Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Possibly the world's most popular inclination, the impulse to export your suffering to another seems to be near-universal. Not confined to any race, sex, or age category, the impulse to cause pain appears to well up from deep inside human beings. This is mysterious, because no one seems to enjoy pain when it is inflicted on them. Go figure.

Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 8:39 am

His Prison Life

Paul Verlaine has written that the Marquis de Sade spent a great part of his life in prisons. Counting from his last sentence at Charenton he spent 27 years in 11 jails: of these 27 years 13 were in his old age. In the solitude of the prison he worked on the material for his books. We can describe the entire manhood of Marquis de Sade as an interrupted prison life of dramatic proceedings that spread his name and "fame" throughout the world.

The reason for his second imprisonment was one of the most talked of contemporary proceedings. It was the Keller Affair.

We have many different accounts of the Keller affair. The most important is that of Madame du Deffand in a letter written ten days after the incident to the English writer and statesman, Horace Walpole. She so wrote: "Here is a tragic and very strange story. A certain Comte de Sade, nephew of the abbé and Petrarch-student, met on Easter Tuesday a tall, well-built woman of 30 years who asked him for alms. He questioned her at length, showed much interest, promised to free her from her misery and make her the superintendent of his petite maison near Paris. The woman eagerly assented and was ordered for the next day. When she appeared the Marquis showed her all the corners and rooms of the house and finally brought her to the attic. There he ordered her to undress completely. She threw herself at his feet and begged him to spare her since she was a respectable woman. He threatened her with a pistol that he drew from his pocket and so forced her to obey. Then he bound her hands together and whipped her savagely. When she was completely covered with blood he applied salve to all her wounds and had her lay down. I do not know whether he gave her food and drink. At any rate he first saw her again an the following morning, looked at her wounds and saw that the salve had worked effectively. Then he took a knife and made cuts on her entire body, again placed salve on all her wounds, and left. The victim succeeded in testing her bonds and to free herself by means of a window to the street. It is not known whether she was injured by the fall. A great outcry arose. The police-lieutenant was informed. De Sade was imprisoned. What will happen further is not known; it may be that this will be all the punishment since he comes from highly respectable people. It is said that the reason for his dreadful action was to prove the value of his salve."

On the following day (April 13) Madame du Deffand wrote: "Since yesterday I have been informed of further details of this affair. The place in which he had his petite maison was Arceuil. He whipped and cut her on the same day and poured balsam on her wounds. Then he untied her hands, covered her and placed her on a good bed. As soon as she was alone she made a bold escape through the window. The police-lieutenant had de Sade imprisoned. The latter had the audacity to claim that his crime was a noble public service because he had thus shown to the public the miraculous working of a salve that immediately cured all wounds. She received a large sum of damages from him and he was therefore freed."

This is the most trustworthy report of the affair. The other accounts of the notable case deviate so greatly from one another that they befog rather than clear the details of the event. Janin wrote that Marquis de Sade had in Arceuil a petite maison where he held his orgies. The windows were covered with double shutters and the house was padded (matelassé) inside so that no sound or sight was granted the passerby. On an Easter morning, April 3, 1768, his servant and confederate brought there two common prostitutes; the Marquis himself, on his way to Arceuil, met a poor woman, Rosa Keller, widow of a certain Valentine, who was vying to earn her bread by prostitution. De Sade spoke to her, promised her food and sleep, addressed her very reservedly and tenderly, so that she rode in the carriage with him to Arceuil. The Marquis brought her to the second story of the dimly lighted house, where both prostitutes drunk and decorated with flowers, sat at a richly laden table. She was here gagged, entirely undressed, bound and beaten until she was "only a single wound" whereupon the orgy with the two prostitutes began. Then Janin described the flight of the victim, the riot, the imprisonment of the criminal who was found dead-drunk in a pool of "wine and blood."

Eulenberg gives practically the same account and adds that the sadism was evidently a preparatory act to incite de Sade for the girls.

Lacroix reports that Keller was whipped under obscene circumstances which Madame du Deffand did not describe in her letters to Walpole but that even the "greatest prudes told to each other all the scabrous details without any feminine modesty." He adds that Keller was cut in many places with a knife and that the wounds were sealed again with Spanish wax.

Rétif de la Bretonne, who knew the Marquis since 1768, gave in his Nights of Paris an entirely different account of the history of the "femme vivante dissequé." Marquis de Sade is said to have met Keller on the Place des Victoires, brought her to his house, placed her in an anatomy-room, where a great number of people were assembled, and made preparations to vivisect her. "Who wants this unfortunate being in the world?" said the Marquis in a grave voice. "She can do nothing and will serve to reveal to us the mysteries of the human structure." At a lull in the vivisection the woman is supposed to have freed herself and escaped. In her later story she claimed she saw a number of corpses in the house.

According to Cabanès, it was much simpler: Rosa Keller took one look at the room and company and fled to the street, nude as she was.

Finally there is an account by Brierre de Boismont which Manciat relates to the Keller affair but which we believe to be another case. Some years before the Revolution some people in a lonely street of Paris heard weak cries coming from the ground-floor of a house. They broke into it and found a nude girl, white as wax, upon a table. Blood streamed from cuts in all parts of the body. When the victim was revived she said that she had been enticed, beaten and cut by Marquis de Sade after which he satisfied himself on her. According to Brierre de Boismont this affair was hushed up, the victim receiving damages.

The Keller affair went off quite easily for de Sade. He was first imprisoned at the castle in Saumur but was released in six weeks after Rosa Keller had received damages of 100 louisdors.

He then again started on his debaucheries in the lowest spheres of the theatrical and literary world, associated with people of all sorts of callings, surrounded himself with prostitutes and gave free rein to his perverse inclinations. Montreuil finally had the police forbid the Marquis entrance to his castle, La Coste, when he was informed of the vices of his son-in-law by an actress (probably Beauvoisin of the Théâtre Français).

His wife who had asked for permission to visit the Castle Saumur in order to be near him, was foolish enough to inform him that her sister had finally left the convent. De Sade, whose desire for the younger sister had never diminished, hypocritically pretended indifference to his wife. But the first chance he was alone with his beloved, he fell at her feet, swore that he loved only her and that all the crimes had been the result of his unfortunate love. He threatened to take his life if his plea was not heard and he understood from the features of the silent young girl that he would receive a favorable answer. So, according to Lacroix, he conceived the plan of committing a strange crime, dazzle his sister-in-law with a suicide and thus get her to flee with him. The execution of this plan is the Marseilles Scandal (The Cantharidic Bonbon Orgy).

Bachaumont's secret memoirs has the following report under the date July 25, 1772: "I am told that Comte de Sade, who in 1768 caused great disorder by his crimes with a prostitute on whom he wanted to test a new cure, has just played in Marseilles a spectacle at first amusing but later horrible in its consequences. He gave a ball to which he invited many people and for dessert gave them very pretty chocolate pastilles. They were mixed with powdered 'spanish fly.' Their action is well known. All who ate them were seized by shameless ardor and lust and started the wildest excesses of love. The festival became an ancient Roman orgy. The most modest of women could not restrain themselves. The Marquis de Sade abused his sister-in-law and then fled with her to escape the threatening penalty of death. Many persons died as the result of the excesses and many others still suffer recurrent pains."

This account is plainly exaggerated. According to Lacroix who received his information from a trustworthy eyewitness, Marquis de Sade left with his servant for Marseilles. He had provided himself with cantharidic bonbons which he distributed in a public house. One prostitute sprang from a window and killed herself. The others, half nude, gave themselves to the most infamous debaucheries even in the midst of a great crowd. Two girls died as a result of the poison. De Sade read a letter from the council announcing the judgment of death upon him, showed this letter to his sister-in-law, called himself a monster and threatened to kill himself. She pleaded with him to flee and he enticed her to accompany him. After an hour they departed.

According to the Universal Biography this account is also false because no one died and only a few persons were "lightly harassed." Rétif de la Bretonne places the scene of the action in Paris in the Faubourg St Honoré. This is important since Rétif, who hated the Marquis, declared no one died as a result of this orgy.

It is hence quite certain that the affair did not lead to any deaths. Marseilles often saw such scenes which were part of the extravagant life of the ancien régime. According to authentic documents discovered by Cabanès the only actual facts in this famous affair were the visit of Marquis de Sade to one or a number of bordellos at Marseilles and the distribution of innocent bonbons to the prostitutes.

Marquis de Sade was sentenced by the Parliament in Aix on September 11, 1772, to death on account of sodomy and poisoning in contumaciam. The severity of this sentence was ascribed to the Chancellor Maupeou who wanted to make an example of de Sade. The death sentence was finally lifted on June 30, 1778. The Marquis had to pay a penalty of 50 francs; according to the author of Contemporary Biography he received only an admonition.

He had in the meantime fled with, his sister-in-law to Italy where he led a quiet life with her until after a short, severe illness she suddenly died and he fell back into his old habits. He was then seized in Piedmont and imprisoned in Fort Miolans on December 8, 1772. He conspired with his fellow-prisoner, the well-known de Songy (Baron de I'Allée), and they escaped on the night of May 1, 1773, with the aid of the Marquise and 15 men. They went to Geneva and from there to Italy where he met his wife. He soon changed her company for that of a mistress. He returned in 1777 to France where his wife and mother-in-law occupied themselves with his rehabilitation.
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Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 8:40 am

Imprisonment in Vincennes and in the Bastille

After a short stay in Provence where he led a vicious life, de Sade was seized, brought to Paris and imprisoned in the chief tower of the fortress at Vincennes. In a letter to the governor he implored him to allow him to see his wife. Somehow he got in touch with her and through her efforts he secured a reversal of judgment. De Sade was brought to Aix where Counselor Siméom brilliantly defended him and brought about an annulment of judgment on June 30, 1778. But by the influence of his mother-in-law, who rightly feared de Sade's freedom more than his imprisonment, the judgment was made retroactive and he was brought back to Vincennes. He was guarded by Inspector Marais, already well known to us. At a stop in Lambesc on July 5, 1778, he succeeded in escaping, again with the aid of his wife. But he was shortly thereafter (September 7) discovered by Marais at his castle and this time brought back without mishap to Vincennes. In 1784, he was transferred to the Bastille.

From 1774 to 1790, in the flower of his manhood, Marquis de Sade sat in prison. There is no doubt that here he made the first outlines of his works.

In his first year at Vincennes he was placed in a cold, damp room containing only a bed. No other furniture. His food was pushed through a small bole. Books and writing materials were withheld. This he found extremely painful.

His wife, who clung to him with patient love, finally got permission to send him books, writing materials and some other useful items. She later received permission to visit him. But every visit started a scandal. The Marquise had to be protected from the anger and wild fits of her husband. Hence police-lieutenant Le Noir denied her visits on September 25, 1782. Not until July 13, 1786, was she again allowed to see the Marquis. As a precaution there were always people present to protect her from the violence of her husband.

Marciat finds in the life of Marquis de Sade before his imprisonment a tendency to be cruel, a hatred for all women and an untamable sexual lust. He rightly concludes that thirteen years of imprisonment, from his twenty-eighth to fifty-first year, must have wrought terrific havoc on his body and mind, since confinement made every satisfaction of his mighty sexual inclination impossible.

This is seen in his increased irritability due to his illness. It is proven by the endless mistrust of his wife as shown by the notations on his wife's letters, which ascribe sexual motives to all her actions. The prison made a deep impression on de Sade. In the solitude of the cell his fantasy roamed free in images of passion and cruelty. It could be his only substitution for reality. As soon as he received books he sought in them all the possible examples and models for his vicious presentations which he placed as a record in his many manuscripts. This also was plainly a means of escape for his tired mind and body. He wrote and read incessantly while in prison.

Unfortunately the diaries kept by de Sade from 1777 to 1798, 13 books, were burnt so that an important aid for knowledge of his mental state was lost forever. He had marked down in his diaries everything that he had "said, done, heard, read, wrote, felt, or thought for 13 years." Only his works are left for a judgment of his personality.

It is interesting to note that while in prison the Marquis kept a correspondence with some of his former mistresses. There recently came up at auction some of these letters, filled with passionate remembrances.

By chance, Mirabeau was imprisoned at Vincennes at this time and, curiously enough, he also wrote his obscene works there. A strange effect of prison life!

There exists a remarkable letter by Mirabeau on his relations with the Marquis. "De Sade yesterday set the prison in an uproar and without the slightest provocation called me most infamous names. I was permitted by Rougemont (the governor of the prison) to walk about the court, while his request to do the same was denied. He asked me for my name so that at his release he could cut off my ears. I lost my patience and told him: 'My name is that of an honorable man, who never was imprisoned for strangling women.' He was silent and since then has never opened his mouth to me. It is dreadful to be in the same place with such a monster.”
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Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 8:41 am

Participation in the Revolution and Literary Activity

The first scenes of the Revolution took place before the imprisonment of Marquis de Sade, who from youth had great sympathy for the movement. On July 2, 1789, before the storming of the Bastille, he halted the passersby on Rue Saint Antoine by means of a speaking trumpet, and soon had a great crowd listening to his loud insults of the governor of the Bastille. As the result of this incident Marquis de Sade was imprisoned at Charenton on July 4 and so missed the storming of the Bastille which took place on the fourteenth. He was freed from Charenton on March 29, 1790, by demand of the people. His first act was to hasten the separation from his wife. He also became estranged from his family; his sons left the country at the beginning of the Revolution. According to Lacroix he took a mistress who acted the hostess at his home. He lived first in the Rue Pot de Fer, near Saint Sulpice, later in Rue Neuve des Mathurins, Chausée d'Antin, No. 20. According to most reliable reports the Marquis was in a bad way as far as material wealth went. There exists a letter written in the year III of the Revolution, in which de Sade asked for a position as librarian or museum-conservator because he was completely without means, having lost his literary property at the storming of the Bastille, his lands at Marseilles by confiscation. There is another letter written in the year VI of the Revolution in which he asked payment for a poem he wrote and the return of a comedy. Soon after his release from Charenton he began to write a great number of comedies which he sold to the numerous theatres. For a couple extra louisdors he himself would play a part.

During the Revolution de Sade’s chief works appeared one after the other in quick succession. A year after his release, 1791, there appeared Justine, which was written for the most part in prison. The first edition is just erotic; those later, especially the last edition of 1797, contain all the bloody details. Marciat rightly believes that the influence of the milieu, the mighty events in the Revolution, called forth these later changes. Another novel written in the Bastille was Aline and Valcour which appeared in 1793. Then followed in 1795 Philosophy in the Boudoir and in 1797 as a crowning glory the double publication of Justine and Juliette. His 120 Days of Sodom was also written in the Bastille in 1785 but was not discovered until 1904. Until 1804, the year of his new imprisonment, the Marquis' pen was sterile, a fact which will later be explained.

Much has been made of the fact that Marquis de Sade at times denied the authorship of his works. But that signified nothing. It was a common practice of contemporary writers; for example, Voltaire and Mirabeau. Again, de Sade probably did not care to sit in prison any longer. At any rate he acknowledged to his personal friends that he was the author and presented to them a deluxe edition of Justine and Juliette in ten volumes.

We are scantily supplied with information on the private life of Marquis de Sade during the Revolution. One can only conclude from his earlier affairs that he resumed his previous vicious life. When Marquis de Sade was again seized in 1801 his bedroom was found full of large pictures representing the "principal obscenities of the novel, Justine." Many stories are told of finding instruments of torture in his bedroom. He had his walls decorated with pictures of all sorts of enemas and nude figures in all kinds of postures.

Especially notable is the political activity of Marquis de Sade during the French Revolution. He had clearly and early foretold its appearance. He said in Aline and Valcour, written in the Bastille in 1788: "A great Revolution is being prepared in this country. It has become tired of the crimes of our rulers, their cruelties, debaucheries and stupidities. It is tired of despotism and is getting ready to break its chains." In the solitude of his cell he had time to develop systematically all the Revolutionary principles, especially the fight against God, empire and priests.

The "martyr of the Bastille" also took a lively part in the leading incidents of the Revolution. He became secretary to the Section des Piques, also called Section de Place Vendôme and Section de Robespierre. In the disorders of September 2, when everyone remained at home, he thought he would be safest in the bosom of his section. So he left his home in Rue Neuve des Mathurins and went in the evening to the Place Vendôme. The friends of Robespierre were not there but in the Jacobin club. De Sade was recognized only as a man who had been in prison under the ancien régime. "Would you like to be our secretary?" "Gladly." He took the pen.

De Sade was an enthusiastic admirer of the bloodthirsty Marat and after his murder by Charlotte Corday, delivered his funeral oration, all filled with revolutionary phrases and celebrating "holy and divine freedom" as the only goddess of France. But all are agreed in saying that the Marquis was secretly despised and hated by the members of his section as well as by the other revolutionaries. According to Cabanès he was still called Marquis by his companions and adds that he was the only living Marquis under the rule of Robespierre and Fouquier. He was probably a republican not from political conviction but rather from his war against justice and law in general, because of his théorie du libertinage. He was the philosopher of vice but not a passionate politician. He developed a theory of absolute evil but in life he was very gentle, prudent, and full of virtuous phrases, which did not fail to please the great terrorists. A paradoxical action gave them the excuse of proceeding against him. He saved his wife's parents from the scaffold, for which he was condemned as a "moderate" and on December 6, 1793, upon the command of the Comité de la Sûreté Générale he was imprisoned in turn at Madelonettes, Carmes and Picpus; he, after a year of prison, finally received his freedom through Rovère, to whom he sold his property at La Coste. He had money for a while, once more.

