire society. Wanting to avoid further publicity, the gendarmerie inspector sent Sade to the family castle of La Coste in the south of France in Provence.

In the summer of 1772 in Marseille, four girls of easy virtue aged 18 to 23 became victims of de Sade. Together with his servant Armand Latour, Sade flogged the girls with a whip and then forced them to have anal sex. After several hours of continuous torture, the prostitutes became ill: they began to have convulsions and uncontrollable vomiting. Sade hastily fled to Italy, fearing severe punishment: in France, the sin of Sodomy was punishable by burning at the stake. French justice had to be satisfied that on September 12, 1772, the executioner burned the effigies of Sade and his lackey in one of the central squares of Aix.

In the winter of 1777, the police tracked down and arrested Sade in Paris, where he had come to say goodbye to his terminally ill mother. Sad was kept in the Vincennes prison.

While behind bars, Sade was actively engaged in literary creativity. He created a number of works in a variety of genres: the plays “Dialogue between a priest and a dying man” (“Dialogue entre un pretre et un moribond”, 1782); “Philosophy in the Boudoir” (“La Philosophie dans le boudoir”, published in 1795); “The One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom” (“Les 120 Journees de Sodome, ou l’Ecole de libertinage”, 1784); the novels “Aline et Valcour” (“Aline et Valcour; ou, Le Roman philosophique”, 1785–88, published 1795); “Crimes of Love” (“Les Crimes de l’Amour”, published 1800); “Short stories, novellas and fabliaux” (“Historiettes, contes et fabliaux”, published 1927); “Justine or the Misfortunes of Virtue” (“Justine ou les malheurs de la vertu”, 1787); “Juliette” (“Juliette”, 1798), etc. In addition, Sade wrote several dozen philosophical essays, political pamphlets, etc.

The long stay in prison affected the health and character of Sade. According to eyewitnesses, he gained a lot of weight, became irritable and intolerant of other people's opinions. On February 29, 1784, S. was transferred to the Bastille, where he was kept until the Great French Revolution. On July 2, 1789, from the window of his cell, he loudly called for help: “Prisoners are being killed here!” For his daring act, Sade was sent to the Charenton psychiatric hospital near Paris.

Sade was liberated on March 29, 1790. He furiously attacked representatives of the monarchist nobility, wrote several pamphlets against Marie Antoinette, Princess T. Lamballe, Duchess de Polignac and others. He renounced the title of nobility and in official papers called himself Citizen Sade. July 9, 1790 divorced his wife; then he accused her aristocratic parents in a tribunal. Sade's new friend was Marie Constance Quesnet, a former actress and single mother of a six-year-old son.

For more than three years, Sad successfully played the victim political regime. He achieved the production of his plays on the Parisian stage. The pinnacle of Sade's revolutionary career was his election to the National Convention. However, vigilant deputies suspected him of connections with emigration. He tried unsuccessfully to regain trust by praising the merits of J.P. Marat. On December 8, 1793, Sade ended up in Madlonette prison, where he spent about ten months. During the period of the Jacobin Terror, Sade escaped the guillotine only because of bureaucratic delays. He was released in the summer of 1794, after the execution of M. Robespierre.

In 1796, the Garden was forced to sell the La Coste castle, which had been plundered during the revolution. The first consul of the French Republic, Napoleon Bonaparte, did not like Sade. Perhaps he suspected him of authoring an anonymous novel about the adventures of his first wife Josephine. Sade's works were confiscated, his finances were completely ruined, and his health was severely damaged. Having no other refuge, on March 5, 1801, the Garden entered the Sant Pelagie shelter. He constantly violated the regime and exhibited compulsive sexual activity. The commission of doctors of the Bicêtre hospital recognized him. insane.

On April 27, 1803, S. was transferred to the Charenton hospital. For about six years he enjoyed the patronage of the hospital confessor, the Abbé de Coulmier. He organized something like a hospital theater, the performances of which were attended by a free public. According to recollections, Sade performed the roles of villains wonderfully. He walked freely around the territory, communicated with visitors and even received M. K. Kusnet in his cell.

