Donatien Alphonse François Sade Libri

• Le sventure della virtù • Justine ovvero le disgrazie della virtù • La nuova Justine ovvero le sciagure della virtù • Juliette ovvero le prosperità del vizio • Le 120 giornate di Sodoma ovvero la scuola del libertinaggio Vizio, Lussuria, Perversione. Sono questi i numi tutelari della narrativa del “divin marchese” de Sade. I cinque romanzi qui raccolti compongono un affresco della Francia dell’ancien regime sotto le specie della sessualità e della vita senza freni: preti gaudenti emonaci viziosi, pudiche educande sottoposte a violenze inimmaginabili da anziani corrotti, nobili peccaminosi e pover’uomini che si trasformano in feroci aguzzini. Sull’altro versante, schiacciata, irrisa e annientata dal vizio, la virtù ha la parte della vittima, sacrificata all’altare del peccato. Il tutto secondo una filosofia tanto semplice quanto desolante: poiché vige la legge del più forte, in un universo di infernale sopraffazione, il vero bene è infliggere agli altri il male.

Part of Sade's The Crimes of Love cycle, this shocking tale - which was among the writings banned for publication until the twentieth century - tests the limits of morality and portrays the disastrous consequences of freedom and pleasure.

This most joyous of de Sade's works follows three aristocrats as they indoctrinate Eugénie de Mistival in "the principles of the most outrageous libertinism." First published in 1795, "Philosophy in the Bedroom" is a story told strictly through dialogue which displays Sade's philosophy on libertinage through the sexual education for young Eugenie while revealing a woman's role in the bedroom. The book gives the reader a very blunt and detailed description of what a woman's role should be in the bedroom. Detailed description of sexual acts shows how sex was seen more as a means of pleasure rather than reproduction. This definitely goes against social norms at this time in history and offers us a different look on sex than we have seen so far in this class. Despite the fact of very open and pleasurable-seeking sex, Sade's story clearly shows what a woman's role should be during sexual intercourse behind closed doors alongside showing their value in society.

The 1990s have seen a resurgence of interest in the Marquis de Sade, with several biographies competing to put their version of his life story before the public. But Sadean scholar Richard Seaver takes us directly to the source, translating Sade's prison correspondence. Seaver's translations retain the aristocratic hauteur of Sade's prose, which still possesses a clarity that any reader can appreciate. "When will my horrible situation cease?" he wrote to his wife shortly after his incarceration began in 1777. "When in God's name will I be let out of the tomb where I have been buried alive? There is nothing to equal the horror of my fate!" But he was never reduced to pleading for long, and not always so solicitous of his wife's feelings; a few years later, he would write, "This morning I received a fat letter from you that seemed endless. Please, I beg of you, don't go on at such length: do you believe that I have nothing better to do than to read your endless repetitions?" For those interested in learning about the man responsible for some of the most infamous philosophical fiction in history, Letters from Prison is an indispensable collection.

"Murder, seduction, and incest are among the cruel rewards for selfless love in Sade's stories; tragedy, despair, and death the inevitable outcome. In this text Sade asks questions about society, about ourselves, and about life, for which we have yet to find the answers"--Provided by publisher.

First published in 1797, this is a sequence of bizarre sexual adventures punctuated by philosophical and theological premises on total egoism and human liberty. Vilified by respectable society since his own time, de Sade is now considered one of the most prodigious minds of Western history.

Philosophy in the Bedroom (La Philosophie dans le boudoir) is a 1795 erotic book by the Marquis de Sade written in the form of a dramatic dialogue. Though initially considered a work of pornography, the book has come to be considered a socio-political drama. Set in a bedroom, the two lead characters make the argument that the only moral system that reinforces the recent political revolution is libertinism, and that if the people of France fail to adopt the libertine philosophy, France will be destined to return to a monarchic state.