De Sade went back to his literary activity which was hindered under the Directory. Indeed he had presented to each of the members a special deluxe edition of Justine and Juliette. At that time all the notorious works of Marquis de Sade were publicly sold. They were found in all bookstores and catalogues. A great capitalist financed the sale. This lasted until 1801. In the preceding year Marquis de Sade had published a novel Zoloë and Her Two Acolytes, a pamphlet against Josephine de Beauharnais (Zoloë), the ladies Tallien (Laurenda) and Visconti (Volsange), Bonaparte (Baron d'Orsec), Barres (Vicomte de Sabar), a senator (Fessinot), etc., all carrying on the most shameless infamies in a petite maison.

On account of this diatribe de Sade was seized on March 5, 1801. Without being legally tried he was brought to the prison of Sainte Pélagie, because a "trial would have provoked great scandal," and because the punishment was "even too mild for the crime." The prefect complained that de Sade seduced the young people in Sainte Pélagie and he was sent to Bicêtre. Upon the pleas of his family he was brought to Charenton on April 26, 1803. All his manuscripts and books were again confiscated. The practice of setting people in prison without trials was common in the rule of Napoleon. The poet Desorgues who wrote a chanson against Napoleon with the refrain

Oh, the grand Napoleon
Is a grand chameleon.

was interned in Charenton where he died in 1808. Many other authors met the same fate. De Sade indeed came off lucky. Buckle cites many similar fates in his History of Civilization in England.

We possess many interesting accounts of Marquis de Sade's stay in the insane asylum at Charenton. The most notable is the report of the famous Dr. Royer Collard on the Marquis in 1808. We give it verbatim:

Paris, August 2, 1808.

The Chief Doctor of the Hospital at Charenton to his Excellency, the Senator and Police Minister:

Sir:

I have the honor to appeal to your authority far assistance in an affair that threatens the entire order in my home.

We have here a man whose bold immorality has made him only too well known and whose mere presence effects the greatest evils. I speak of the author of that shameful novel Justine. This man it not mentally ill. His one delirium is that of vice—and this cannot be aided in an insane asylum. He has to be placed in the severest isolation to protect others from his outbreaks and to separate him from all circumstances that might increase his horrible passion. Our place as Charenton does not fulfill any of these conditions. De Sade enjoys too great freedom here. He can have intercourse with a great number of patients and convalescents either in his or their rooms. He has the right to walk in the park and often meets patients there. He preaches to them his criminal theories and lends them books. Finally we received a report that he is living with a woman whom he claimed was his daughter.

That is not all. They were so improvident at the asylum that they had a theatre erected for the performance of comedies and did not think at the harmful effects of such a tumultuous proceeding upon the mind. De Sade is the director of this theatre. He presents the plays, hands out the rôles and directs them. He is also the asylum poet. For example, at the dinners of the director he writes an allegorical piece in his honor or at least some couplets in his praise. I ask your excellency to remedy such a horrible condition. How can such things be in an insane asylum? Such crimes and immorality! Will not the patients who daily meet this man be also infected by his corruption and does not the mere thought of his presence in this house awaken the fantasy of those who do not see him?

I sincerely hope that your excellency will find these reasons imperative enough to find another resort than Charenton for de Sade. An order for him not to associate with the patients will not be sufficient as it will be only a temporary aid. I do not ask for him to be sent back to Bicêtre but I believe that a strong castle would he better fitted for him than an asylum with its many opportunities for the satisfaction of his degenerate desires.

Royer Collard, MD

This report had no results. Marquis de Sade remained in Charenton. There is a justification for the conjecture that he preferred this to a prison. He was the especial favorite of the director of Charenton, Abbé Coulmier. He was thus allowed the greatest possible freedom. Royer Collard's repeated complaints on the theatre finally resulted in its removal. But in its place were substituted concerts and balls! This he also made many protests against, but it was not until May 6, 1813, that they were stopped.

We have many impressions of the personality of Marquis de Sade during his stay at Charenton but they are none too trustworthy. Janin describes the perverted influence he had on the patients and the tender sympathy he showed to young and pretty girls. Lacroix writes that all the persons he met gave the best reports of him. Nodier recalls that he “spoke politely, solemnly and respectfully of all that was deserving of respect." But the "grace and elegance" were not borne out by his appearance for he was enormously fat. His tired eyes, though, would at times suddenly light up in excitement. According to the Universal Biography de Sade retained his perverted habits until his death.
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Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 8:42 am

His Death

Marquis de Sade died at the age of 74 on December 2, 1814, at 10 o'clock in the evening, easily and quietly as a result of a long illness which had nevertheless not impaired his vigor. De Sade wrote of his illness in a letter to Napoleon dated June 17, 1808. He bitterly complained that he had led a most unhappy existence for 20 years in three different prisons. He was 70 years old, almost blind, suffered from gout, and had very severe pains in the breast and stomach. This could be confirmed by the doctors at Charenton. He therefore begged His Majesty to release him. The archives at Charenton state that the Marquis had been ill for some time from "liver trouble as a result of asthma." The end was sudden: he became severely ill two days before his death. His son, Armand de Sade, was present and burnt all the "dangerous papers" of his father. He was scarcely dead when "his skull was seized as an invaluable booty as if with one stroke the secret of the strange constitution would be discovered." The skull was like all others. It was a notable mixture of vice and virtue, of crime and honor, of hate and love. It was small, well formed and very like a woman's.

After his death the following testament was found:

I forbid my body to be dissected under any pretext whatsoever and desire most stringently that it shall remain in the room in which I died for 48 hours in a wooden coffin to be made only after the expiration of this time. The timber merchant, Lenormand, in Versailles, shall be ordered to come with his wagon and take my body to the forest on my property near Epernon where without any ceremony I should be buried on the first coppice that is seen from the great path in the old part of the castle. The grave should be dug by the tenant at Malmaison under the direction of Lenormand who shall not leave until all the arrangements are completed. My friends and relatives who wish to show me this last mark of love for me may be present. The ground over my grave should be sprinkled with acorns so that all traces of my grave shall disappear so that, as I hope, this reminder of my existence may be wiped from the memory of mankind.

Written at Charenton Saint Maurice in sound mind and health on January 30, 1806.

D. A. F. Sade.
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Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 8:44 am

THE WORKS OF MARQUIS DE SADE

Justine and Juliette


The main works of Marquis de Sade, to which he owed his "herostratic eternity" were Justine and Juliette, later amplified to Justine or the Misfortunes of Virtue and Juliette, her Sister, or the Fortunes of Vice (Paris, 1797, 10 volumes, 18mo, 4 vols. of Justine and 6 of Juliette).

The plan for Justine dates back to the imprisonment of Marquis de Sade. According to the Universal Biography he wrote both Aline and Valcour and Justine in the Bastille. After he was freed in 1790 there appeared the next year two editions of Justine, one with a frontispiece by Chery, the other revised edition having twelve obscene pictures by Texier. The third edition, printed in 1792, is even more cynical than the first two; for example, Bressac practices his monstrosities on his mother instead of as in the earlier editions, on his aunt. A fourth edition appeared in 1794.

Juliette appeared for the first time in 1796. All these plans are essential for the study of Marquis de Sade since the great combined edition of Justine and Juliette in 1797 was not only the most exhaustive but the one which had the ideas of the author developed to the highest degree. In this combined edition The History of Justine or the Misfortunes of Virtue by the Marquis de Sade was in four volumes. The History of Juliette or the Fortunes of Vice by the Marquis de Sade, was in six volumes. Justine contained 40 obscene illustrations, Juliette 60; there are in addition 4 frontispieces. The motto for the work was printed on the title page:

To Portray the desires
That perverse nature inspires
Is a criminal act?

The Preface

It is found in the first volume of Justine and declared that the work was conceived in 1778, that the author was dead and that the false friend to whom the manuscript was entrusted had printed many faulty editions of the work. The present was a true copy of the original. Their bold thoughts would cause no shock in a "philosophic century," and the writer, in whom all "affairs of the heart” were open, had made use of all possible situations and cynical pictures. "Only fools will take offense. True virtue fears not the pictures of vice. She finds only a firmer conviction than before. Perhaps some people will cry out against this work. But what people? The roués, as once the hypocrites cried out against Tartuffe. No book will awake so pleasant an expectation and hold the interest so grippingly. In no other book are the passions of a libertine so cleverly executed and their fantasies so realistically described. There has never been written anything like this present work. Have we not then reason to believe that this work will last to the dimmest future? Even Virtue, though she tremble a moment, should forget her tears in her pride that France can own so piquant a work in which the cynical expressions are bound with the strongest and boldest system of immoral and atheistic ideas."

We see that Marquis de Sade himself was convinced of the uniqueness of his work and he indeed declared that he wanted to outdo all other similar works in cynicism. We shall now give a detailed analysis of Justine and Juliette since the first is very difficult to procure and the second has never been translated.

Analysis of Justine

It is the Misfortunes of Virtue that are described in Justine. Virtue, embodied in the heroine, Justine, always meets misfortune, and is strangled by vice and evil. This is the plot of the novel.

Justine and Juliette were the daughters of a very rich Parisian banker and were brought up in a famous convent of Paris until their fourteenth and fifteenth birthday, respectively. At the sudden bankruptcy of their father, followed by his death and that of the mother, they were notified to leave the convent and shift for themselves.

Juliette, the older, "lively, frivolous, malicious, wanton, and very pretty," was jubilant at her golden freedom. Justine, the younger, was naive and more interesting than her sister, a tender nature, inclined to melancholy, who bewailed her unfortunate state. Juliette tried to comfort her by showing her the joys of sexual excitements and how she could earn much gold by her bodily beauty. But her proposals were repulsed by the virtuous Justine and the two parted, later to meet one another under anomalous circumstances.

Then the fate of the virtuous Justine is told. She turned to the friends of her late parents but they insolently showed her the door. A priest even tried to seduce her. Finally she came to a great merchant, Dubourg, whose greatest sexual pleasure consisted in making children cry and who was naturally delighted at the wailing complaints of Justine. But when she later repulsed his ardent sexual advances she was thrown out. Meantime a certain Madam Desroches, at whose house Justine put up, opened her chest in Justine's absence and stole all her belongings so that the poor girl was entirely in the hand of this megaera. Finally Justine became acquainted with a demi-mondaine, Madame Delmonse, who gave her a lengthy lecture on the advantages and joys of prostitution (Justine I, 28 ff.). "Our virtue is not taken, only in mask. Hence I, like Messalina, am a whore; but I am also esteemed as modest as Lucretia. I am an atheist like Vanini; I am esteemed as pious as the holy Theresa. I am as false as Tiberius; I am esteemed as truthful as Socrates. I am believed to be as temperate as Diogenes; but Apicius was less immoderate than I. I love all the vices and hate all virtues. But if you ask my husband or my family they will tell you: Delmonse is an angel!"

Justine was now being assailed by both women and was finally led by them again to old Dubourg, but again she successfully resisted him. She was then locked in the house of Delmonse where Dubourg for the third time was to try his luck and where Justine had to defend herself against the tribadic attack of the wanton Delmonse. Finally the old impotent Dubourg arrived and was first prepared by Delmonse who gave him magnificent bouillon and rubbed him all over until he became heated. At the critical moment Justine for the third time gave him the slip by creeping under the bed. Poor Dubourg was again disappointed and swore revenge on the disobedient girl. Delmonse accused Justine of having stolen a golden watch from her and the poor girl was sent to prison.

Here she made the acquaintance of a certain Dubois who had committed every possible crime. She and Justine were condemned to death. Dubois started a fire in the prison and 60 persons were burnt to death. Justine and Dubois escaped and allied themselves to a band of robbers in the forest of Bondy. As Justine hesitated to follow the path of crime of her companions she was threatened to be put to death if she did not join. She was forced to be a witness and assist in a wild orgy of the four men with Dubois. The brother of Dubois, Couer de Fer, then greatly praised pederasty, which was loved especially by the priests (Justine I, 88-89). After many crimes of this band Justine escaped with a merchant Saint Florent whom she had saved from death and who pretended to be her uncle. They stopped on the way at an inn. It was soon apparent that Justine had leapt from the frying pan into the fire. For Saint Florent revealed himself as a thorough roué. He even waited to catch Justine during the satisfaction of a natural need. At the break of night they left the city and came to a forest. Here Saint Florent struck her in the face so that she fell down unconscious and satisfied himself on her, and left her unconscious in a truly sad state. When she awoke Justine could trust only in prayer. At dawn she hid herself in the thicket since she feared the return of Saint Florent and there she became an unwilling witness of a pederastic scene between a young noble, de Bressac, and his lackey, Jasmin. Justine was discovered by them, bound to a tree, but again freed and made chambermaid of the mother of de Bressac. She was a woman of severest virtue who held her son within bounds. Hence relations between the two were very strained. Madame Bressac sought to rehabilitate Justine in Paris. Delmonse had sailed to America so the affair was not discovered. In a notable fashion Justine was seized by Bressac, a complete degenerate and misogynist. He used Justine only to make known to her his evil principles, and to poison her character. He also started in her presence a sexual orgy, even overpowering his own mother. He told Justine that he wanted to do away with his mother because she had for a long time been in his way. Justine, who had refused to be a party to the murder, was to have been killed but fled to the City Saint Marsel to a house, supposedly a school kept by a certain Rodin. He received the now 17 year old Justine very warmly and introduced her to his daughter, Rosalie. Rodin was 36 years old, a surgeon, and lived together with his 30 year old sister, Celestine. The latter was a tribade and as erotic a monster as her brother. There was also a 19 year old governess in the house. Rodin had a pension and school for both sexes, 100 boys and 100 girls between 12 and 17 years. Ugly children were not admitted. Rodin instructed the boys, Celestine the girls. No stranger was admitted to betray the secrets of the house. On the very first day Justine and Rosalie observed the secret conduct of the brother and sister. Rodin appeared to be of the same taste as Saint Florent since he watched from a mirror Justine relieving herself. Later when Justine refused to obey the degenerate orders of the couple and sought to flee with Rosalie, Rodin determined to murder them both with the aid of a colleague, Rombeau, first performing a physiological experiment on them. A sectiso caesarea was performed on Rosalie amid a wild orgy. Justine came off luckily, being only branded, and was then driven away.

In her flight she reached the neighborhood of Sens. As she was sitting at the bank of a pond in the evening twilight she saw a child thrown into the water. She saved it but was surprised by the angry murderer who threw the child back into the pond and led Justine to his castle, where this monster lived alone. He had the peculiar mania of abusing each woman only once for the sole purpose of child-rearing. The children were raised until 18 months and were then thrown by him into the pond. At the moment he had thirty girls in his castle. He was a vegetarian and anti-alcoholist and also gave the girls plain fare so that they would be better fit to bear children. He also bound them to a machine before coition and had them afterwards lie in a bed for 9 days with their heads bent and feet high. That was his method of aiding conception. He conducted his own operations and took especial pleasure in the Caesarean. Just as the choice fell upon her she was freed by Coeur de Fer whom she had let into the castle and who gave her her freedom.

She next entered a Benedictine abbey, Sainte Marie des Bois, whose Prior Severino, a relative of the Pope, turned out to be a dangerous roué and pederast who practiced the vilest things in the underground halls with his lecherous monks. Two "seraglios of girls and boys were kept in the monastery and were watched by a Messalina by the name of Victorine." Descriptions of the orgies are then given and diverse sexuo-pathologic types appear. One received pleasure from boxing the ears of the women; another, menstruations; a third, the odor of the armpits. The monk Jerome said: "I would like to swallow them (the women), I would like to eat them alive, I have for long eaten no woman nor drunk their blood." Justine made friends with a young girl, Omphale, and was informed by her of the affairs and rules of this monastery-bordello. The monks preferred to give death penalties in the form of roasting, cooking, wheeling, quartering, strangling and beating. Between the numerous orgies great orations were given to justify them. The horrible Jerome then told his bloody, passionate life story. In the beginning of his career, after getting much pleasure from the seduction of his own sister, he induced sisters to be seduced by their brothers. He was also in Germany in 1760 and had practiced his crimes in Paderborn and Berlin (Marquis de Sade had also been in Germany at this time). Then he went to Sicily where poisoning was at its height and the clergy led the most degenerate life. He became acquainted with the chemist, Almani, who was very fond of goats and who had an orgasm at the eruption of Mt. Etna. With the help of a certain Clementia, Jerome practiced the cruelties of a Gilles de Rais. From Sicily Jerome went to Tunis and then returned to France when he had an opportunity to study the corruption at Marseilles before he entered the Convent again.