In 1809, for unknown reasons, the Garden was transferred to a closed solitary ward. According to rumors, in 1813, the seventy-three-year-old Sade managed to seduce Madeleine Leclerc, the thirteen-year-old daughter of one of the guards.

De Sade died of an asthma attack on December 2, 1814. He bequeathed that he should be buried in the forest and the road to the grave covered with acorns. However, his body was buried on a general basis in the Saint-Maurice cemetery in Charenton.

The life and work of Sade gave rise to a whole scientific and cultural movement. R. Krafft Ebing, in his book “Sexual Psychopathy” (1876), was the first to coin the term sadism to denote the pleasure derived from inflicting physical pain and moral suffering on a sexual partner.

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was born in Paris, at the Chateau de Caudet, on June 2, 1740. His education was carried out by his uncle and teachers of the Jesuit Lyceum. While building his military career, de Sade served in a dragoon regiment and took part in the Seven Years' War. In 1763, he began courting the daughter of a wealthy magistrate, whose father opposed the wedding, but arranged a marriage with his eldest daughter, Rene-Pélagie Cordier de Montreuil. In 1766, the Marquis celebrated the opening of a private theater in his castle and survived the death of his father.

For many years, de Sade's descendants denounced his life and work as a terrible disgrace that needed to be covered up. This attitude did not change until the mid-20th century, when Count Xavier de Sade restored the title of Marquis, long out of use, on his business cards. He also showed a special interest in the “divine marquis,” legends about which were a taboo topic in the Xavier family. Many manuscripts of the libertine freethinker are in universities and libraries, others disappeared without a trace in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of his father's works were destroyed at the instigation of his son Donatien-Claude-Armand.

De Sade led a free and scandalous existence, repeatedly purchasing prostitutes for cruel pleasures and sexually exploiting his workers, men and women, at his castle in Lacoste. He was accused of blasphemy, a serious crime at the time. He had an affair with Anna Prosper, his wife’s sister, and his mistress lived right in his castle. Several prostitutes complained of abuse by Donatien, and the police began surveillance of the sadistic aristocrat. He was arrested several times for short periods, including being held at the Chateau de Saumur, until in 1768 he was taken into custody at his own chateau in Lacoste.

The first serious scandal broke out at Easter in 1768, when de Sade paid for the sexual services of the beggar widow Rose Keller, who approached him for alms. He tore off the woman's clothes, threw her on the sofa and tied her hands and feet. The Marquis whipped his victim, poured hot wax over the wounds and beat Rose. The process was repeated in a circle seven or eight times until the poor thing was able to escape from him through the window.

In 1772, an unpleasant episode occurred in Marseille. De Sade and his lackey Latour went up to the room where there were several prostitutes, according to the protocol, who had anal sex and flagellation with the Marquis. They were not fatally poisoned by candies with Spanish fly (at that time considered an aphrodisiac harmful to health), as was later another girl whom the Marquis offered to engage in sodomy.

The victims turned to the police with stomach pain, and the culprits were sentenced to death in absentia. Donatien was to be beheaded, Latour was to be hanged. The criminals managed to escape to Italy, where the Marquis also took his wife’s sister. The men were caught and imprisoned in the Miolan fortress at the end of 1772, from where they escaped four months later.

Subsequently, taking refuge in Lacoste, de Sade was reunited with his wife, who became an accomplice in his actions. He kept a group of young workers, most of whom complained of sexual abuse and left the owner. The Marquis was forced to take refuge in Italy again. During a quiet period, he wrote the book "Voyage d" Italie". In 1776, upon returning to Lacoste, the dissolute philosopher took up his old ways. In 1777, the father of one of the employees hired by de Sade went to the castle with demands to give him his daughter and tried shoot at the marquis at point blank range. The weapon misfired.

