Marquis De Sade: A Life Book

This is a big black book about a black-hearted man. Neil Schaeffer manages to suggest some of the complexities and contradictions in de Sade's character, but there is no doubt that he got up to some pretty unpleasant things. Schaeffer's skill is in giving us the full gamut of Sade's distinctive sexuality (as much masochistic, it turns out, as sadistic) in detailed if understated description--while also managing to place the whole story in context. De Sade's tastes were not actually that unusual for the times in which he lived. Eighteenth-century France was a cruel period, leading up to the violent Revolution of 1789 (in which Sade participated), and it produced a tremendous amount of sexual whippings, beatings and violent goings-on. Schaeffer's analysis of Sade is acute without becoming prurient. "His sexual life would find a modern equivalent among a great many rock stars," he writes, adding that "the public expect and vicariously enjoy the escapades" of such figures, which is a good insight into the appeal of books such as this one. There are even moments of tenderness in The Marquis de Sade: A Life, as we learn of Sade's lifelong romanticism, and sometimes we even feel sorry for him. A letter makes reference to "three or four friends" and Schaeffer comments: "it is unknown who these friends are. Sade had no friends." This is unsurprising, given his predilections, but somehow sad. --Adam RobertsRead More