This account enthused the monks so much that they executed some more girls. Justine also was selected, for her only protector, Severino, had been called away from the Convent. In the nick of time she succeeded in fleeing. She met on the way Dorothée d'Esterval, a canny hypocrite, the wife of an innkeeper who plundered and bestially murdered all his guests. Dorothée begged Justine to go with her and protect her. But Justine again fell into a trap. The wife was as degenerate as the innkeeper. Justine had to serve both their lusts besides enticing and ensnaring travelers. Many such horrible scenes are described. One day there came an old friend of Justine, de Bressac, a relative of d'Esterval. All four went to Count Gernande, another relative. He was a real glutton and satisfied his passion by making incisions and wounds on his wives; he was on the sixth. Such scenes are presented in the most horrible fashion. Dorothée later seduced Madame Gernande to tribadism. Then there came another branch of that honorable family, de Verneuil, his wife, his son Victor, and his daughter Cécile. Old Verneuil also had a peculiar specialty of sexual pleasure. He stole from poor women and gave to rich women! He immediately started an orgy upon an Ottomane Sacrée over which hung a picture of God. There then followed many similar scenes. Bressac delivered an oration on the eternity of the soul and murdered the wife and daughter of Verneuil, Justine then fled to Lyons where she again met Saint Florent whose specialty was the seduction of virgins and then subsequent sale to the madames. He wanted Justine to be his accomplice but she indignantly refused. He imprisoned her and forced her to consume his spittle. After an orgy Justine was released and on her way from Lyons met a beggar who asked for alms and then robbed Justine of her purse. In her pursuit Justine came upon a band of beggars in a cave. The chief participants in the sexual debaucheries were the pederast and jesuit Gareau and the tribade, Séraphine, whose history is told in detail. She escaped from the cave and on her way found a man named Roland who had been left for dead by two cavaliers. This Roland was the head of a band of forgers and hid in a castle high up in the mountains. Poor Justine found out that she was in the hands of a dangerous libertine. In a subterranean cellar of the castle were numerous skeletons, weapons of all kinds, crucifixes, etc. Here he enjoyed his sexual sport: jeu de coupe corde, the hanging of women; since this was an unspeakably passionate death. Roland himself proved this to Justine who released him before it was too late. Later she was placed in an abyss filled with corpses by Roland; as soon as he left the next day she was saved by his attendant, Deville. One day the whole band was seized, brought to Grenoble and hanged. Justine, however, was saved by the devoted work of an attorney at Grenoble, S…, who also made a collection for her.

Justine now met an old friend, Dubois, who had promoted herself to a baroness. She tried to get Justine to aid her in a plan to rob a young merchant, but instead, she betrayed her, but it was too late as Dubois in fear had poisoned him. Justine was then seized by three men in the street and brought to the home of the Archbishop of Grenoble where the vengeful Dubois presided. This Archbishop was naturally a paragon of vice and cruelty, a "faun from the fables," a monomaniac for the head. He had his own execution room "in which before the eyes of the shuddering Justine a girt was beheaded." Justine fled but was again found by Dubois, denounced as a pyromaniac and murderess and placed in the prison at Lyons from where she was brought by the ubiquitous Saint Florent to the judge, Cardoville. In his castle a society of anthropophagists celebrated their orgies with the assistance of twelve Negroes. Justine was flogged on the wheel for a time. Then two girls made the operation of infibulation on her. Then she had to run between two aisles of men who beat her with rods. Then many participants lay themselves down upon a cross set with iron points and which excited them terribly, and gave occasions to wild outbreaks. Then Justine was led back to prison and condemned to death by fire. The prison guard, who had her commit a robbery for him, let her escape.

In her wanderings, she noticed one evening an elegant lady with four gentlemen. It was her sister Juliette, who upon recognizing her tried out: "Oh, poor girl, do not be amazed. I had told you all that would happen. I have walked the path of vice and found only roses. You were less of a philosopher. You see to what you have come." Justine was provided with clothes and food; one of the cavaliers pointed to her and said: “There you see the Misfortunes of Virtue!" And pointing to Juliette: "And, my friends, the Fortunes of Vice!"

Analysis of Juliette

The Fortunes of Vice is the theme of the six-volumed Juliette which appeared in the combined edition of 1797 as a continuation and completion of Justine, and described the triumphs of vice in truly ingenious pictures.

Justine and Juliette were, as has been mentioned, educated in the Panthémont convent from which came the "prettiest and most immoral women of Paris." For five years Madame Delbène was the abbess of this convent, a thirty year old tribade who initiated Juliette and her fifteen year old friend, Euphrosyne, into the secrets of lesbian love. She later met them in a bordello. She had le tempéramente le plus actif, 60,000 livres income, and was of a "delicious perversity." She developed quickly and at 15 years of age formulated her materialistic and anti-moral system of philosophy, studied Holbach and La Mettrie, defined conscience as a “prejudice implanted by education," discoursed on electrical fluid, objective existence of God, the soul, etc., etc. She started a great tribadic orgy in which participated the 20 year old Madame de Volmer, the passionate companion of Delbène, a true hermaphrodite, the 17 year old Saint Elme, the 13 and 18 year old Elizabeth and Flavia as well as Juliette. All were held by the world to be modest and chaste. Here they were of an "energetic indecency." Nevertheless their virginity was very anxiously protected. Juliette was deflowered much later by Delbène with the aid of the dildo. The entire society climbed into the catacombs of the convent by means of a grave in the church. There was an artistically arranged room in the catacombs in which the 10 Year old Laurette awaited her defloration at the hands of two monks, the 30 year old abbé, Ducrez, main vicar of the archbishop of Paris, who was entrusted to the Panthémont convent and the 36 year old Father Télème, a franciscan and father confessor for the novices and pensionaires of the convent. With cynical plainness Delbène explained to the astounded Juliette that there the nuns assembled with the monks for the purpose of sexual debaucheries and atrocities. Here the great "crimes" were planned and carried out. In the following orgies natural and artificial paedicatio played a great rôle with the men and women. It was especially recommended to the unmarried girls with the argument: point d’enfants, presque jamais de maladies, et des plaisirs nulls fors plus doux. Juliette had to deflower Laurette who was bound fast to the table. A rich meal was then spread and Laurette, nude, had to serve all the persons who were sitting at the table. Volmer manustuprated the monks over a punchbowl in which Juliette relieved herself whereupon the other women drank from it. Suddenly the lights were extinguished by the flight of a frightened owl and the orgy came to an end.

After the bankruptcy and death of her parents Juliette was immediately released by Delbène who advised her to enter a bordello of a certain Duvergier where she would also find her friend Euphrosyne. Juliette followed her advice and separated herself from her sister, Justine. Juliette went from convent to bordello where she had all kinds of adventures. The isolated position of this bordello has already been described. Juliette here had intercourse with princes, nobles, rich merchants, etc., and encountered all kinds of possible ways for satisfying desires. She became friends with Fatima, a 16 year old prostitute, whose specialty was robbing her clients. She was instructed in this art by one of the most famous thieves of Paris, Dorval, who received reports from his spies of all new visitors in Paris. These were seduced and robbed by his prostitutes while he watched and received great sexual excitement. He already owned thirty houses. His sexual perversion consisted in cunnilingus post coitum. He delivered a long lecture on the theory and justification of robbery, the “main pillar of society." He thereupon had Fatima and Juliette thrown into a dark torture chamber where they were undressed and told they were going to be put to death on the gallows, Dorval receiving great pleasure from their distress. A mock execution was performed, Dorval satisfied his lust on the quasi-dead and then had them brought back nude to Duvergier in a wagon.

Juliette was then sent to the archbishop of Lyons in the quarter of Saint Victor in Paris. This shepherd of God practiced paedicatio with the assistance of another woman and as a conclusion was beaten by a third woman with rods.

After Juliette had luckily escaped the danger of infection with a man having a bad case of syphilis, she made the acquaintance of a certain Noirceuil, a rich roué and a grandiose scoundrel. Noirceuil had the strange complex; his wives—he was up to the l8th—had to be witnesses of all his orgies. He moreover desired only virgins. Two naked boys had to beat, bind and cut his own wife during his orgies. She had then to undress and serve him and his mistress at the meal following their intercourse.

Noirceuil made a surprising disclosure to Juliette: "I knew your father very well. I was indeed the cause of his bankruptcy. I ruined him. I cast an eye on his property, I could double it if it were in my hand… So according to my principles I took the money from him. He died in ruin and now I have an income of 300,000 livres." "Oh! horrible creature! no matter if I am a victim of your vice, still I love you! Nay more, I even embrace your principles." "Oh! Juliette, if you knew all!" "Try me!” "Your father, your mother!" "What of them?" "If they went on living they might betray me… I had to sacrifice them… I mixed some poison in your father's food one day; and shortly thereafter in your mother's." At this dreadful revelation Juliette cries: "Monster, you make me shudder but I love you!" "The murderer of your family?" "What of it? I judge everything par les sensations. Your victims never excited such a sensation in me, but your confession that you are a murderer inflames me and makes me burningly passionate," exclaimed Juliette.

Noirceuil highly rejoiced at finding such a delightful companion, and kept her in his home. But she also always visited the bordello of Duvergier. She had a special section for respectable ladies and young girls who were seized with some degree of nymphomania and so spent part of their lives in the bordello. Many sexuo-pathologic types were to be found there. The Duchess of Saint-Fal gladly sold her pucelage antiphysique and mother loved intercourse only with priests. Every evening a virgin from Duvergier was sent to Noirceuil who, in the presence, of Juliette, the two children and his wife deflowered them. Once Duvergier had Juliette and six other girls participate in an orgy of a millionaire, Mondor, a decrepit old man of 66 years who needed infinite patience and excitation to attain his desire. He had to be made potent by a tribadic scene of six girls, artificial paedicatio and defaecatio in os. Juliette stole 60,000 francs from him but after his return to the home of Noirceuil she found the money gonc but Noirceuil hypocritically pretended that Juliette's chambermaid stole the money and had her thrown into the prison at Bicêtre. After the heroic deed he delivered an oration on the profits of intelligent crime Juliette then went with three young modistes upon an order by Duvergier to a Duke Dendemar in St. Maur whose mania was flagellation of women, especially those who were not prostitutes, and paid great sums for his victims. Juliette was bound to a cross, and burning oil was spilled over the bodies of the few naked girls. Juliette stole a great sum of money from him, departed from Duvergier and lived for a year in the house of Noirceuil, had adventures from time to time, until later, a servant of Dendemar saw her on the street and had her thrown into jail. But she was freed by the intercession of State Minister Saint Fond at the request of Noirceuil who declared that one of the girls who accompanied Juliette must have been the thief. Noirceuil told Juliette that the monster was delighted with her criminal talents and had presented her with a great sum of money. They then had supper with the minister.

Saint Fond was a man of about fifty years of age, a treacherous and cruel libertine, traitor and thief. He had on hand many lettres de cachet and more than 20,000 people were thrown into prison on his orders; "none of whom," he said, "were guilty." There were present at a dinner, the President of Parliament D'Albert, four virgins, Juliette and Madame Noirceuil. They were served by six nude boys. Each libertine received two boys for his disposal. D'Albert promised Juliette an omnibus decree which would protect her from prosecution for any crime whatsoever; Saint Fond also assured her of the same but asked that he should always be regarded with the highest respect and to address him as "monseigneur" as befitting his wealth and station. He had an extreme case of megalomania and thought more of himself than the king did. He hated the entire world with the exception of Noirceuil, D’Albert and a few others. In sexual affairs he cared only for the backside and its products which he devoured with joy. He was then described as a handsome, powerful and healthy man. In the course of the following orgy the wife of Noirceuil was killed in a horrible manner. Her whole body was rubbed with spirits, burning candles were placed in all the openings of her body. She was finally poisoned in the presence of the others. Juliette was then selected by Saint Fond to arrange his private orgies; a great hotel in Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré was then erected by her with his money; she also procured a pretty country house near Sceaux and a petite maison near the Barrière Blanche for his delectation. There were four chambermaids, a reader, two nightwatchmen, a housekeeper, a hairdresser, a cook, two servants, three carriages, ten horses, two drivers, four lackies and twelve tribades, all at her disposal. The minister made her the head of the "Department of Poisonings," since he dealt in whosesale murder. He explained to her the necessity in which a state often found itself of removing some objectionable character. Juliette was to poison these persons and receive 30,000 francs for each murder. There were at least fifty a year, giving her an income of 1,500,000 francs a year. The sacrifices of the secret orgies—two girls usually twice a week—brought her 20,000 francs apiece. Juliette hence received 12,000 livres from her personal enterprises, a monthly pension from Noirceuil, a million from Saint Fond for the general costs of the festivals, 20,000 or 30,000 francs for each victim, altogether a yearly income of 6,734,000 francs. Saint Fond added 210,000 livres for his menus plaisirs. He was easily able to afford this for he paid the money not from his own pocket but from that of the state which he plundered.

The amusements at the petits soupers and in the boudoir at Barrière Blanche started anew and were managed most excellently by Juliette. Saint Fond, who had also brought an imperial prince to taste these pleasures, had Juliette poison his own father. He then, together with Noirceuil, brought his own daughter, with whom he had long incestuously lived, to his moribund father and openly practiced paedicatio. Noirceuil followed suit. What pleasure for Saint Fond! He cried out triumphantly: "I have all at one time committed patricide, incest, assassination, prostitution and sodomy!"

There then followed a luxurious meal; a burning candle was placed in the backside of the little girl to provide light; she was eventually burned to death. Other girls were then placed upon a spit and roasted alive. Juliette desired a younger girl to assist her and was introduced to Lady Clairwil, a cold, heartless English beauty, who was a passionate tribade and hated all men. All her cruelties and atrocities were practiced against men. She delighted in both passive and active flagellation, and proved it at a tribadic orgy with Juliette and four women. Saint Fond engaged the services of a professional executioner, Delcour. The idea of being together with a veritable executioner aroused the greatest passions in Juliette. She had herself flagellated and Delcour practiced cunnilingus. Then with the assistance of Clairwil and Deleon, the greatest cruelties were begun. Cloris, a relative of Saint Fond, who owed his whole career to him, was hence selected for the victim, and especially because his wife and daughter had not assented to the covetous desires of Saint Fond. The latter had slandered both women to Queen Marie Antoinette, who gave him three million francs for their murder. Father, mother and child were locked in prison and forced to practice the most horrible kinds of incest with one another. Then father, mother and child were murdered one after the other. The executioner, Delcour, had to cut the throat of the daughter of Cloris very slowly for Saint Fond was practicing paedicatio with her at the time. Juliette had draped a room in black and placed the heads of the corpses in niches along the walls, later to be brought to the queen. Moreover their buttocks were hung on the wall. A number of torture-instruments were then brought up. A girl, Fulvia, was placed on the wheel. Others had their eyes stabbed or their bones broken. A youth was placed in a huge machine, resembling a coffee-mill and cut into small pieces.

Some days later Clairwil and Juliette were seized by the relatives of the murdered Cloris, but were freed by order of Saint Fond. The girls then killed the men while they were engaged in coition. Saint Fond strangled a girl in the same situation. Faustine and Felicitas, Dormon and Delnos, the two sisters of Madame Cloris and their fiancés were sacrificed after an "enormous dinner." Dormon was fastened "in a moment." Clairwil lacerated him with her teeth, and he was then flogged upon the wheel by two old women. Faustine, who was hanged from the ceiling by her hair, died from fright. Delnos was filled with nails by Juliette. Felicitas was "impaled" alive. The still-alive Delnos was then crucified like Jesus by Clairwil. As a conclusion a natural son of Saint Fond, Marquis de Rose, was poisoned. Saint Fond then had the mother of the Marquis killed so that he could come into possession of her immense wealth.

Juliette also practiced many atrocities in her country home. One day she rode about Sceaux and came to the hut of a brave peasant who was scared out of his wits at the visit of "so great a lady." She praised the cleanliness and order of the house, the pleasant countenances of the children, the proper conduct of the family and took advantage of the peasant's absence to place the hut on fire. At his return he found the house in flames and his children burnt alive, since Juliette had made sure that all exits were closed. She was greatly amused at the cries of the victims and then hurried to Paris to tell Lady Clairwil of her heroic deed. At the relating of the story Lady Clairwil wrinkled her brow like a university professor. For Juliette had omitted something. She should have accused the peasant of having burnt his own home so that he would have been hanged or placed on the wheel!