In the same year, Donatien, under the pretext of visiting his sick mother, who in fact had long since died, went to Paris. He was detained and imprisoned in the Castle of Vincennes. The Marquis successfully appealed his death sentence in 1778, but remained in custody under a writ of extrajudicial arrest (lettre de cachet). The repeat offender escaped again and was caught again. He resumed his writing and met another slave, Count Mirabeau, who also covered his pages with erotic prose. Despite the common interest, the relationship between the men ended in fierce hostility.

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In 1784, Vincennes prison closed and de Sade was transferred to the Bastille. On July 2, 1789, he reportedly shouted to the crowd on the street from his cell, “They are killing prisoners here!”, sparking a riot. Two days later he was taken to a psychiatric hospital in Charenton, near Paris. A few days later, the main event of the French Revolution began - the storming of the Bastille.

In 1785, de Sade literally wrote the novel “120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Debauchery” in just a month, about four rich debauchees who decided to experience the highest sexual bliss through orgies. The immoral experiment ends in sophisticated torture and general murder. A free adaptation of the novel, "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom" from 1975, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, takes us to the fascist republic of Salò, in 1944.

In 1790, the Marquis was released from the psychiatric hospital after the new Constituent Assembly abolished extrajudicial arrests. De Sade's wife received a divorce. While free, Donatien, starting in 1790, anonymously published several of his books. He met the abandoned Marie Constance Renel, a former actress and mother of a six-year-old son, and remained with her for the rest of his life.

An angry mob destroyed and plundered de Sade's estate in Lacoste in 1789, causing him to move to Paris. In 1790, he was elected a member of the National Convention, where he represented the extreme left sector. Donatien wrote several pamphlets calling for the implementation of direct voting. There are suggestions that he was a victim of mistreatment at the hands of his fellow revolutionaries due to his aristocratic background.

In 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the imprisonment of the anonymous author of the provocative novels Justine, or the Miserable Fate of Virtue and Juliette, or the Successes of Vice. De Sade was arrested at his publisher's office and imprisoned without trial. From the first place of detention, where Donatien allegedly tried to seduce young inmates, he was transferred to the harsh fortress of Bicêtre.

In 1803, De Sade was declared insane and transferred to an asylum in Charenton. His ex-wife and children agreed to pay his maintenance. Marie Constance Renel was allowed to live with him. The head of the asylum allowed the Marquis to stage several plays in which prisoners became actors, for the amusement of the Parisian public. In 1809, by new order, de Sade was placed in solitary confinement and his writing instruments and paper were taken away.

The lustful philosopher entered into a sexual relationship with 14-year-old Madeleine Leclerc, the daughter of an employee in Charenton. The affair lasted about four years, until de Sade’s death in 1814. In his will, the Marquis forbade his body to be opened, ordered it to be kept in a cell untouched for 48 hours, and then placed in a coffin and buried. His skull was removed from the grave for phrenological examination.

The Marquis de Sade recognized only the division into rulers and masters. Denied the existence of God and moral norms and rules. Recognized murder as the best way to resolve issues with overpopulation and lack of resources. Finally, he considered cruel and vile desires to be natural, basic elements of human nature.

“Kill me or accept me as I am, for I will not change,” the Marquis de Sade wrote to his wife from prison in 1783. Indeed, one of the most radical writers of the 18th century had no other options. De Sade, an unbridled libertine, was then serving an 11-year prison sentence, but did not betray his principles and passions in order to reduce his sentence. Any deviation from his natural inclinations was tantamount to death for the Marquis.

Portrait of the Marquis de Sade

De Sade was without a doubt one of the most defining figures of the Enlightenment. He admired Rousseau, although his jailers forbade him to read the philosopher's works. But at the same time, he dealt a serious blow to the principle of the supremacy of reason and rationality, choosing instead rebellion, extremes and anti-humanism. These features of his outraged his contemporaries, but caused great resonance in the art, literature and philosophy of the past two centuries.

De Sade spent a total of 32 years in prisons and hospitals.

