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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Dolmance propose Eugenie learn about at the beginning of the Fourth Dialogue?

2. According to Dolmance, what attribute offers the best chance of success in life?

3. How many people are involved in the sexual tryst Chevalier first engages in with Dolmance, as related in the First Dialogue?

4. What activity does Madame advocate for at length in this section?

5. According to Dolmance, what separates the understanding of virtue and vice?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Eugenie respond to finding Dolamnce in the boudoir in the Third Dialogue?

2. Describe Madame de Saint-Ange's husband.

3. What odd and incorrect theories of conception are discussed in the Third Dialogue?

4. What pattern of sexual arrangements emerges in the Third Dialogue?

5. What is the value of blasphemy to the libertine?

6. Describe Dolmance's attitudes toward the poor.

7. According to Sade in To the Philosphers, what is the key to happiness?

8. How is the the sexual passage of this section typical of the writing of The Bedroom Philosophers?

9. Describe Dolmance.

10. Describe Dolmance's defense of incest.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In an essay, discuss the role of incest in The Bedroom Philosophers. Which characters either partake or plan to partake in incestuous relationships in the text? What pleasure do the libertines glean from these relationships? Discuss Dolmance and the unnamed pamphleteer's passionate defenses of the taboo act. What is the Marquis de Sade trying to achieve by actively defending the indefensible practice?

Essay Topic 2

Sodomy plays an incredible role in the libertine philosophy of Dolmance. He expounds upon its pure, unadorned pleasure. Write a three-part essay about the libertine ideal as expressed through the act of sodomy:

Part 1) What reasons does Dolmance explain through the book that society has for frowning upon anal intercourse? Why is it considered unnatural and dirty? To what extend is the substance of semen made sacred through these arguments?

Part 2) Discuss the various ways in which Dolmance rebuke the arguments against sodomy. How does he connect the notion of nature to justify the value of sodomy? Aesthetically, why does Dolmance think that the anus is more perfect than the vagina?

Part 3) Discuss how Dolmance applies his beliefs about sodomy in his everyday life. What does he abstain from? What does he lecture and practice on a regular basis?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the historical context of The Bedroom Philosophers. What was happening in France at the time that the Marquis de Sade was writing? What reference to these historical events is made in the book? What do the libertines of the book think about the political state of the nation? What changes would they like to see instituted in the country and why?

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