This excellent instructress introduced Juliette into the "Society for the Friends of Crime" to complete her education. Her initiation is described. After the reading of the forty-five statutes, from which one understood that only the greatest criminals and libertines belonged to this institution, Juliette was accepted. There followed the most unbelievable debaucheries. Defecations one over another, excitation by enemas, needles pierced into the genitals of men and women. All parts of the body are licked, sucked, bitten; hands and feet were vigorously used. Human blood flowed freely and was ardently swallowed. Testes were a favorite dessert. There were separate rooms for masturbation, flagellation, torture and execution. All four rooms were filled with their respective devotees. Incest of all imaginable kinds was the order of the day. Great argument ensued over who received the greatest pleasure, coniste, bourge, marturbateur or f… en bouche. But neither Saint Fond, Noirceuil, nor their half dozen lackies chosen from the strongest men, nor their twelve tribades, nor Clairwil, the numberless male and female victims, the festivals and harems of the "Society of the Friends of Crime" could satisfy the insatiable temperament of our heroine. She wanted more and more diversions. Clairwil and Juliette went to the Carmelite monk, Claude, for confession and discovered that this marvelous man had three testes! He informed them that he served his brother monks as Pathicus and that he was a confirmed atheist. He had a separate room in the Barrière de Vaugirard and the girls found there good wine, soft, snug sofas and a select library of pornography, besides godmichés, martinets and condoms. But the luck of this stalwart monk did not last. He was one day attacked by the girls in ambush and an ablation was made of his virile member which was used by Clairwil as a godmiché. He was then killed.

Shortly thereafter a certain Bernole, a dirty and ragged person, informed Juliette that he had important news for her. She found that the rich banker who she had believed to be her father and who had been ruined by Noirceuil was her father only by power of law. Bernole was her real father and he showed her the proof. Immediately the idea of incest came into the mind of our sensitive heroine. She realized this idea and had herself made pregnant by her own father whom she later shot in the presence of Noirceuil, Saint Fond and Clairwil. She then undertook the education of Saint Fond's daughter, who we had seen was instructed by her father in all sexual secrets, and completed his emissions from a feminine viewpoint. They attended an orgy at a Carmelite monastery at which two "black masses" were read. They both learned much from Count Belmor, whose mania consisted in binding children on the shoulders of a pretty woman, beating them until they bled and to lick up the blood with his tongue from the woman's genitals. He was an excellent statistician and had estimated that a libertine could easily corrupt 300 children a year; in 30 years it amounted to 9000. If only a quarter of the seduced boys imitated him, a very probable event, and counting a generation for every thirty years, then each libertine would see after two generations nine million products of his vice!

Juliette, who had had her incestuously conceived child killed by a famous abortionist, visited with Clairwil the poisoner and card-reader, Durand, who could only prophesy after she had seen the flowing blood of the passersby. She prophesied that Clairwil would not live more than five years longer and that Juliette would fall into much trouble the moment she stopped her wicked ways. After an hysteric fit of this bloodthirsty poisoner, Clairwil and Juliette were introduced into the mysteries of poisoning; many poisons were described and the exotic methods of their growing were explained.

So two years passed; Juliette was now entirely bestial and found pleasure only in the strangest and most extraordinary pursuits. She was almost 22 years old. Saint Fond informed her in a secret conversation that he had conceived his masterpiece. He wanted to depopulate all France and let two-thirds of the inhabitants starve to death. This made even the hardened Juliette shrink back. Saint Fond noticed it and grew very angry. Juliette then received a letter from Noirceuil saying that Saint Fond was very angry with her because of her "relapse into virtue" and that he was thinking of doing away with her and that she should therefore flee from Paris at once. Head over heals she ran from the house of Saint Fond and bewailed: "O damnable virtue! Again for a moment you have deceived me! But no longer do I fear that I will ever again be found at the feet of your shameful altar. Virtue only destroys people. And the greatest misfortune that can happen to anyone in this wholly corrupt world is to desire to protect oneself from the general corruption!" She took her money, jewels and tribades to Angers where she opened a bordello in the style of Duvergier's. Soon all the nobles and high-bloods flocked to her place. The rich forty year old Count of Lorsange, who had a yearly income of 50,000 livres, married her after she had revealed her entire life with mock-holy tears. The Count then sought to ensure the new-found virtue of Juliette by a virtuous discourse that even moved the speaker to tears. But "this pretty little talk" did not have much effect upon Juliette. After she had endured for a time her married life, her "reason" warred with "prejudice and superstition." She sweetened the two monotonous years with her "harmless man" by secret vices, especially tribadic pleasures, until, at a mass she met Abbé Chabert, an early member of the "Society of the Friends of Crime." The old splendor returned again. There followed a continuous stream of festivals and orgies. Juliette found some time in between to give birth to a child so that "the property of the man might be assured." She then became frightened that Saint Fond was looking for her and determined to leave France; she poisoned her husband who died in the arms of the hypocritical Chabert and took over his income of 50,000 livres a year. Provided with many letters of introduction of the Abbé Juliette left for Italy and left her daughter with Chabert.

How well she felt in the home of Nero and Messalina! She did not want to become a mere tourist and so planned to travel everywhere as a "famous courtesan" and announced herself as such. She first came to Turin, the "most proper city of Italy"; the pious superstitious people who had little care for pleasures, naturally failed to please her. Immediately after her arrival she had Signora Diana, the most famous appareilleuse of the city, informed that a young and pretty French courtesan was "for hire." Princes, counts and marquis came running. For as the Duke of Chablais said: "The story of all French girls: form and skin are enchanting. There is nothing here like it." Juliette learned from a certain Sbrigani, a Molierian figure, the secrets of cheating at cards and then took fabulous sums from a count and marquis in a gambling den. Sbrigani accompanied her on her journey as her husband. They went next to Alexandria where they plundered a rich duke. They found the tribadic art most highly developed; they participated in a few such orgies at a convent. On the trip over the Apennines they became acquainted with a seven-foot-three-inch anthropophagic monster, by the name of Minski, who lived in a lonely fortified house on an island. The chairs in this house were made from human bones; the house itself was full of skeletons. The victims set aside for consumption were placed in cells in the subterranean cellars of the house. Minski came from the grandduchy of Moscow and had made many voyages "to study and imitate the vices and crimes of all the world." He had retired to live in a little island of a pond as the "hermit of the Apennines" in order to give his criminal desires free rein. He ate chiefly human flesh and ascribed his strength to this practice. He lay in wait for the travelers who were to be served on his table as roasts and ragoûts. Juliette, her servant and Sbrigani were also doomed to this fate. But first he did the honors and showed them about his well-populated harem and the cellars with their enormous treasures. Enchanted by the loveliness of Juliette he finally promised to let her live if she would never attempt flight. They next went to eat. Minski, an extreme alcoholist, drank 60 flasks of wine! They were served on a living table! A row of naked women, one pressed on top of another, with bent shoulders and immovable positions, formed the "table" on which they were served. No tablecloth was necessary for these pretty croupes satinées. Nor napkins, for the fingers were dried by the waving hair of the women. The food was excellent. Juliette, after tasting a very succulent ragoût asked what it was. She did not know whether it was beef or veal, venison or bird, that made such a delightful dish. "It's your chambermaid," answered the monster with a lovely smile. The poor tribade and true companion of her mistress had been turned into a ragoût! This charming cannibal then showed his guests a menagerie of wild animals, had some women brought from his harem and thrown between the lions and tigers for their meal. But the greatest wonder was a machine that hanged, stabbed and decapitated 16 men all at one time! Everything was indeed very amusing and Minski promised them more surprises on the next day, but Juliette was a little mistrustful. Sbrigani also shared her fears, so they decided to flee. They mixed a little strammonium in the chocolate of the cannibal but only enough to drug him to sleep for "such a monster should not be killed." They robbed all the treasures from his chests and took along two women, Elise and Raymonde. So they finally reached Florence laden with gold and silver.

Here they put up a gambling house, connected with a bordello and a poison-den. Gold, indeed, they had enough, but it still gave them pleasure to see the world, learn the family secrets and to become acquainted with the morals and customs. Leopold, grandduke of Tuscany, and brother of Marie Antoinette, ruled Florence. Juliette and her companion were soon invited to an orgy given by the grandduke and his father-confessor in Pratolino. Leopold, "the grand successor of the first prostitute of France," diverted himself by the artificial abortion of women he had made pregnant. But he had something special to show his guests that day. He entertained Juliette with an especial performance of decapitation with musical accompaniment! The heads were cut off in accordance with the musical beat and à la ritournelle! Juliette observed that in Florence the men dressed like women and the women dressed like men and hence there was nowhere as much inclination for the same sex as there. The prostitutes lived in an especial quarter of the city. Titian's Venus in the Uffizi gave occasion for a lecture on the obscene representations in painting. There are mentioned the Venus of Medici, Hermaphrodite, and Caligula Caressing His Sister.

After our adventurers murdered another tribadic mother and sister they left for Rome. There they were richly received, soon became acquainted in the best circles, were admitted to all the palaces, and won the high favor of the tribadic Princess Olympia Borgia, Cardinals Albani and Bernis, and Duke of Grillo. They soon commenced the usual debaucheries with these new-found companions. Bernis composed in cynical self-irony an Ode to Priapus. Borgia poisoned her father and Juliette did the same to the Duchess of Grillo.

Both noticed how priests, monks, abbés, etc., slunk into a bordello. Then Borgia got the brilliant idea of setting fire to all the hospitals and charitable institutions in Rome. She wanted it performed by policedirector Ghigi and Count Bracciani, the first physician of Europe. Ghigi would rather have the people hanged because he received the greatest sexual pleasure in that manner. Bracciani, that great physicist, killed a girl "by artificial lightning." Finally the 37 hospitals of Rome were set afire and more than 20,000 people perished. Olympia and Juliette watched and got the highest sexual enjoyment from it. The conflagration lasted eight days. At the following orgy in the house of Borgia there appeared as participants in the feast a eunuch, an hermaphrodite, a dwarf, a woman of eighty years, a little boy of four years, a great bulldog, an ape, and a cock! Bracciani took the last-named and Borgia wrong its neck at the moment of ejaculation. The old woman had naturally committed many sins in her long life and so she was condemned to death and was immediately burnt alive on a funeral pyre.

Juliette was then presented to Pope Pius VI, whom she addressed by his former name, Braschi, and delivered a bold lecture on the prejudices of the church and the immorality of the pope, which was received with great applause by Pope Pius VI, who was himself described as a horrible atheist and as a sexual monster. At times he indeed tried to interrupt her, but he was abashed by a: "Shut up, old ape!" At the end of her lecture he cried. "O, Juliette, I was indeed told the truth when they said you had spirit. But I did not expect so much. Such hyperbolic ideas are indeed rare in women." The Holy Father would naturally have liked to possess such a woman. Juliette placed the most unworthy conditions for such a surrender. She was then escorted about the Vatican and shown the garden, making cynical remarks all the time. The meeting ended with a very intimate scene that gave the pope the opportunity of developing his materialistic and blasphemous principles. The next time a great orgy was celebrated in St. Peter's Church. The pope himself celebrated some "black masses" and had some people killed at its conclusion. Juliette emigrated to the bedroom of the Holy Father and used the opportunity of a sexual debauch in one of the galleries to rob the pope. Thereupon she rode with recommendations to the royal family at Naples. On the way she was held up by the robbers of the notorious Brisa Testa, to whose castle she was brought and with her companion thrown into a dark dungeon. They heard the bloodthirsty wife of the chief robber declare that they would be murdered on the morrow. Juliette recognized the woman as her old friend Clairwil, a sister of Brisa Testa living with him in incest. Brisa Testa then told the long story of his life that had led him to England, Sweden, Russia, Siberia and Turkey. He described in detail the perverse inclinations and cruelties of Empress Catherine Il who gave herself up to tribadic pleasures in the winter palace, the knout being stoutly applied. After diverse enjoyments at the robbers' Juliette left with Clairwil for Naples. She was received by King Ferdinand in Naples; Juliette gave him, too, a lecture on the Kingdom of Naples and its affairs, on the moral depravity of the populace, the "half-Spanish nation," and spiced her discourse with severe attacks on his sister-in-law, Marie Antoinette. Queen Charlotte of Naples was a lusty tribade whose charmes d’après nature Juliette learned at the first meeting; there followed a tribadic scene between the two and the godmiché as well as defecatio in os played important parts. Ferdinand was a confirmed necrophile. He delighted practicing paedicatio on a page whom he had strangled. The splendid surroundings of Naples, also recalling the horrors of Nero, were profaned by orgies on Cap Misenum, Puzzoli, in the ruins of the Procida, on Ischia and Niceta. In the temple of Venus at Baiae, Clairwil, Juliette and Olympia gave themselves to fishermen, and then returned to more respectable pleasures at the house of Prince of Francaville, a confirmed pederast. He organized a luxurious festival in the garden where the splendid pavilions, kiosks, stimulating activity, mass-flagellation, and automatically working phallus-machines enflamed the senses. At a visit in the museum at Portici our travelers saw a painting depicting a satyr in the act of intercourse with a goat, a practice, according to King Ferdinand, much in vogue in Italy. The ruins of Herculanus and Pompeii served as abodes of vice. Vespoli, the father confessor of the king and guide for his orgies, had erected a house for secret executions and tortures in Salerno. He found his chief pleasure in crucification and intercourse with lunatics! In Paestum the three tribades lived at a virtuous widow's with three young and innocent girls. Naturally all were overpowered and killed after they had been abused.

They next visited Sorrento, Castellamare and the Blue Grotto. On Capri they found that the practices of its former resident, Emperor Tiberius, were still being imitated. They returned to Naples in time to see a great folk-festival at which 400 persons were killed. Charlotte and Juliette formed a plot against the king; the following contract was drawn up by the queen: "I will rob all valuables from my husband and give them to the person who provides me with the poison necessary to transport my husband to another world." The contract was sealed by a tribadic scene. The unsuspicious king pleased Juliette by two especially strange performances. He had two women bound to iron plates, and one was pounded upon the other with such great force that both bodies were squashed to pieces. But the most noteworthy was the Theatre of Horrors whose performances were of an unusual kind. Executions and again executions! That was the steady program for the productions. Each guest had his own loge in which hung seven pictures showing the seven different kinds of executions: fire, beating, gallows, wheel, impalement, decapitation, dismemberment. There were also in each loge 50 portraits of men, women and children. For each portrait and kind of execution there was an apparatus which was set in motion by the machinist in response to a press on the proper button by the guest. One bell denoted the appearance on the stage of the victim. The second bell announced the execution, performed by four executioners, as "naked and pretty as Mars." The guests tried to form all sorts of amusing combinations, and at one "performance" 1176 persons were executed. This spectacle inspired Juliette and Clairwil to an especially piquant crime. They agreed to destroy their true companion, Olympia Borgia. At an excursion which brought them to the top of Mt. Vesuvius, they seized the unsuspecting Olympia, undressed her and threw her into the crater; resulting in an intense sexual excitement that brought them to a tribadic orgy. There then followed an eruption of Vesuvius! "Ah," Juliette cynically cried, "Olympia wants her clothes!" and she threw them after her, first having removed all the valuables. Meanwhile Queen Charlotte brought all the millions of Ferdinand to Juliette and wanted to flee to France after the murder of the king. But Juliette denounced her to Ferdinand who had her imprisoned; Juliette meanwhile fleeing with all the treasure.

Clairwil and Juliette again met the poisoner, Durand, who hated Clairwil and finally convinced Juliette to poison her because she knew that Clairwil was plotting against her (Juliette's) life. After the murder Durand said cold-bloodedly; "I lied to you. She was not thinking of murdering you. But her time was up. She had to die." They next came to a church where a merchant, Cordelli, was abusing the corpse of his own daughter. This blood-thirsty monster owned a castle by the sea from which he threw his victims into the ocean or placed them in a snake-box to be eaten by the snake. But his pleasures could no longer be possible. Durand and Juliette poisoned him and his companions and availed themselves of his great fortune. They rode to Venice where as we have previously fully described they opened mother bordello in the style of Madame Gourdan. Again the usual round of debaucheries commenced. Poisoning, prophesying and prostituting; Juliette and Durand vied to outdo themselves in vice and crime.

But finally their splendor came to an end. The bordello was suspended; the properties of Juliette and Durand were confiscated. Juliette went to Lyons and informed Noirceuil of her proposed return to Paris. The Abbé Chabert informed Juliette that he was bringing her seven-year-old daughter to Paris so that she could be brought up as a "law breaker." The joys of reunion with Noirceuil were very great. He gave one of his usual long discourses and told Juliette that he was now a thousand times worse than when she had left him. They then celebrated their reunion with a murder. Juliette fixed up a bordello for men and women in Paris; six pimpesses selected, assorted and parceled the wares. Juliette and Noirceuil tried to outdo Emperor Nero and Empress Theodora in debaucheries. Noirceuil then married in a church with regular prayers, blessings and witnesses his two sons, Juliette, her daughter, and a girl Fontanges seduced by her. The joys of this happy family did not last long. At an orgy, honored by the presence of the executioners Desrues and Cartouche, the sons of Noirceuil and Mademoiselle Fontanges were murdered amid horrible tortures. Juliette's daughter was thrown into the fire!