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, born in 1740, had a very controversial fate. An aristocrat by birth, he nevertheless held extreme leftist views and was a delegate to the National Convention during the French Revolution. He relinquished his title during the Terror, when he wrote some of the most provocative novels ever written, although he also wrote mediocre plays lacking any significant originality.

His very name recalls de Sade's penchant for rigid forms. sexual relations, although even a cursory glance at the literature of the 18th century shows that the Marquis was far from alone in such predilections. Michel Foucault, the great philosopher of the second half of the 20th century, once observed that sadism is not “an ancient practice like Eros,” but “a major cultural fact that appeared just at the end of the eighteenth century.”

Like his predecessors, Voltaire and Rousseau, de Sade wrote novels that can be read in two ways: both as simple fiction and as philosophical treatises. Even the most violent scenes in his books are not essentially pornographic. His early novel, The 120 Days of Sodom, with its endless descriptions of cuts, fractures, sacrifices, bloodletting and death, does not evoke any sexual excitement. And even his best novel, “Justine” (which features a libertine priest who molests a girl with a communion wafer), caused indignation in France not due to its overly frank descriptions, but to its extreme disregard for prevailing morality, because the text not only allowed, but praised abuse of one’s neighbor .

De Sade took the principle of Kant's famous categorical imperative, which obliges man to follow the moral law, and turned it inside out. True morality, from Sade's point of view, lies in following one's darkest and most destructive passions to their final limit, even at the expense of human life. De Sade had no particular objections to murder, although he was strongly opposed to the death penalty. Killing in a fit of passion is one thing, but justifying murder by law is barbaric.

“People condemn passions,” he wrote, “forgetting that philosophy lights its torch from their fire.” From Sade's point of view, cruel and vile desires are not aberrations, but basic, fundamental elements of human nature. Moreover, the constructs of reason so revered by Enlightenment philosophers are merely the by-product of deeply rooted base desires: These desires rule people to a much greater extent than any rational motives. Nobility is hypocritical, and cruelty is natural, therefore the only morality is the absence of morality, and vice is the only virtue.

De Sade indulged in excesses not only in his novels, but also in reality, for which he spent a third of his life in prisons (including the Bastille in 1789) and psychiatric hospitals. “The intermissions in my life have been too long,” he wrote in his notes.

His books were banned shortly after the Marquis's death in 1814. But while de Sade's manuscripts were gathering dust on a shelf, his cruel philosophy was spreading among his admirers. The famous series of etchings by Francisco Goya, “Caprichos”, “Disasters of War”, the later “Parables” - both here and there cruelty triumphed over virtue, and the irrational conquered reason. “The sleep of reason gives birth to monsters” is the name of his famous work, which depicts a sleeping man (perhaps the artist himself) being pursued by nightmarish monsters. Michel Foucault considered Goya's etchings, especially the darkly satirical Caprichos, a natural complement to de Sade's writings. According to him, in both cases, “the Western world saw the possibility of overcoming reason through violence,” and after de Sade and Goya, “unreason belongs to the decisive moments of any creativity.” A sadistic vision of people who have gone beyond the bounds of reason, and human body its extreme, unnatural states were continued in the works of many artists of the early 19th century, especially Eugene Delacroix and Theodore Géricault.

Towards the end of his life, the Marquis asks to be forever erased from human history

But de Sade's books themselves were little known. Only towards the end of the century the Marquis was properly recognized. Indeed, he gave many a chance to cover sexual unbridledness with a kind of literary veil: for example, the English poet of the late 19th century, Charles Swinburne, who idolized de Sade, wrote long, lengthy poems about corporal punishment of boys under a pseudonym. But the truly great writers of the time saw in de Sade something much more important, namely, a philosopher of a world turned inside out. “I am a wound - and a blow with damask steel. A hand crushed by a cat, and I am a cat’s hand!” - wrote Charles Baudelaire in the brilliant collection “Flowers of Evil”, one of the first works that returned the principles of de Sade to literature. Guillaume Apollinaire, the poet who coined the term "surrealism", was the editor of the first complete works of de Sade. And many other surrealists sought inspiration in his texts, where scenes of sex and violence are sometimes impossible from a purely anatomical point of view.

