Marquis de Sade

This is the author of most of the essays and stories in the collection, and the subject of the two critical essays that open the book.

Sade is a member of an aristocratic family and presumably enjoys a privileged and educated upbringing. As a young man, he is arrested for mistreating prostitutes and draws the attention of the police. He is later imprisoned for a similar offense and held indefinitely in the Bastille, a fortress prison in Paris. It is while in prison he composes "The 120 Days of Sodom."

Sade is transferred from the Bastille to another prison and in the transfer, he believes he has lost the manuscript to "The 120 Days of Sodom," a loss that greatly distresses him. The manuscript is later found, however, although it is suppressed by its owner. It is considered to be Sade's masterpiece, although it exists only in an...