Here Juliette ended her story before the amazed hearers, after she had added that she had poisoned all the brooks and springs in the village where Noirceuil’s home was situated and where she was reunited to Justine. Many peasants had, of course, died with horrible torments. Juliette closed her long report with a glowing apotheosis of vice:

This is the fortunate position you see me in now, my friends! I understand and love crime passionately. This alone charms my senses and I will follow its principles until the last day of my life. Free from every religious fear, above the law because of my secrets and my wealth, I would like to see the divine or human power that can stand in the way of my desires. The past tires me. The present electrifies me. I fear the future very little and only hope that in the rest of my life I can surpass the debaucheries of my youth. For nature has created man to enjoy himself with all the possible amusements in this world. That is her highest law and will always be mine. So much the worse for the victims that must be provided. Every thing would collapse in the universe without the law of balance of power. Only through frivolities can nature regain her rights torn from her by virtue. We thus set things aright by compensating with evil. O, my friends, convince yourself of this fundamental principle from whose development all sources of human fortune spring.

Justine had cried more than once during this long story. Not so the Chevalier and the Marquis. At the return of Noirceuil and Chabert the sacrifice of this "incorruptible and perfect virtue" was determined. At the last moment Noirceuil decided on a sign of fate for there was a heavy storm brewing. Justine was brought into the open. And lo! she was immediately struck by lightning. The joy of the companions of vice was great. Nature had spoken. Vice was the only joy of man. As they still practiced their atrocities on the corpse of the unfortunate Justine, Durand suddenly appeared again. She had restated a great part of the money confiscated in Venice. At the end Noirceuil was named minister, Chabert became an archbishop, the Marquis became an ambassador to Constantinople and the Chevalier received an income of 400,000 livres. Juliette and Durand followed their beloved Noirceuil to new splendors; after ten more years of remarkable successes in vice Juliette died.

"Whoever writes my history," she cried, "should title it: The Fortunes of Vice!"
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Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 8:47 am

Philosophy in the Boudoir

Philosophy in the Boudoir appeared for the first time in 1795 as a "posthumous work by the author of Justine" in two volumes with five pictures and for the second time in 1805 in two volumes with ten pictures and appeared frequently thereafter.

The book is an imitation of the Education of Laura by Mirabeau and the Luisea Sigea of Nicholas Chorier. The main theme, the rearing of a girl in vice, is told in the form of dialogues and long, instructive lectures, which from time to time are interrupted by practical applications of the philosophical principles of vice.

The preface is characteristic of the book: "Libertines of all ages and sexes! Only to you do I dedicate this work; feed on those principles which feed your passions. These passions, from which cold and weak moralism shrink back in fear, are only the means of nature in allowing men to come closer to her and recognize her purposes. Listen only to this joyous passion, its organ is the only one that can bring you good fortune.

“Lascivious women, whose model might well be the sensuous Madame St. Ange, follow her example and despise everything that brings you into opposition with the divine laws of pleasure and that stand in your way of a joyous life.

"Dear girls kept at home by ludicrous tenets of virtue, superstitious parents and mere circumstances, step on anything that prevents you from enjoying your bloom of youth. Allow no one to prevent you from seeing that every maiden wish of yours be fulfilled.

"And you dear libertines who know no reins but those which give free vent to your desires, know no other laws than your fancies; may the cynic Dolmancé serve as a model for you! Go as far as he; so that when you have reached the end of your journey through a joyful land strewn with flowers and fruit you can look back and feel certain that this is the only purpose of life, the only master nature, in her very prolificness, intended you to serve. Then will you cry indeed that this is the only way to pluck roses from the thorns of life."

We summarize very succinctly the main points. In the first dialogue appeared Madame St. Ange and her brother, Chevalier de Mirvel. The former was the Juliette type that poisoned everything it came into contact with. Her brother was more receptive and was pushed in the rear by the more powerful individuality of Dolmancé. He was a perfect cynic who always ruled the entire situation with his brilliant and spirited sophistry. According to Mirvel's description he became hard through his early start in the path of vice and instead of a human heart had only animal passions. He was a pederast and never ceased to revel in it.

Eugenie de Mistival was a young girl whose mother was a bigot and whose father had an affair with Madame de St. Ange. The latter had already given her a theoretical discussion in vice, had thrown out all her ideas of religion and pure morals and so ensnared her that Eugenie trusted everything to her. So today—the whole plot takes place in one day—she was to be initiated into the mysteries of the service of Venus and sodomy. Eugenie came and betrayed her true nature by a confession that she hated her mother, the old bigot. Dolmancé then appeared and instructed Eugenie, who at the beginning blushingly pretended modesty, in the anatomy and physiology of the male and female privates, not omitting practical demonstrations. She learned the arts of amour physique et anti-physique. She was later given Chevalier, the gardener-boy and an idiot so that she might learn the different kinds of obscene groups. Towards evening as Eugenie had turned herself into the most horrible erotic monster, her mother, Madame de Mistival, opportunely arrived. Under the eyes of the triumphant daughter she was overpowered and received a dose of syphilis from a servant, Lapierre; before they sat down to eat Eugenic had to consummate the infibulation.

This is the action of the play. More than three-fourths of the book is taken up by instructive excursions.

Other Works of Marquis de Sade

Justine, Juliette and the Philosophy in the Boudoir are the works to which Marquis de Sade owes his herostratic fame. All the others of his numerous works are milder imitations of the above-named. It is for this reason that Marciat named the class of erotic pleasures that the Marquis delighted in as sadism.

Aline and Valcour, a philosophic novel written in the Bastille and during the Revolution, first appeared in 1793 in four volumes and again in 1795. Girouard was entrusted with the printing of this work in 1792 by de Sade. But the printer became embarrassed in a royalist conspiracy, was condemned and guillotined. Meanwhile the novel was secretly printed and appeared in 1793 under the firm name of Madame Girouard. It found few buyers. In 1795 the title was changed. In the same year the bookseller, Maradan, procured the remaining copies, changed only the title and frontispiece. It is undoubtedly an original of Justine and Juliette for it described almost the same characters. Valcour, a virtuous young man, loved Aline, the noble daughter of the noble wife of the cruel and degenerate President de Blamont. The latter wanted to marry his daughter to the old libertine Dolbourg since he had earlier given to this old friend as a mistress, the virtuous Sophie whom he acknowledged as his daughter. When the marriage was to go through he wanted to give his wife also to Dolbourg and to receive in exchange Dolbourg's daughter and wife. The plan failed. Aline killed herself. Madame de Blamont was poisoned by order of her husband. Valcour entered a monastery, Dolbourg became virtuous and the president had to flee. Two degenerate females were pictured in Rosa and Leonore. Leonore, who everywhere found fortune, was evidently a counterpart to Juliette. The work is also rich in descriptions of other personalities. Until the poisoning and some flagellation scenes there are no descriptions of cruelty.

Quérard thinks that the author described himself as Valcour and at times told some of his own experiences.

The Crimes of Love (Paris, 1800) is a collection of romantic tales, as Juliette and Raunai, Clarisse, Laurence and Antonio, Eugene de Franval, etc., in which the struggle between vice and virtue is described. Virtue usually conquers.

As a preface to Crimes of Love de Sade wrote Ideas on the Novel, a survey of the novel in the eighteenth century, introduced by an historical sketch of the development of the novel, which he defined as "a painting of the morals of the century, that has to compensate history in a certain sense. Only a keen observer of human nature can write a good novel. This keen observation can be derived only from misfortunes or travels." At the end he called unjustified the attacks on the cynical expressions in Aline and Valcour. Vice in order to be shunned must be shown. The most dangerous works are those that beautify and describe vice in brilliant colors. It must be shown in its entire nudeness so that its true nature can be recognized.

We finally mention the pamphlet that brought the displeasure of Napoleon on de Sade. Zoloé and Her Two Acolytes appeared in Paris in 1800. Zoloé is Josephine de Beauharnais, the wife of Napoleon. She was described as a lascivious, avaricious American. Her friend Laureda (Madame Tallien) a Spaniard, was "all fire and all love," very rich and hence could satisfy all her perverse desires. She and Volsange (Madame Visconti) took part with Zoloé in an orgy of libertines. Among the latter one recognized Bonaparte in the Baron d'Orsec and Barras in the Viscomte de Sabar. One word is sufficient to discover the author. That is the word "virtue." He wrote in Zoloé: "You have to remember that we are speaking as historians. It is not our fault if your pictures are painted in the colors of immorality, perfidy and intrigue. We have painted people of an age that is past. May this age produce better ones and give to our brush the charms of virtue!"

Of the comedies of Marquis de Sade only Oxtiern or the Misfortunes of Libertinage, praising the joys of crime, and Julia, or Marriage Without Women, an idealization of pederasty, are worthy of mention.

Character of the Works of Marquis de Sade

Whoever wants to note the results of a complete preoccupation with the purely sexual functions and pursuits of man can find them in the works of Marquis de Sade. This can readily be assumed from the analyses that we have given of Justine and Juliette. But de Sade went further: he made cold and naked crime the climax and dénouement of the action of his works. This union of sex and crime and destructive processes of all kinds must have had the most fearful effects since it was varied a thousand times by an unequalled imagination. Janin recognizes that "de Sade possessed the most indefatigable imagination that has perhaps ever terrified the world." A mind that could have conceived such a gigantic work of pornography in ten volumes demanded a painstaking genius and an experience that had to cover every walk of life and every phase of the human mind. And yet the Marquis de Sade was great enough to transcend this; for he always interrupted the action or broke up an orgy with long philosophic discussions and dialogues, often more horrible in their effects than the actions he preached.

Finally to complete the terrifying picture, all the truly monstrous assertions and convictions, all the products of a hyperbolic fantasy of erotica, were given by specific incidents and characters. Minski, drinking 60 flasks of wine at one time (Juliette III, 332); the Carmelite monk, Claude, with three testicles (Juliette III, 77); the theatre of horrors at Naples where 1176 people were killed at one time (Juliette VI, 22-2é), etc., etc., etc.

The works of Marquis de Sade are extremely important and instructive for the history and culture of the human race. Yet they are still repugnant and repulsive and repellent to any person save the most degenerate libertine; and at that I believe it would be difficult to find such an absolutely corrupt person that he would not shudder at some episode or person in Justine or Juliette. The effect of the original to a casual reader is one of immediate horror. Napoleon had all the copies of Marquis de Sade’s works that he could find burned in an immense pyre. It was not, in his opinion "fit for any human being to read." In fact the obscene pictures accompanying the text were less potent than the writing itself. In later times his works were indeed given the generic title Opus Sadicum.

The Philosophy of Marquis de Sade

Marquis de Sade was the first and only philosopher of vice. But his importance goes deeper than that. His works analyzed carefully everything in life that is related to sexual instincts which, as Marquis de Sade has shown with unmistakable clearness, influences in some manner or other almost all human affairs. "Love and hunger" do not equally "rule the world" for love is much more important and domineering in its rule.

The gross physical debaucheries and atrocious cruelties are covered with a resplendent mental veil because of the systematic exposition of the philosophic principles in all fields of vice. Its justification by logical method as well as by precepts and examples only makes vice more horrible in effect, both for degenerate and normal beings. Delbène, for example, recognized "sensations must not only be experienced but also exhaustively analyzed. It is at times just as sweet to speak of them as to enjoy them. And when one can no longer enjoy them it is divine to speak of them" (Juliette I, 105). Jerome said that the orgies in Sicily were interrupted only by philosophic discussions and that new cruelties were not attempted until they had been thoroughly "legitimized" (Juliette III, 45).

All the observations of de Sade were derived, as expected, from his materialism. He deified nature, which was for him the principle of the good in opposition to her enemy, virtue. The universe was moved by its own power and the eternal laws inherent in nature were sufficient to bring forth and explain everything that we saw without dragging in a "first cause." Why is a motor necessary for an object that is always in motion? The universe is a collection of diverse beings that alternately and successively act and react with one mother. There are no boundaries. There is everywhere a continuous change from one state to another in relation to the individual essence which takes on, one after another, new forms (Juliette I, 72, ff.).

The movement and impact of molecules explain all physical and mental phenomena. Hence the soul, as an "active, thinking" principle must be material. As an active principal it is divisible. For "the heart still beats after it is taken from the body." All divisible things are matter. Matter is further overcome by "danger" (periclité). The "spirit" cannot be endangered. But the soul follows the impressions of the body, is weak in youth, depressed in old age, is overcome by all dangers of the body, and hence matter (Juliette I, 86). Bressac gave an easier proof. As the body of the dead wife of Count Gernande made its last convulsive movement he cried out delightedly: "You see! Matter needs no soul for its movement" (Justine IV, 40).

The immortality of the soul is hence a chimera. This nonsensical dogma had made men fools, hypocrites and liars. There is only left virtue to which immortality is not ascribed. Juliette asked Delbène of immortality. "Have courage, believe in the universal law, resign yourself to the thought that you will return to the womb of nature and be reborn in another form. An eternal laurel grows on the grave of Virgil, and it is better to be entirely destroyed for ever than to burn in the so-called hell." "But," asked Juliette anxiously, "what will become of me? This eternal destruction frightens me, this darkness makes me tremble." "What were you before your birth? You will again return to the same. Did you enjoy anything then? No. But did you suffer? No. What being would not sacrifice all pleasure for the certainty that he would never suffer pain again!" (Juliette I, 83-85).

These doctrines of the soul are not the only possible ones for materialism. Durand, e.g., asserted that the soul was a fire that was extinguished after death and permitted its content to pass over into the world of matter (Juliette III, 247). Saint Fond constructed the world from molecules malfaisantes. Hence he only saw wickedness in the universe, evil, disorder and crime. Evil existed before the creation of the world and will exist after it. Virtue hence suffers great torments. Actually Saint Fond believed in a beyond, punishment and rewards. In order to prevent his victims from reaching heaven he concluded a bargain with them and had them sign their soul to the devil with their own blood on a piece of paper, which was sealed in a pederastic fashion; the victim was thereafter horribly tortured to death (Juliette II, 287, 341).

Following Holbach's methods, who characterized every religious impulse as a mental insanity, de Sade never tired of ridiculing the concepts of God and religion. His atheism was clothed in "a fanatic misotheism: ‘if there isn't a God, I'll invent one' for the sole purpose of mocking and deriding the invented God." The idea of such a chimera and the erection of such a monster is the only injustice that Delbène cannot forgive mankind. "My blood boils at His very name. I think I see around me all the trembling shadows of the poor unfortunates whom this horrible superstition has sacrificed." Delbène then delivered a critique of the different theories of God. The Jews indeed spoke of a God but they did not explain this concept and spoke of him only in childish allegories. The Bible was written long after Moses by different people and "stupid charlatans." Moses asserted that he received the Commandments directly from God Himself. Was not this preference for a God, Delbène declared, by a petty, ignorant people ridiculous? The miracles in the Bible were not reported by any historian. And how this God treated "the chosen people!" Scattered all over the world and hated by all the world. God need not be sought among the Jews. But perhaps among the Christians? And Delbène found even greater absurdities here. Jesus is even worse than Moses. The latter had God perform the miracles. The former made them himself! The religion proved the prophet and the prophet proved the religion.

Since the existence of a God cannot be proven by either Christianity or Judaism, we must fall back on our own reason. But this in both man and animal is the result of the coarsest mechanisms. If one tries to recall a thing as an absent object then memory becomes a reminder. If one tries to recall it, without being told of its absence, he sees it as an actually present object as the result of fantasy, the true cause of all our errors. The imagination consists of "objective ideas," which do not show us reality, and the memory consists of "real ideas," which actually show us existing things. God is the product of the imagination, the "stupid chimera" of a "debilitated imagination" which belongs only to an idea objective without real existence. God is a "vampire" who sucks the blood of men (Juliette I, 49-62). In actuality God does not exist since the eternally working nature finds herself in perpetual motion from her own power and not received from the creator as a present. For then one would have to believe in the existence of an indolent being who after he had made his gift went back to sleep. Such a being is ridiculous on account of its superfluity (Philosophy in the Boudoir I, 56).

And what a monster is this God! He drowned, murdered, tortured, harassed and did more damage to His people than any dozen Satans could ever dream of. His chief torment was His creation of a religion and a traveling salesman sent to curb amid a fanfare of angels and some thunderbolts. But nay! He was conceived by a sinful Jewess in a stall! Let us follow him and see what he does and hear what he says! What divine mission did he fulfill? What secrets did he reveal?