Descendant of the Marquis Thibault de Sade advertises his new champagne with a clear name

Traces of de Sade's work are everywhere, but he remains a frightening figure. After all, he has no place for cold and objective analysis; it uses the body as actively as the brain, and the mind is forced to obey deeper, animal instincts. In Philip Kaufman's film The Pen of the Marquis de Sade, starring Geoffrey Rush, the Marquis was portrayed as a victim of the struggle for liberal, law-abiding freedom of expression, and at the same time inserted a completely fictitious torture scene - into real life de Sade died quite peacefully.

"He's not a criminal,
who is portraying
Actions that
Nature inspires us.”

The epigraph that de Sade chose for his book “The New Justine”.

Contemporaries considered him the embodiment of evil and unbridled depravity. His cruelty was legendary.

The phenomenon of the Marquis de Sade - the most colorful figure in the history of world erotic literature, the person to whom we owe the appearance of such a widespread term as sadism - has not yet been studied.

His sophisticated fantasy, which sought to find embodiment in ever new forms of debauchery, in unimaginable orgies, eventually resulted in a number of talented literary works.

Trying to reach the peak of pleasure, the Marquis eventually found an outlet for his passions and desires, unacceptable for the vast majority of his contemporaries. He found his highest ecstasy... in creativity.

Donatien-Alphonse-François de Sade was born on June 2, 1740 in Paris into a rich and noble family. In Provence, the de Sade family was considered one of the most ancient and famous. His father was a royal governor who ruled four provinces, his mother was a maid of honor to the princess. From birth, the boy was surrounded by luxury and wealth. He grew up spoiled and arrogant, unbridled in anger and despotic. Since childhood, he believed that his origin allows him to take everything from life and enjoy it as he pleases.

The boy's first teacher was Abbot d'Ebreuil. Then the young marquis studied at the Jesuit College d'Harcourt in Paris. When he was 14 years old, he was enlisted in the King's Guards and a year later received the rank of sub-lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Foot. He could not be accused of cowardice: the Marquis participated in many wars that France was waging at that time. According to contemporaries, he fought bravely (de Sade rose to the rank of cavalry colonel). In addition, nature endowed him with beauty, which, coupled with excellent manners and courage, made him irresistible to women. He easily won their hearts and just as easily parted with them...

In 1763, after the end of the Seven Years' War, the 23-year-old Marquis was sent to the reserves and married a couple of months later. It was a marriage of convenience, at least on the part of the Marquis. His wife was Rene-Pélagie Cordier de Montreuil, the eldest daughter of the President of the Third Chamber of Duties and Taxes in Paris. It was rumored that the Marquis was much more impressed by her younger daughter, but her parents refused to marry her off before the eldest. So, having received as a wife a submissive girl who loved him madly, but whom he did not love, the marquis went into all serious troubles.

The first known victim of his base passions was the 20-year-old prostitute Jeanne Testard, who agreed to a love meeting with the Marquis in his house. He led the girl into a small windowless room, with walls draped with black curtains and decorated with pornographic drawings mixed with... crucifixes. There were also several whips standing here. The owner invited her to choose any one and whip him, and then undergo the same execution herself. The girl flatly refused and rejected the Marquis’s offer to have anal sex. De Sade was furious. Threatening death, he ordered Jeanne to break one of the crucifixes... The frightened woman managed to escape.

And the Marquis was soon imprisoned in a royal prison - in the tower of Vincennes Castle (less than six months had passed since his wedding). However, thanks to the intervention of his wife’s parents, who were very influential at court, the dissolute marquis was released after 15 days, however, after “deep” repentance...

The lesson didn't go well. Of course, for some time the Marquis had to at least exercise caution. But he was not going to calm down: having embarked on the path of seeking pleasure, the Marquis could no longer stop. Here are characteristic lines from the report of the police inspector Marais, dating back to that time: “I would strongly advise Madame Brissot (the owner of the brothel), without going into detailed explanations, to refuse the Marquis de Sade if he begins to demand from her a girl of easy virtue for fun in secluded meeting house."

