Marquis de Sade - Libertine Novels & Short Stories (4 books)

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade (1740-1814) -- better known as the MARQUIS DE SADE -- was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer, famous for his libertine sexuality. His works include novels, short stories, plays, dialogues and political tracts; in his lifetime some were published under his own name, while others appeared anonymously and Sade denied being their author.

He is best known for his erotic works, which combined philosophical discourse with pornography, depicting sexual fantasies with an emphasis on violence, criminality and blasphemy against the Catholic Church. He was a proponent of extreme freedom, unrestrained by morality, religion or law. Through the unreleased passions of his libertines, Sade wished to shake the world at its core. In 120 DAYS OF SODOM, for example, Sade wished to present "the most impure tale that has ever been written since the world exists."

Included in this collection are the original Grove Press editions of his works, first published in the 1960s and still the definitive English translations. They are complete and unabridged.

THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM & OTHER WRITINGS is an exhaustive catalogue of sexual aberrations and the first systematic exploration -- a hundred years before Krafft-Ebing and Freud -- of the psychology of sex. In addition to The 120 Days (Les 120 journées de Sodome, ou l'École du libertinage), this volume includes Sade's "Reflections on the Novel," his play Oxtiern, and his novella Ernestine. The selections are introduced by Simone de Beauvoir's landmark essay "Must We Burn Sade?" and Pierre Klossowski's provocative "Nature as Destructive Principle."

JUSTINE, PHILOSOPHY IN THE BEDROOM & OTHER WRITINGS contains Philosophy in the Bedroom (La Philosophie dans le boudoir), a major novel that presents the clearest summation of his political philosophy; Eugénie de Franval, a novella widely considered to be a masterpiece of eighteenth-century French literature; and the only authentic and complete American edition of his most famous work, Justine. This literary portrait of Sade is completed by one of his earliest philosophical efforts, Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man (Dialogue entre un prêtre et un moribond), a selection of his letters, a fifty-page chronology of his life, two important essays on Sade, and a bibliography of his work.

JULIETTE is an amoral nymphomaniac who is successful and happy. The full title of the novel in the original French is Histoire de Juliette ou les Prospérités du vice, and the English title is "Juliette, or Vice Amply Rewarded" (in contrast to "Justine, or Good Conduct Well Chastised", considered to be the prequel of Juliette).

THE CRIMES OF LOVE is the most complete selection from the Marquis de Sade's four-volume collection of short stories "Les crimes de l'amour, Nouvelles héroïques et tragiques", originally published in 1800. This compilation includes "An Essay on Novels," Sade's penetrating survey of the novelist's art. It also contains the preface to the collection and an important statement of Sade's concept of fiction and one of the few literary manifestos published during the Revolution.


The following books are in ePUB format unless otherwise noted:

* THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM & OTHER WRITINGS (Grove Press, 1966). Translated by Austryn Wainhouse and Richard Seaver, with Introductions by Simone de Beauvoir and Pierre Klossowski.

* THE CRIMES OF LOVE: Heroic and Tragic Tales, Preceded by an Essay on Novels (Oxford World's Classics, 2005). Translated by David Coward. -- PDF

* JULIETTE (Grove Press, 1968). Six volumes in one, translated by Austryn Wainhouse.

* JUSTINE, PHILOSOPHY IN THE BEDROOM & OTHER WRITINGS (Grove Press, 1965). Translated by Richard Seaver and Austryn Wainhouse, with Introductions by Jean Paulhan of L'Académie Française and Maurice Blanchot.