We see first of all an obscure childhood, some work he did for the Jewish priests of the temple of Jerusalem, then a fifteen year disappearance, during which time he imbibed the virus of the Egyptian cult, which he brought to Judea. He went so far as to reveal himself as the Son of God, and equal to His father in power: He created at the same time a third being, the Holy Ghost, and tried to make us believe that these three persons were not three persons but really only one! He said He took on a human form so that He could save us. This sublime ghost had to become matter and flesh to set the world ablaze with his miracles. He changed water into wine at an evening meal for some drunken men. He deludes some fools into thinking He knows the secrets of life. One of His companions plays dead for Him so that he can be "brought back to life." He climbs a mountain with two or three of His friends and performs some awkward legerdemain of which a thousand jugglers of today would be ashamed. He damns all who will not believe in Him and promises the kingdom of heaven to His believers. He left no written work, spoke little and did less. Yet He drew many by his rebellious talk and was finally crucified. In His last moments He promises his believers to appear as often as they call upon Him so that he might be eaten by them. He lets Himself be executed without His dear papa exerting the slightest effort to save Him from such an ignoble death. His followers gathered and cried that humanity would be lost unless they saved appearances by some trickery. Let us drug the watchmen, steal the corpse and announce His resurrection! This is a sure way of making people believe in a miracle. Then it will aid us in spreading this new theory. The trick succeeded. All idiots, women and children go gadding about this miracle and hence no one in the city will believe in this God. Not a man lets himself be converted. The life of Jesus is publicly advertised. This empty fairytale finds people who believe it true. His apostles put words into the mouth of their self-created redeemer which He had never dreamt of. Some exaggerated maxims are made the basis of their morals and since this was announced to all the beggars, love of neighbors and charity were made the first virtues. Diverse bizarre ceremonies were introduced under the name "sacraments," one of the most foolish of which is the changing of a piece of bread into the body of Jesus by a few words from a sinful priest (Philosophy in the Boudoir I, 60-64). It is hence not surprising that one frequently encounters the statements by the Marquis that he considers the defamations of the priests and religion to be a moral obligation. The discovery of new insults and curses takes up a good bit of the time of his characters. Dolmance becomes very angry that there is no God for he often wants to insult this dégoûtante chimère and at such times desires his existence (Philosophy in the Boudoir I, 125-126).

From these theoretical maxims Marquis de Sade succeeded in arriving at a practical philosophy of life, his "philosophy of vice."

To realize the triumph of vice in human society there must be a suitable pedagogy at hand. Marquis de Sade rightly recognized that the corruption of the youth meant the general downfall of morality. So from the pattern of Mireabeau’s Education of Laura he wrote the Philosophy in the Boudoir as a manual for the education in vice; he developed in it the theoretical principles and practical applications for the seduction and demoralization of a young girl. The education bans all nonsensical religious theories which tire out the "young organs" of the children and substitutes in its place instruction in the "social principles." They are also to be instructed in the difficult science of nature. If any one tries to smuggle in some childish religious fancies, he is to be treated as a criminal (Philosophy in the Boudoir II, 62 ff.). Marquis de Sade correctly saw that custom and habit were everything in education. Hence vice should be made an integral part of the customs and habits of the young people. "So be evil as often as possible! Then vice will gradually assume tremendous pleasurable proportions which cannot be dispensed with. Vice must become a virtue! And virtue a vice! Then there will be a new universe before your eyes, a consuming, passionate fire will heat your veins; it will become the 'electrical activity' that is the principle of life. Every day you will enfold new ruthless plans and see in all parts and in all ways the victims of your perverse feelings. Thus you will reach the rose-covered path that leads to the final goal, the last excesses of unnaturalness. You must never stop, hesitate and rest upon this path for then the highest pleasure will be forever lost to you. Above all, look out for that hydra, religion, whose dangerous whisperings will try to turn you from the good path." Delbène addressed these words to the fourteen-year-old Juliette (Juliette I, 27-30). The same advice was imputed later to the daughter of Saint Fond, her own daughter and Mademoiselle Fontages. Its effects have already been given in the statistics of Count Belmor.

So vice is systematically introduced into all the social relations; we mention only the most important.

Love and marriage are chimerical concepts for de Sade. With a jesuit casuistry Duvergier distinguished the two kinds of love, the moral and the physical. A woman can morally regard her beloved or husband and love physically and temporarily whoever sets his foot in her garden. Besides the temperament of woman demands many lovers (Juliette I, 286). Delbène, that great pedagogue of vice, delivered a long speech on the uselessness of morals for young girls and women. She asked astonishedly in the beginning: is a woman better or worse if a certain part of her body is more or less ouverte? According to her, morals must guarantee individual fortune. Otherwise they are worthless. Hence a maiden need not be forced to protect her virginity, if things go well and she burns to lose it. Indeed the more a girl gives herself the more she is to be loved and honored for making so many men fortunate. Hence one should not despise deflowered girls (Juliette I, 108).

As for marriage the question is not whether adultery is a crime in the eyes of the Laplanders who allow it, or of the French who forbid it, but whether humanity or nature is injured by such actions. Coition is as necessary as drink and food. Modesty is only a conventionnelle mode whose first origin was as a raffinement du libertinage. Now it is only a virtue of "dolts, bigots and idiots." It injures the health because it restrains important secretions. The "horrible results of sexual abstinence" have been described by many authors and especially by the author of The English Spy (London, 1784, p. 409-456). The communal possession of women is the only true law of nature and not monogamy, polyandry or polygamy. Since marriage is a subjective concept, independent of others, adultery by the wife does not infringe upon the honor of the husband. Delbène therefore gave many methods of how wives may best fool their husbands (Juliette I, 109-131).

The position of prostitution in society can easily be imagined from the foregoing tenets. Only a woman who has made companions and men happy with her embraces lives in the memory of mankind. Lucretia was very soon forgotten while Theodora and Messalina were sung of in thousands of poems. Shall woman be ascetic and live cold-bloodedly and unsung or shall she not rather walk the way of fire and blood and passion and satisfy her every desire?

The great influence of the doctrines of race conservation, leading to the theories of Malthus, may perhaps be underestimated today but in the eighteenth century it was like the Gospel in the middle ages.

To wars, diseases, famines, murders, "acts of God," etc., were added all possible methods of prevention of birth as an additional aid to nature. The spilling of the seed is no crime but a praiseworthy act; for it combines two useful objects, the creation of pleasure and the prevention of the increase of mankind. Less and better people than an influx of stupid masses! It was a natural result of the aristocratic system that limited the number of children mainly for the reason that they could pass on their great fortunes intact into one hand. Thus besides "moral restraint" Marquis de Sade lauded all the preventive means that satisfy pleasure yet prevent conception.

The most decided Malthusian was Saint Fond. He declared that France needed "blood let out of all her veins if she wanted to live." The artists and philosophers must be ejected, the hospitals and other institutions of mercy must be destroyed, and wars and famines must be brought about. At least two-thirds of the population must vanish (Juliette, III, 126, 261). Such an attempt was made by Borgia in Rome. Thirty-seven hospitals were destroyed and 20,000 persons burnt to death (Juliette IV, 258). In Justine the bishop developed a system of practical Malthusianism. Firstly, all children were to be murdered. Secondly, there were to be periodic visits of the villages by the soldiers and all superfluous members of the family were to be killed. Thirdly, the freedom won by the Revolution must be again taken from the people, so that hunger, disease, etc., would return. Fourthly, a total suppression of all charitable institutions. Lastly, all celibates, pederasts, tribades, masturbators, murderers, poisoners, and suicides were to be held in the greatest esteem and honor (Justine IV, 280-293).

Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population first appeared in 1798 but his ideas on the danger of overpopulation were preceded, as we have seen, not only by Marquis de Sade but by other French philosophers such as Quesnay and Mirabeau. Indeed Oliver Goldsmith in his Vicar of Wakefield (1766) showed how great was the preoccupation of the people of the eighteenth century with this problem. Marquis de Sade developed in many books his theories of crime which were closely connected with his Malthusian ideas. They were very systematically given in the Philosophy in the Boudoir, which he had Dolmancé read from a brochure bought in the Palais Royal. In Justine Bressac declared that crime was a chimera. For murder only changed the form of matter and did not destroy it. Nothing was lost in nature. Hence there could be no crime (Justine L 209 ff). Dellsime gave a different exposition on the necessity of crime. Nature made men differently and gave them different fares. Hence one was fortunate, another unfortunate. The latter were subdued and tortured by the former. Hence crime was a part of the "plan of nature" and was as necessary to her as war, famine and disease (Juliette L 176).

In the Philosophy in the Boudoir crime was analyzed with the flambeau de la philosophie. There were four general classes of crimes: defamation, robbery, murder and immoral offences.

Defamation is either against an evil or good man. In the first case it does not matter much if one says more or less bad things about him. It does not harm a virtuous man and the poison of the defamer returns to himself. Defamation serves as a purgative and compensatory method. For it places virtue in its right light. For the victim must be in the position to disprove the defamation and hence his virtuous actions become well-known. But a defamer is not dangerous to society. For he serves to place the vice of evil men as well as the good of honorable men into general knowledge and hence should not be punished (Philosophy in the Boudoir II, 78-81).

Robbery was allowed at all times and was indeed praised as in Sparta. Other races considered it a martial virtue. It is certain that it provides strength, courage, dexterity, etc., all notable virtues for a republic. There have even been societies in which the victim was punished for not watching his property any better! It is unjust to sanction possession by a law for then all doors are open to the criminals who are reduced by this knowledge. It is indeed fairer to punish the victim than the thief (Philosophy in the Boudoir II, 81-84). According to Dorval, that great thief and theoretician of his profession, power is the first root of thievery. The stronger steal from the weaker. Nature desires it this way. Laws against thievery are invalid works of men. Man now steals legally. Justice steals when it is paid for its decisions, a service that should be free. The priest steals when he is paid for being a pander between God and man. Dorval enumerated the thefts of all the professions and then gives a history of robbery in all lands concluding with the statement that at the end of the rule of Louis XIV, the people paid 750 millions a year as taxes and only 250 millions went into the state treasury. Hence 500 millions were stolen (Juliette I, 203-222).

Moral crimes must also be regarded indifferently by a republic for it does not matter whether the person is modest or not. Modesty is a product of civilization, principally due to the coquetry of women. Clothing, for example, which serves more to excite the curiosity than to protect from the weather. The care and development of clothing reveals the fact that women feared that men would take no notice of them if they were naked. Prostitution is the natural result of moral laws. It is hence viewed as a disgrace because the prostitutes take gifts for the pleasures they both give and receive. For marriage is also prostitution. For a man can get a wife only in most cases when he has a good position. Just as we give the right to pleasure to men so in a republic there can be no double standards and women must be given the same right. The results of such double freedom, children without fathers, are not injurious for all men have a common mother, the "fatherland!" The right of pleasure must be given to the girl from the tenderest age. Indeed the pleasures of love serve to beautify women.
Adultery is a virtue. There is nothing that is so opposite to nature as the "eternality" of the marriage bond. The adulterer is the champion of nature. Many ethnological examples are given to show the usefulness of adultery.

Incest is also a virtue! It serves freedom and strengthens the family love. Incestuous relations are found in all times and places. Again many examples are produced to show that incest bred strong races and was generally beneficial. This custom must be made a law because it has "fraternity" as a basis. But "sorority," too, must not be forgotten. Women have as much right as men.

Rape is also no crime and is less harmful than robbery. For the latter robs property irreparably and the former uses and returns the property. And besides it had to be done sometime or other, with or without the sanction of the church.

To punish pederasty is a barbarity for no "abnormity of taste" can be a crime. Just as little is tribadism a crime. Both practices are highly regarded by the aged. Marital people indeed highly praised them because they enhanced courage and bravery (Philosophy in the Boudoir II, 84-114).

Finally the fourth class, murder. There are two ways to view it, by natural and political law. From the standpoint of nature murder is no crime. There is no difference to nature between men, plants and animals. Man is born, grows, multiplies, dies and returns to the soil as all the other creatures of nature. It is just as great a crime to kill an animal. It is only our vanity that finds a distinction. Of what value can a creature be if its creation cost nature no trouble at all? The creative material of nature proceeds from the decomposition of other bodies. Destruction is a law of nature; but it is merely a change of form, the transition from one existence to another—the metempsychosis of Pythagoras. Therefore murder is no crime since a change is not destruction. As soon as an animal ceases to live other small animals are formed from it. Therefore it is logical to assert that we help the purposes of nature by assisting in the change of forms. It is due to natural impulses that one man kills another just like famine, disease and primal events. Nature has given us hatred, vengeance, and war. Therefore murder is no crime against nature.

It is also a great factor in politics. France became free by murder. What is war? A science of destruction. It is strange that men teach the art of war openly, reward those who kill their enemies yet damn murder as a crime.

From the social standpoint murder is also no crime. What matters a single member to society? The death of a man has no influence upon the entire population. Even if three-fourths of the people die out, there would be no change in the circumstances of the survivors.

How must murder be considered in a martial and republican state? A nation that has thrown off the tyrant's yoke to become a republic can maintain itself only by crime. All intellectual ideas in a republic are subjugated under the "physics of nature" and so the freest people give themselves most gladly to murder. De Sade here gave many examples. For example, in China the undesirable children are thrown into the sea and the famous traveler, Duhalde, estimated that the daily toll of victims was more than 30,000! Is it not wiser for a republic to stem the number of its citizens? In a monarchy population must be encouraged since the tyrants can become rich only by the number of inhabitants. Revolutions are only the results of overpopulation.

These ideas of Marquis de Sade did not spring from the brain of a madman. Very similar ideas were developed by the great terrorists of the first French revolution. The justification for crime and murder was a natural trend of the time. It is notable that in his pre-revolutionary work Aline and Valcour little or no importance was given to robbery and murder and that he took them both in his system of sexual theories during and after the Revolution.
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Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 8:51 am

THEORY AND HISTORY OF SADISM

Introduction


According to the Marquis de Sade there is no more immediate relation than that between passion and cruelty. Passion extinguishes sympathy in man and makes the heart cold and hard. (Juliette I, 248). At the same time stronger and stronger charms are necessary to satisfy the growing passion. The nerves need stronger impulses to be awakened and thrilled. It is undoubtedly true that pain excites the nerves more than joy and hence awakens a more lively thrill. The pain of others causes an extraordinary excitation in the libertine. Nature never speaks to us about others but only about ourselves. There is nothing more egotistic than her voice. She praises the search for pleasure and is indifferent if one or the other is agreeable.

This feeling of pleasure from cruelty is inherent in human beings. The child breaks his toy, bites the breast of his wet nurse, strangles the bird, etc. Cruelty is not a result of degeneration since it is found especially among primitive races, but, rather the energy of man which civilization has not destroyed and hence more a virtue than a vice.

The cruelty of women is much more intensive than that of man, a result of their greater energy and greater sensitivity of their organs. Their heated imagination makes them furious and criminal. Would you learn about them? Tell them of a horrible spectacle, a duel, an execution, a fire, a slaughter, disease and death, etc., and see how they flock to the scene. Further proofs for the passionate cruelty of women are given by their preference for poisoning and flagellation.

Our nervous system is so wonderfully formed that convulsions, fits and bloodsheds excite us and consequently are pleasant. This is even felt by persons who fall into swoons at the sight of blood, their own or somebody's else's. It is indeed declared that a swoon is the highest power of passion (Philosophy in the Boudoir I, 148-158, Juliette, II, 94-102).

Anthropophagy and Hypochorematophily

Human flesh is the best nourishment for the libertine since it assists in building rich and healthy spermatozoa and quickly replenishes the supply. Who once has eaten this sweet food forever sings its praises. Bread, on the other hand, is the most indigestible and unhealthy food and weakens and unsettles the body. Hence tyrants feed their staves with water and bread (Juliette II, 323 ff.). Minski especially attributed his strength to his dinners of human flesh (Juliette III, 313).

Closely bound with this anthropophagy is the pleasure received from separate pieces of the body, a kind of anthropophagic fetishism. So the buttocks of the people killed at the orgies were cut off and hung on the walls to serve as passionate excitations (Juliette II, 231). Silvia rips out and eats the genitals of her victim (Juliette VI, 235). Clairwil also uses the cut-off member of the monk, Claude, for her degenerate desires (Juliette III, 101) and explains that that object is so much in her fantasy that she is certain that it will be found in her brain after her death, although in life she only wants it in two different places, back and front (Juliette III, 154). This anthropophagic woman drinks the blood and eats the testicles of the boys she murdered (Juliette III, 72). She also tore their hearts out and used them as phalluses (Juliette III, 252). Minski, the robber at Brisa Testa's, is also a confirmed anthropophagist (Juliette III, 313, etc.).

Hypochorematophily plays a great rôle in de Sade's works. Saint Florent and Rodin find great satisfaction in watching the act of defecation (Justine I, 136 and 304). Mondor, Saint Fond and many others declare it their favorite food. The husband of St. Ange prefers the act in os (Philosophy in the Boudoir I, 92). Juliette eulogizes: "People are deceived about the excrement of our bowels. It is not unhealthy and is besides very pleasant. One accustoms oneself so easily to its odor! And it's most delicious! The most piquant savor! Of course, in the beginning one must influence his imagination somewhat to this direction. But when one has once reached that degree it becomes a highly joyous and exciting pleasure" (Juliette I, 289). Sexual hypochorematophily has nothing in common with the lunatics who cover themselves with filth. Indeed this strange monomania forms the best proof for our assertion that these conditions may be present in perfectly healthy persons, as is also described by de Sade. Taxil and Tarnowsky give detailed accounts of the medical differences of the reactions of the insane, as well as admitting that they found this practice was not restricted to the madmen.

Other Sexuo-Pathologic Types of De Sade

Krafft Ebing is greatly indebted to de Sade, for the Marquis assembled and described almost all the possible sexuo-pathologic types in his novels. There can be no doubt that the sexual perversions he described were actual accounts of real persons.