In 1764, the Marquis succeeded his father as royal viceroy general, and at the same time indulged in unbridled debauchery in the company of the dancer Beauvoisin, known for her dissolute behavior. He goes with a dancer, whom he passes off as his wife, to the Lacoste family estate and here he realizes his fantasies in endless orgies...

After the first imprisonment, only 4 years pass, and the Marquis again ends up behind bars for a similar crime. This time, the 36-year-old widow of the pastry chef, Rosa Keller, fell into the network of the insidious marquis. And it was like this: when de Sade was walking around the city, dressed as a hunter, he met this woman on Victoire Square. Rose approached him and asked for alms. In response, the Marquis invited her to climb with him into the fiacre that was waiting for him and took her to his villa. Here, threatening her with a pistol, he forced her to undress, tied her hands and began to beat her with a seven-tailed whip with knots at the ends, and then inflicted many harmless cuts on her with a penknife. After which the Marquis laid the victim on silk sheets and anointed her wounds with balm. Then he fed the unfortunate woman and locked her in the room.

Rosa did not wait for the continuation and, having tied up the sheets, got out of captivity and ran away, filling the surrounding area with loud screams... The common people were extremely indignant - after all, the Marquis mocked Rosa just on Easter...

The wounded widow ran to the police and filed a complaint against the marquis. He was soon arrested and taken to prison, where he remained for a little over a month - 2,400 livres, which the Marquis gave to Rosa through his attorney, convinced the victim to abandon the complaint. Supreme Court France approves the royal decree of pardon, and de Sade, having paid a fine of 100 louis, is again free. The Marquis was obliged to live quietly and peacefully in his castle, but de Sade was not such as to deny himself the usual pleasures. Having moved to the castle with his family, he invited his wife’s younger sister, who soon became his mistress, to “stay” there. The atmosphere in the castle was voluptuous: with the light hand of the Marquis, entire erotic performances were staged here, in which his wife and sister took part. However, apparently, such a generally calm life could hardly satisfy de Sade’s sophisticated preferences.

Quite quickly having had enough, he went to Marseilles under the plausible pretext of collecting a debt. Here he ordered his lackey Latour to bring several women of easy virtue to the castle. The footman carried out the master's instructions; after some time he returned, accompanied by four port prostitutes. The girls were forced to take part in an orgy. First of all, they were flogged one by one, then each did the same to the Marquis, after which de Sade and Latour had sex with the women. At the same time, the owner generously distributed to all the girls, under the guise of sweets, candied Spanish flies doused in chocolate.

After several hours, two women became ill and began vomiting, which could not be stopped. Scared possible consequences, de Sade and Latour, abandoning everything and everyone, hastily fled from the city. Their fears were justified: local authorities sentenced them to death in absentia - de Sade was to be beheaded, his servant and companion were to be hanged. However, the execution did not take place due to the lack of convicts.

After several months, the marquis and his servant were nevertheless arrested and imprisoned in the Miolansky castle. True, not for long - with the help of his wife, who still loved de Sade, they managed to escape. For some time the fugitives hid in Geneva, then went to Italy and finally returned to their homeland.

Again, orgies follow one after another. Having left the ladies of easy virtue alone, de Sade now amuses himself by corrupting young girls in his castle. Two of his victims manage to escape - one of them was injured to such an extent that she urgently needed medical attention.

But this was not enough for the insatiable marquis: he bribed the monk of the local monastery so that he would supply him with new victims for orgies. There were persistent rumors that the Marquis brutally killed some girls, but these facts were not confirmed.