All the senses served de Sade to excite the sexual feelings. Let us begin with the ear. There is also a word -- sadism! According to Dolmance it is pleasant and exciting to use strong-sounding words of lewd significance in the delirium of passion because it increases the imaginative ability. Endless combinations were sought to discover which gave the greatest pleasure. These people used this vocabulary in polite and genteel society and received great pleasure from shock and shame of the others. Every conversation was spiced with slang and obscenity. Madame St. Ange in the midst of an orgy called out: "Come, let us blaspheme, my friends," and utilized the opportunity to shout at the silent Eugenie: "Swear! you little whore, swear!" (Philosophy in the Boudoir I, 125 and 129).

The eye, of course, has its part in sexual pleasure. Alberti delighted in seeing black women next to white because the contrast heated him (Juliette VI, 238). Great value is placed on the decoration of the rooms so that everything might add to the increase of pleasure (Juliette II, 231). The voyeurs are also richly represented. Saint Fond is proud of his "high art of spurring his passions by an industrious abstinency" and therefore sees to it that there is a long interval between coitions. Raimondi is another such voyeur who is satisfied with the bare sight (Juliette VI, 150).

The sense of smell is excited by the number of perfumes. In the "Society of the Friends of Crime" all participants in the orgies were cleaned and perfumed by young girls and boys (Juliette III, 30). Rabelais described in Gargantua the custom of both parties perfuming themselves prior to coition. The odor of women's armpits is especially exhilarating as is that of the fires (Juliette III, 54). A bishop has his face washed with urine (Juliette III, 51).

Taste also is made good use of. Not only faeces but urine and spermatozoa are swallowed (Juliette I, 172). The lécheurs and gamahucheurs belong to this category as do the numerous tribadic cunnilinguists (e.g. Juliette III, 55; VI, 152). Dolmance is an individual very active in this direction.

Touch is almost always used as a preliminary to an orgy. By tâter and claquer of the different parts of the body both parties are brought to the highest degrees of preliminary pleasure.

From the colorful number of the other sexual types, partly already described, we mention only the most notable. Exhibitionism is preached by Dolmance who tells Eugenie to shamelessly uncover all her charms to the world, how to lift her dress up, etc. (Philosophy in the Boudoir I, 147). Saint Fond recommends to men and women clothing that reveal the privates (Juliette II, 197). The satisfaction of cruel desires is achieved by decapitation, quartering, wheel, fire, mad animals, hanging, crucification, etc. Dorval performed a mock execution (Juliette I, 225-230). Another has a mock execution performed on him as a kind of symbolic masochism. Torture is also applied to many victims and flagellation is seemingly the breath of life to de Sade's heroes and heroines. To this category also belongs the monomania of venaesectio and incisio (Justine III, 223).

Zoophilia was highly praised by de Sade as a sexual refinement. "The rooster-cock is delicious but one must wring its neck at the exact moment of the crisis" (Juliette I, 333). The cock is joined in the fourth volume of Juliette with an ape, a goat, and a bulldog in order to satisfy the desires of the connoisseurs (Juliette IV, 262).

Ferdinand of Naples is a necrophile; he satisfies himself on the corpse of a page (Juliette V, 263). Even the statues are used: the statue of Venus in the Louvre (Juliette I, 333).

Finally the realization of bizarre fancies heightens sexual pleasure. Belmor binds his victims fast (Juliette III, 163), the King of Sardinia loves the enema (ibid, 54, 294). Vespoli especially loves lunatics (Juliette V, 345), a Venetian pander, menstruations (ib. VI, 147), a third the depilation of the genitals (Juliette II, 59), a fourth sticks burning candles into the openings of the body (Juliette II, 22), etc., etc., etc.

Curious natural phenomena serve to excite the passion. A eunuch, a dwarf and an hermaphrodite tempted the jaded appetites of the guests (Juliette IV, 262). The sight of great fires heated the senses (ib. IV, 258). The eruption of Aetna (Justine III, 67), of Vesuvius (Juliette VI, 35), the storm on the open sea (Juliette VI, 269) all created sexual pleasures.

Historical events were also favorite excitations. Tiberius, Nero and Theodora were imitated (Juliette V, 362; VI, 319 and 341). Orgies were celebrated in the historically famous cities and in the Temple of Venus at Baiae, etc.

Arrangement of Erotic Individualities

The attempt of Marquis de Sade to derive the individual inclination of the characters in his novels from the physical constitution is very important from a psychiatric and anthropological viewpoint. As an example we give the description of Rodin and his sister Celestine.

"Rodin was a man of 36 years, brunette, bushy eyelashes, pleasant eyes, heroic appearance, and high stature. His whole body breathed health and, at the same time, passion." Membrum erectum valde durum erat (Justine I, 252).

"Celestine, the 30-year-old sister of Rodin, tall, thin, expressive eyes, and a sensuous appearance. She was a brunette, hirsute, had a very long clitoris, virile anus, slight bosom, passionate temperament, and cruel desires." She had tous les gouts, especially a preference for women and only gave herself to men as a pathicus (Justine I, 253).

Marquis de Sade described Celestine in the above as very hirsute. Tardieu believed that this was a characteristic of extremely erotic women. He also spoke of an abondance du système pileaux, later of a brilliant gleam of the eyes and a passionate appearance, thick red lips and a pronounced development of breasts and sexual parts. A man inflicted with satyriasis has a rigid, covetous glare, bloodshot eyes, a passionate mouth, pale face, indecent mannerism and a challenging posture.

All kinds of persons take part in the orgies in the novels of Marquis de Sade. Yet in all the wild frenzies each participant had a definite rôle assigned. Each had a task and a definite pleasure to consummate. Delbène said: "Let us bring some order in our pleasures. We shall enjoy them better if we arrange them better" (Juliette I, 6).

The tribade, Zanetti, was well experienced in the formation of such obscene groups (Juliette VI, 160). The young student Eugenie was given detailed instructions as to these arrangements by Madame St. Ange and Dolmance in that text book of sexual pleasure, Philosophy in the Boudoir. Madame de St. Ange brought Eugenie to an alcove whose walls were covered with mirrors. There she had to repeat a thousand times all the different erotic positions so that she could see with her own eyes the most appealing postures for the different types and so that the other party could be in the position to see any part of the body he desired. So the lovers saw nothing but similar groups and imitators of their own pleasures, only marvelous pictures of passion (Philosophy in the Boudoir I, 40). An especial piece was the cavalcade which the lustful monk, Clement, introduced in Justine. In this position two girls got down on all fours. Similar obscene positions are to be found on almost every page of Justine and Juliette.

Lying and Sexual Perversions

At all times lying has been the steadfast associate of prostitution and all manners of sexual debaucheries. We can rightly assert that every roué is a liar and that their statements can never be relied upon. "The mania for lying," says Parent Duchatelet, "is universal among prostitutes and hence any one seeking information from them must be very suspicious about their declarations."

Behrend in addition asserted: "Prostitutes lie for the sake of lying. It does not matter whether the matter is important or not or whether the lie will injure anyone. I have even seen them lie in circumstances that were to their own disadvantage."

Almost all the heroes and heroines of de Sade's novels were experienced liars. Proficiency in lying was a condition for the initiation into the "Society of the Friends of Crime." Baron Munchausen would have tipped his hat at the lies that were told at the orgies of the club, that is if he were not otherwise distracted (Juliette III, 59).

Lying even afforded a sexual pleasure to these libertines. True, Dolmance extolled his love for truth but his statement was immediately questioned by that past-mistress of lies, Madame St. Ange. Dolmance then gayly replied: "Yes, just a couple of little lies and untruths. But that has to be in such a Society as ours where people hide their vices and only show us their virtues. It would be dangerous to be frank. For that would place one in a disadvantageous position. Hypocrisy and lying are enjoined upon us by society. No one is as corrupt as I. Yet all consider me to be a respectable man" (Philosophy in the Boudoir).

De Sade’s View of the Nature of Sexual Perversions

The great majority of the perverts described by de Sade in his novels are products of their environment. Most of the libertines arrived at their diverse perverse sexual pursuits from experience and the desire for "refinements." The entire Philosophy in the Boudoir was written with the purpose of instructing Eugenie in all the forms of vice and sexual perversions.

De Sade excellently described how this novice in vice eagerly and ardently heard the theories and placed them into practice. Dolmance said that the power of imagination was the prickles of pleasure, forever finding new kinds of sexual satisfaction (Philosophy in the Boudoir).

The fantasy gradually becomes receptive to ideas that originally arouse the greatest disgust in the mind and imagination. Dolmance drastically described how the young girl first exhibited the greatest distaste for paedicatio, then found more and more pleasure in it until this kind of sexual satisfaction became her especial preference.

The cynical apostle of pederasty, Dolmance, very candidly gave the reason for his preference, which we have seen was purely anatomical. The chemist, Almani, a zoöphilist, became a sexual pervert by the "study of nature" (Justine III, 67).

Only in two places have we found an indication of an hereditary nature of sexual perversion. Clement believed that it was due to the function of the organs. Hence the sexual pervert was "a sick person like an hysterical woman." He should be as little punished as any other sick persons, for he is not the master of himself. He is to be pitied not blamed. When anatomy becomes a perfect science then the connection between the constitution of man and sexual desires will he easily seen. Laws, morals, religions, paradises, hells, gods and gallows, all will collapse when it is found that the perversions are due to differences in blood, nerves and organs, factors over which man has no determining voice (Justine Il, 212-213).

Bressac believed that the pathicus was by nature entirely different from other men. His passions were "inherent as a result of an entirely different structure. It would be an arch-stupidity to punish them" (Justine I, 162-164). For a medical as well as legal discussion of the above questions we refer to Dr. Albert Moll's excellent work Perversions of the Sex Instinct.

Delbène said: "Vice should not be suppressed for it is the only fortune of our life" (Juliette I, 25). It must only be surrounded with such a mystery that will never be unraveled or detected. This mystery will lend an especial charm to vice.

Juliette was amazed at the quiet and peace at the great orgies in the "Society of the Friends of Crime," and drew the conclusion that man regarded nothing else in the world with as much care as his passions (Juliette III, 53).

Hence all orgies took place in dark, remote spots, in lonely castles, in caves, cellars, forests, mountains, near and in the sea, in torture-rooms and execution chambers. Hence the anthropophagist Minski became the "Hermit of the Apennines" and lived in a guarded and secluded house on a small island (Juliette III, 313).

Even for Dolmance there were certain things that "absolutely needed the veil" and which he hid from the eyes of the good Madame St. Ange (Philosophy in the Boudoir II, 153).

Definition of Sadism

Let us first give some definitions of other authors. Lacassagne explained sadism by a "mental state" which the sexual instinct excited or satisfied under the influence of an impulse for destruction.

According to Krafft Ebing sadism is that form of perversion of the sexual life by which a person finds a sexual pleasure in causing other people pain and in using their powers upon them. He places in contradistinction to sadism, masochism (after the writer, Sacher-Masoch), the desire to be ruled, beaten and mishandled by another, giving the victim great sexual pleasure thereby. He holds that sadism and masochism are the main forms of psychosexual perversions, which may appear in the entire field of vagaries of the sexual instincts in the most different geographical regions.

Schrenck Notzing believes, however, that the differences between the active and passive roles in the novels of Marquis de Sade and Sacher-Masoch is not as sharp as Krafft Ebing declared. He deduces both concepts from a higher concept, algolagnia (algos, pain; lagnos, sexual excitation) and describes sadism as active algolagnia and masochism as passive algolagnia. According to this author there are other forms of algolagnia; the onanistic (self-mutilation, self-flagellation, etc.) the visual (sexual excitation at the sight of fights, etc.), the zoophilic and finally the ideal or symbolic algolagnia in which "pain plays the rôle for its own self without secondary significance and imaginative embellishments and without any consideration for active and passive views."

Thoinot believes that "sadism is a perversion of the sexual life which finds sexual pleasure in causing pain to others whether he himself causes the pain or whether he has some one else do it."

Eulenburg preceded the concept of Schrenck Notzing with the words lognomania (sadism) and machlomania (masochism). Later writers follow in the main the above authorities. Moll in The Perversions of the Sex Instinct gives a more complete list.

A definition of sadism that will include all forms of passive and active algolagnia, zoöphilia, necrophilia, symbolic algolagnia, etc., is essential. It should be remembered that since actual and ideal destructive processes in nature appear as causes of sexual excitation and satisfaction, such as eruptions, storms, fires, murders, etc., sadism must be defined in the following way.

Sadism is the purposively sought or accidentally presented connection of sexual excitation and pleasure with the actual or also only symbolic (ideal or illusory) occurrences of strange and terrifying events, destructive processes and actions, which threaten or destroy life, health and property of men or other living beings whereby the person receiving sexual pleasure from such events may be the originator or spectator, voluntary or involuntary.

We believe that this definition covers all cases of sadism, including word-sadism, torture, forms of rape, etc.

Judgment of De Sade According to His Life and Works

The most important question is: was the Marquis de Sade insane?

Only too easily, in face of the present social, political and legal opinion, will the average person assent. Yet from a cultural and medical standpoint we are fully convinced that the greatest number of sexual perverts are perfectly healthy mentally and that their perversions are due to seduction and to sexual super-excitation.

Modern studies have modified Krafft Ebing's views. Indeed, he, himself, once admitted that "the most horrible sexual madnesses are otherwise accompanied by perfect health." Moll rightly remarked that this was a tacit approval of the theory that sexual perversity was not in itself a proof of insanity.

Eulenburg also states that "the greater percentage of algolagnists are not mad in the narrower sense. They are almost all of excellent physical condition."

Two doctors have recently expressed themselves on the mental condition of de Sade, who, as we have seen, was considered by Royer Collard as quite healthy. Dr. Eulenurg states that "even the leading specialists of our time would not have declared that he was insane or at least have denied him free will." Dr. Marciat believes that Marquis de Sade "was not insane in the exact sense of the word." At the most he could be accused of "moral insanity," but only from the viewpoint of Justine and Juliette. "But it must also be remembered that Mirabeau, Musset and many others wrote obscene books." Cabanès is positive in his statement that the Marquis was sane.

Rather than moral insanity (folie morale) we believe that de Sade was inflicted with a form of perversion that may be inadequately described as "impulsive madness," proceeding from the social organism; an impulsive origin of action without a clear, definite goal.

After these preparatory orientations let us investigate the life and works of Marquis de Sade with the view of obtaining some conclusions on his mental status.

1. De Sade was a Provençal and hence had the "southern hot blood" and the passionateness of his countrymen.

2. In relation to his heredity little is demonstrable. Yet it is probable that de Sade "inherited" from his uncle an inclination for the gallant life and for writing. We know that at his return from the war at the age of 23 he had written an obscene book.

3. There are no trustworthy observations on the childhood of de Sade.

4. It is notable that de Sade spent the formative years of his life, from 17 to 23, in the war, away from home and family. It is certain that the degeneration of Marquis de Sade had its start during this period of war under the enormous moral corruption of the French army.

5. The unhappy marriage did not play the important rôle in his life that Marciat ascribed to it.

6. It is pretty certain that Marquis de Sade neither destroyed nor killed the victims at his two great scandalous affairs.

7. It is certain that the long prison sentences caused important physical and mental damages.

8. That de Sade was of a strong sexual excitability is testified by the observation of his friend by Brierre de Boismont.

9.Very notable appear some mental anomalies of his prison life: the mistrust, the lying and the raging fits at the visit of his wife.

10. After his release the Marquis appeared more tractable and showed that he had not lost all moral feeling by rescuing his parents-in-law.

11. The mere extent and conception of his chief works, Justine and Juliette are astonishing.

12. The great amount of cleverly combined details, the development of gradual dramatic action, the excellent memory and the wealth of examples all denote a great mental ability.

13. The diversity of the writings plainly indicates the influence of the time and the milieu.

14. Michelet and Taine rightly called him the "Professor of Crime." He was the theoretician of vice, inasmuch as he collected and described with faithful accuracy from his own experience and observations all the contemporary anomalies of the sexual life of his time in his main works. Marquis de Sade wrote in the form of a novel what Krafft Ebing did in his scientific work, Psychopathia Sexualis a hundred years later.

15. Thereby his works have a decided cultural and historical value since they acquaint us with all phases, nuances and characteristics of the sexual life in France in the ancien régime and in the great Revolution.

16. De Sade’s theories of vice were a product of the Revolution and found many analogies therein.

17. In the works that were written before and after Justine and Juliette and the Philosophy in the Boudoir de Sade developed more or less moral views.

18. Even in the above notorious works de Sade had a certain moralistic tendency in his views against the ancien régime.

19. De Sade showed in his works that he had read all the contemporary and scientific literature.

20. As a philosopher he was little more than mediocre. His philosophy was an eclectic potpourri. His proofs consisted of senseless tautologies and more senseless premises.

From these facts we base our judgment. Marquis de Sade was not insane. He had, perhaps by heredity, a neuropathic personality, which in the midst of a dangerous milieu easily started him on the path of vice. He saw on all sides his friends became sexual perverts by seduction and custom and his high blood did not fare well at the lengthy prison sentences. There is plainly apparent in his successive works a gradual loss of power of the mind. We have already sufficiently noted the relation of the contents of de Sade's notorious works with the culture of his age.