At the beginning of 1777, de Sade received news from Paris that his mother was dying. And although the Marquis has always treated his mother rather indifferently, he drops everything and rushes to Paris, despite the warnings of his friends that he might be arrested there. Which is exactly what happens. This time the Marquis is imprisoned in the Castle of Vincennes. And although the death sentence has long been appealed by influential relatives, by order of the king, de Sade cannot be released. Years of imprisonment are not in vain. It was at the Chateau de Vincennes that the Marquis began to seriously engage in literary work. All his unrealized fantasies are embodied on paper.

The revolution of 1778 finds the tireless marquis in the Bastille. Leaning out of the window of his cell and using a tin pipe for sewage as a mouthpiece, he calls on the people to storm the fortress. The king becomes aware of the incident, and de Sade is urgently transferred to a psychiatric hospital in Chantaron - 10 days before the storming and destruction of the Bastille.

He was released from the insane asylum in March 1990. By this time he faithful wife, unable to bear the “art” of her husband any longer, divorces him and takes monastic vows. The Marquis does not seem to be experiencing the loss too much: some ardent comforter is always next to him.

The execution of the king changes his life greatly. De Sade is appointed to the jury of the revolutionary tribunal. However, the terror unleashed by Robespierre's clique is not to his liking. It is curious that, having an excellent opportunity to realize his vicious inclinations during a period of unrest, the Marquis does not use it. While colorfully describing extreme cruelty in his works, in real life the Marquis sharply condemns the atrocities committed by Robespierre's henchmen. The revolution turned out to be for de Sade... too harsh.

The Marquis parted with his “comrades” in the revolution, trying to devote himself entirely to literary work. Not so. This time he is accused of “moderation” and again taken to prison.

He is released from yet another imprisonment only after the fall of Robespierre's regime. Already sick, with virtually no means of support, he is forced to participate in theatrical performances, earning his living. Life is going downhill.

In 1800, de Sade wrote the novel “Zoloe and Her Two Companions,” in whose characters, indulging in unbridled debauchery, one can easily discern Emperor Bonaparte and Josephine. And again a prison, then a psychiatric hospital, which became the last refuge of this extraordinary man. One of de Sade’s contemporaries recalled: “An old gardener who knew the Marquis during his imprisonment here told us that one of his amusements was to order to bring him a full basket of roses, the most beautiful and expensive ones that could be found in the surrounding area. Sitting on a stool near a dirty stream crossing the yard, he took one rose after another, admired them, inhaled their aroma with visible passion... Then he lowered each of them into the mud and threw them away from him, already crumpled and smelly, with a wild laugh.” .

Before his death, the Marquis de Sade fell into complete madness. He died in the Charenton mental hospital on December 10, 1814. While still in his right mind, he wrote a will, which contains the following lines: “I flatter myself with the hope that my name will be erased from people’s memory”...

De Sade's hopes were not justified - interest in his work does not wane. On the contrary, many researchers are finding new facets in his works. And he still remains one of the most mysterious and controversial personalities in the history of literature...

Alisa MININA

Plan of the Bastidia. At first his cell was on the 2nd floor, then on the 6th

The most significant works of the Marquis de Sade

• 1782: Dialogue of a priest with a dying man;
• 1785: The One Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom, or the School of Debauchery;
• 1787: The Misfortunes of Virtue;
• 1788: Justine, or the Miserable Fate of Virtue;
• 1788: Aline and Valcour, or a Philosophical Romance;
• 1788: Dorsey, or the Vagaries of Fate;
• 1787–88: Tales, fables and fabliaux;
• 1787—88, 1799:
• 1791-93: Political works: Message from the citizens of Paris to the King of France, Section Peak, etc.;
• 1790: Philosophy in the Boudoir;
• 1790: New Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue, or the Successes of Vice;
• 1790: Okstiern, or The Misfortunes of a Depraved Life;
• 1797: Juliette;
• 1800: Address of the author of “Crimes of Love” to Wilterk, a despicable scribbler;
• 1803: Notes on the “Days of Florbel” under the title “Last observations and comments on this great work”;
• 1812: Adelaide of Brunswick, Princess of Saxony;
• 1813: The Secret History of Isabella of Bavaria, Queen of France.

• 120 days of Sodom, or School of debauchery (Les 120 journées de Sodome, ou l"École du libertinage, novel, 1785)
• The Misfortunes of Virtue (Les Infortunes de la Vertu, novel, first edition of Justine, 1787)
• (Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu, novel, second edition, 1788)
• Aline and Valcour, or a Philosophical Romance (Aline et Valcour, ou le Roman philosophique, novel, 1788)
• Dorsey, or the Taunt of Fate (Dorci, ou la Bizarrerie du sort, short story, 1788)
• Fairy tales, fables and fabliaux (Historiettes, Contes et Fabliaux, 1788)
  • Serpent ( Le Serpent)
  • Gascon wit ( La Saillie Gasconne)
  • Successful pretense ( L'Heureuse Feinte)
  • Punished Pimp ( Le M…puni)
  • Stuck Bishop ( L'Évêque embourbe)
  • Ghost ( Le Revenant)
  • Provençal speakers ( Les Harangueurs Provençaux)
  • Let them always cheat me like this ( Attrapez-moi toujours de même)
  • obsequious husband ( L'Époux complaisant)
  • An incomprehensible event witnessed throughout the province ( Aventure incompréhensible)
  • Chestnut flower ( La fleur de châtaignier)
  • Teacher-philosopher ( L'Instituteur philosophe)
  • Touchy, or unexpected meeting ( La Prude, ou la Rencontre imprévue)
  • Emilie de Tourville, or the cruelty of the brothers ( Émilie de Tourville, ou la Cruauté fraternelle)
  • Augustine de Villeblanche, or a love ruse ( Augustine de Villeblanche, ou le Stratagème de l'amour)
  • Will be done as requested ( Soit fait ainsi qu'il est requis)
  • Fooled President ( Le President mystifié)
  • Marquis de Teleme, or the consequences of libertinage ( La Marquise de Thélème, ou les Effets du libertinage)
  • Retribution ( Le Talion)
  • The one who cuckolded himself, or unforeseen reconciliation ( Le Cocu de lui-même, ou le Raccommodement imprévu)
  • Enough space for both ( Il y a place pour deux)
  • Corrected spouse ( L'Époux corrige)
  • Priest husband ( Le Mari prêtre)
  • Señora de Longeville, or the avenged woman ( La Châtelaine de Longeville, ou la Femme vengée)
  • Rogues ( Les Filous)
• Philosophy in the boudoir (La Philosophie dans le boudoir, novel in dialogues, 1795)
• The New Justine, or The Miserable Fate of Virtue (La Nouvelle Justine, ou les Malheurs de la vertu, novel, third edition, 1799)
• Crimes of love, heroic and tragic stories (Les Crimes de l'amour, Nouvelles héroïques et tragiques, 1800)
  • Thoughts on the novel (Une Idée sur les romances)
  • Juliette et Raunai, ou la Conspiration d'Amboise
  • Double challenge (La Double Épreuve)
  • Miss Henriette Stralson, ou les Effets du désespoir
  • Faxelange, ou les Torts de l'ambition
  • Florville and Courval, or the inevitability of fate(Florville et Courval, ou le Fatalisme)
  • Rodrigue, ou la Tour enchantée
  • Laurenzia and Antonio (Laurence et Antonio)
  • Ernestina (Ernestine)
  • Dorgeville, ou le Criminel par vertu
  • La Comtesse de Sancerre, ou la Rivalle de sa fille
  • Eugenie de Franval (Eugenie de Franval)
• The Story of Juliette, or the Successes of Vice (Histoire de Juliette, ou les Prospérités du vice, novel, sequel to “New Justine”, 1801)
• Adelaide of Brunswick, Princess of Saxony (Adélaïde de Brunswick, princesse de Saxe, novel, 1812)
• Marquise de Ganges (La Marquise de Gange, novel, 1813)
• The Secret History of Isabella of Bavaria, Queen of France (Histoire secrete d'Isabelle de Bavière, reine de France, novel, 1814)