The great gap between de Sade as a person and de Sade as a writer is thereby partly bridged. We can easily bridge the entire gap if we recall the power of imagination of perverts reaches almost unimaginable dimensions. "Many patients of this kind, perverts, masturbators, and especially algolagnists were disillusioned as soon as they tried to realize the effects of their imagination. They lived in their dreamy tempestuous world of sexual orgies and were sobered by reality." This is by far the most reasonable explanation for Marquis de Sade. He is personally not to be compared with such a man as Gilles de Rais.

The Spread and Effect of Marquis de Sade’s Works

We have already mentioned that the pornographic writings of Marquis de Sade were sold openly under the Directory and were to be had from bookstores and catalogues. A great capitalist financed their publication and sale which extended to many foreign lands. Hence it is not strange that in spite of the confiscation and destruction of Justine and Juliette by Napoleon 1 (1801) they spread to enormous extents by frequent reprints. New confiscations in 1815, 1825 and 1843 also served only to heighten the curiosity to see and possess these notorious works. Indeed the publisher, himself, asked that the book be suppressed for then he would have been certain that it would find many purchasers.

As early as 1797 Villers wrote about the spread of Justine: "Everybody wants to know just what kind of a book it is. Justine is eagerly sought for, treasured and loaned, an edition is suppressed and two spring up to take its place."

For over a century authors, bibliophiles and scientists snapped up every copy that appeared on the market. Janin declared that "every respectable library has its quota of the works of Marquis de Sade. Often enough they stare out from a stack full of innocent books. All the auctioneers have told me that there is the most spirited bidding when a book of his is placed under the hammer." The first and second editions of his works, including the monumental combined edition of Justine and Juliette has fetched at all times extremely high prices. Nevertheless all his works are difficult to procure even in French for all the editions were usually deluxe and limited and were confined to the sanctum of bibliophiles from which they appeared only at the death of the owner. In Germany Justine and Juliette were issued privately by the Bibliophile Society in an edition of 350 copies. Justine has alone been translated into English and I understand that it is extremely rare.

Two important French writers, Rétif de la Bretonne and Charles Villers, almost at the same time, start the long list of "de Sade literature." First: Anti-Justine or the Delights of Love, written at the Palais Royal in 1798 by M. Linguet in two volumes. Sixty illustrations were announced on the title-page but they never appeared. Of the eight parts that Rétif promised in the preface only the first was published. Of the first edition only two copies were preserved in the National Library after the great confiscation and destruction of all the obscene books found in bordellos and bookstores.

According to Monselet, Anti-Justine contained obscene descriptions from Rétif's own life and was supposed to form a supplement to his Monsieur Nicolas. The work was divided into forty-eight chapters on various obscene subjects. Rétif, however, managed to give a kind of moral mist to them and declared that it was a "kind of antidote" to the poison of the infamous Justine, which "would render the name Linguet immortal."

He set out with a warning to women against cruelty. But Anti-Justine was for this reason just as obscene as Justine since the men had for them a substitute that could be used without the cruelty of de Sade's works. Rétif continually repeated that these "antidotes were extremely urgent," thus testifying to the enormous spread of de Sade's works. Rétif ended the book with cynical remarks on the illustrations that were supposed to accompany the book, referring undoubtedly to the exceptionally obscene pictures of Justine and Juliette.

Villers, a French emigrant, settled in Germany after the Revolution. In 1797 there appeared a Letter on the Novel Entitled "Justine or the Misfortunes of Virtue." This has been definitely proven to have been written by Villers. "I have started and thrown away this horrible work over a dozen times, but its great fame caused me to read it to the very end. Justine could have been conceived only in the most barbarous and bloody convulsions; it is the true fruit of the Revolution. There are works that appear to have been inspired by the Graces; Justine must have been inspired by the Furies. It is written with blood and stinks of blood. It is to books what Robespierre is to men." Villers then set forth the philosophic theories of de Sade and succinctly and distastefully summarized the contents of Justine. He closed his essay with the words: "What can one think of an age that can find an author to write, publishers to print and a public to read such a work as Justine?"

Sadism in Literature

Marquis de Sade found many literary imitators. We shall name only the most important authors and works in which are plainly seen a direct influence of the theories of Marquis de Sade.

A mild imitation of de Sade was Toulotte's The Dominican or the Crimes of Intolerance and the Effects of Religious Celibacy (1802). It had the same taste for the union of cruelty and pleasure and contained many episodes from the life of the célèbre marquis but was in the main uninteresting and poorly executed. It was condemned on July 12, 1827, and confiscated on April 5, 1828.

In 1835 some bookseller conceived the brilliant idea of placing the title Justine or the Misfortunes of Virtue on the contents of a very poor novel. A selection from the preface of the real Justine was used. The story, in which thieves and rascals of the worst kind attempted to construct some weak principles of immorality, was ascribed to a hack-writer Rabau, and was published in Bordeaux. The book was publicly sold and the resulting scandal was great. The publisher was finally fined and imprisoned.

A writer directly influenced by the works of de Sade was Jacques Baron Révérony de Saint Cyr, the first true "sadistic" author. He wrote many plays, novels and scientific works on this subject. He died of insanity. Some of his works were: Pauliska or Modern Perversity, Recent Memoirs at a Polonaise (1798), Sabin d’Herfeld or the Dangers of Imagination (1797-1798), The Torrent of Passion or the Dangers of Gallantry (1812). The descriptions and doctrines are all direct imitations of de Sade.

"A respectable man always has a volume of Marquis de Sade in his pocket," wrote Borel in his novel, The Lycanthrope. Proudhon declared that George Sand was a "worthy daughter of Marquis de Sade" and taught similar doctrines, especially in her Lelia. Proudhon, himself, taught the same views on robbery as did de Sade.

The French revolutionist Fourier developed a sadistic theory of love. In his Harmony every woman had to have two children from an époux, one child from a géniteur, a favorite and assorted lovers. This harmonic world was protected from overpopulation by four organic means: gastrosophic regime, feminine vigor, integral exercise and coûtumes phanérogames.

Modern French literature is plentifully supplied with authors of a sadistic bent. We mention below only the most striking.

The sensualism of Baudelaire that, according to Bourget, "reached complete sadism" is so well known that any description is unnecessary. The Diaboliques of Barbey d'Aurevilly describe the self- and reciprocal atrocities of men and women. Satan is invoked, praised and served by the sadistic assemblage. Paulhan in his New Mysticism and Joseph Péladan in his Vice Supreme express similar ideas as de Sade on the joys of stealing and other persons' sufferings.

The much beloved hypochorematophily of de Sade found a devotee in Maurice Barrès. He has his "little princess" relate: "When I was twelve years old I loved to take off my shoes and stockings and wade with my bare feet in the warm dung. I used to spend hours doing this. My whole body thrilled at the contact."

J. K. Huysmans again depicted the problem of education of the Philosophy in the Boudoir in his Against the Grain. Des Esseintes met in the Rue de Rivoli a sixteen-year-old, poorly dressed boy who asked him for a light for his cheap cigarette. Des Esseintes gave him a perfumed, Turkish cigarette, brought him to a bordello where the prostitutes dazzled him. The madame asked des Esseintes why he brought the boy. He answered: "I'm simply making a murderer out of him. I am going to bring him here for the next fourteen days to accustom him to pleasures which he has not the means to satisfy. Later he will steal so that he can afford to visit you. I hope that he will also murder. Then my purpose will be achieved." He then sent the boy out with the words: "Go now do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you. You will go far with this fundamental principle."

In the already quoted Là Bas of Huysmans, Durral relates the history of the bluebeard, Gilles de Rais, the arch-criminal of the fifteenth century and a true sadist.

Emile Cheve and Paul Bourget have also given many personal sadistic descriptions. Alfred de Musset in his Gamiani or Two Nights of Excesses is believed to have taken revenge on his former mistress, George Sand, by describing her in his heroine, Gamiani, a tribade of the most savage kind. An intercourse between a woman and an ass, from the prototype of the Golden Ass of Apuleius], is also described.

German literature also has its sadistic authors. Heinrich von Kleist described in his Penthesilea how a love-mad woman had her beloved torn to pieces by bloodhounds and then joined the dogs in ripping out his entrails.

A German novel in which the Marquis de Sade is often mentioned and in which sadism plays an important rôle is the notorious Memoirs of a Singer (Boston, 1862). It is supposed to be an autobiography of the famous singer, Wilhelmine Schroeder Devrient (1804-1860). The novel consists of letters to a doctor describing the progress of the singer in the art of love. Justine has especially influenced the second part of this book and we therefore quote the important details.

In Budapest Devrient became acquainted with a certain Anna, a demimondaine and connoisseur of the notorious corruptions of the Hungarian capital. She asked Anna of her opinion of Justine which she had bought in Frankfurt Am Main, but which repelled more than attracted her. Anna then advised her to attend the whipping of a thief. This afforded the singer great pleasure and the victim, the thief Rosa, became a participant in the tribadic orgies. The idea of artificially deflowering Rosa gave her infinite joy and on the same evening the act was consummated by a "double" artificial phallus while Anna sucked the "virgin blood" after the operation. Next all the notorious bordellos of Budapest were visited. Respectable Budapest society celebrated a great orgy in one of the bordellos: the only coverings of the ladies and gentlemen were masks. The details of this orgy were largely taken from Justine. There a certain Ferry re-deflowered the prior Rosa. Devrient and Rosa then traveled to Italy where they became acquainted with a fifty-nine-year old English libertine, Sir Ethelbert Merwyn, who taught them all the sexual vices of Italy. He then brought them to Rome where after an execution of a man and woman in a church, an unbelievable orgy of monks, nuns, boys, and animals of all kinds took place.

Some Sadistic Moral Crimes

The hundreds of criminal sadisms that have attracted the attention of the authorities and that have appeared in print seem to justify the statement that in almost all the cases their prototypes could be found in either Justine or Juliette. For example, the well-known cases of "Jack the Ripper" of London, Ben Ali of New York, and Piper and Pomeroy of Boston, all find their counterparts in de Sade's works. We quote some interesting examples of these crimes from the works of Garnier, Mll, Krafft Ebing, etc.

A degenerate Russian prince has his mistress turn her back upon him and defecate on his breast. Only in this way could he become excited (cf. Juliette III, 54).

The Journal L’Evenement of March 4, 1877, told of a gardener who fell in love with the statue of Venus de Milo and was caught by the police in the picture salon attempting intercourse with it (cf. Juliette I, 334).

A married man complained to Krafft Ebing that every time he approached his young and nervous wife he would have to inflict some wound upon himself. She would then fiercely suck the blood from the wound and become greatly excited. A commander of the post had his mistress draw blood from her genitals so that he could excite himself by sucking in the blood (cf. Juliette III, 233, ff.).

The details of this truly sadistic affair are to be found in the Paris newspaper Gil Blas. The complaint was against Michel Bloch, a diamond broker and many times a millionaire, a man of about sixty years, happily married, father of two young girls. A co-defendant was a procuress, Madame Marchand, who introduced Bloch to his victims. The first meeting of Bloch and the complainant, Claudine Buron, took place in the following manner: The girl was brought into a room of Marchand and had to undress completely in company with two other girls, who had already made the acquaintance of Bloch. Completely naked and with handkerchiefs in their hands all three entered a blue room in which the defendant awaited them. The girls had to silently file past him with a smile on their lips (this was expressly demanded). He was then handed needles, handkerchiefs and a whip. The novice, Claudine Buron, had to kneel down before him. He stuck about one hundred needles in her breasts, back and almost all parts of her body. He then folded a handkerchief in three corners, fastened it securely with needles on her breasts, and suddenly ripped off the handkerchief with brutal force. Not until then did he fall upon the young girl, beat her, tear her hair from all parts of her body and finally satisfy himself sexually upon her before the eyes of her companions. These other girls had meanwhile wiped the sweat from his brow and had assumed "plastic positions." All three were then released by Bloch and given a gift of 40 francs.

When the incident became public and loud cries of indignation arose, Bloch assumed an attitude of wonder that such a great fun was made about a hire fun. He was fired and imprisoned for six months. The madame was given a year in jail. The girl received 1000 francs damages (cf. similar scenes in Juliette II, 284; 111, 55).

In 1840 the American Embassy at Madrid caused great excitement by a scandalous affair closely resembling the one perpetrated in Marseilles by Marquis de Sade in 1772. The ambassador had often before shown eccentricities of the kind of Marquis de Sade. One day he invited 20 "manolas" to a supper and distributed to these girls strong irritants which excited them to the wildest scenes under the American Eagle.

This short list could be multiplied almost ad infinitum. Scarcely a day goes by that similar "imitations" of the heroes and heroines of Marquis de Sade do not appear in the daily newspapers. We would like though, in addition, to refer to the extremely interesting masochistic case unique in its complexities, that is given by Dr. Albert Moll in his Perversions of the Sex Instinct.
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Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:22 am

"The fire of passion is always ignited on the torch of philosophy."

The great influence of the doctrines of race conservation, leading to the theories of Malthus, may perhaps be underestimated today but in the eighteenth century it was like the Gospel in the middle ages.

To wars, diseases, famines, murders, "acts of God," etc., were added all possible methods of prevention of birth as an additional aid to nature. The spilling of the seed is no crime but a praiseworthy act; for it combines two useful objects, the creation of pleasure and the prevention of the increase of mankind. Less and better people than an influx of stupid masses! It was a natural result of the aristocratic system that limited the number of children mainly for the reason that they could pass on their great fortunes intact into one hand. Thus besides "moral restraint" Marquis de Sade lauded all the preventive means that satisfy pleasure yet prevent conception.

The most decided Malthusian was Saint Fond. He declared that France needed "blood let out of all her veins if she wanted to live." The artists and philosophers must be ejected, the hospitals and other institutions of mercy must be destroyed, and wars and famines must be brought about. At least two-thirds of the population must vanish (Juliette, III, 126, 261). Such an attempt was made by Borgia in Rome. Thirty-seven hospitals were destroyed and 20,000 persons burnt to death (Juliette IV, 258). In Justine the bishop developed a system of practical Malthusianism. Firstly, all children were to be murdered. Secondly, there were to be periodic visits of the villages by the soldiers and all superfluous members of the family were to be killed. Thirdly, the freedom won by the Revolution must be again taken from the people, so that hunger, disease, etc., would return. Fourthly, a total suppression of all charitable institutions. Lastly, all celibates, pederasts, tribades, masturbators, murderers, poisoners, and suicides were to be held in the greatest esteem and honor (Justine IV, 280-293).

Marquis de Sade developed in many books his theories of crime which were closely connected with his Malthusian ideas. They were very systematically given in the Philosophy in the Boudoir, which he had Dolmancé read from a brochure bought in the Palais Royal. In Justine Bressac declared that crime was a chimera. For murder only changed the form of matter and did not destroy it. Nothing was lost in nature. Hence there could be no crime (Justine L 209 ff).

Defamation is either against an evil or good man. In the first case it does not matter much if one says more or less bad things about him. It does not harm a virtuous man and the poison of the defamer returns to himself. Defamation serves as a purgative and compensatory method. For it places virtue in its right light. For the victim must be in the position to disprove the defamation and hence his virtuous actions become well-known. But a defamer is not dangerous to society. For he serves to place the vice of evil men as well as the good of honorable men into general knowledge and hence should not be punished (Philosophy in the Boudoir II, 78-81).

Robbery was allowed at all times and was indeed praised as in Sparta. Other races considered it a martial virtue. It is certain that it provides strength, courage, dexterity, etc., all notable virtues for a republic. There have even been societies in which the victim was punished for not watching his property any better! It is unjust to sanction possession by a law for then all doors are open to the criminals who are reduced by this knowledge. It is indeed fairer to punish the victim than the thief (Philosophy in the Boudoir II, 81-84). According to Dorval, that great thief and theoretician of his profession, power is the first root of thievery. The stronger steal from the weaker. Nature desires it this way. Laws against thievery are invalid works of men. Man now steals legally. Justice steals when it is paid for its decisions, a service that should be free. The priest steals when he is paid for being a pander between God and man.

Moral crimes must also be regarded indifferently by a republic for it does not matter whether the person is modest or not. Modesty is a product of civilization, principally due to the coquetry of women. Clothing, for example, which serves more to excite the curiosity than to protect from the weather. The care and development of clothing reveals the fact that women feared that men would take no notice of them if they were naked. Prostitution is the natural result of moral laws. It is hence viewed as a disgrace because the prostitutes take gifts for the pleasures they both give and receive. For marriage is also prostitution. For a man can get a wife only in most cases when he has a good position. Just as we give the right to pleasure to men so in a republic there can be no double standards and women must be given the same right. The results of such double freedom, children without fathers, are not injurious for all men have a common mother, the "fatherland!" The right of pleasure must be given to the girl from the tenderest age. Indeed the pleasures of love serve to beautify women.

Adultery is a virtue. There is nothing that is so opposite to nature as the "eternality" of the marriage bond. The adulterer is the champion of nature. Many ethnological examples are given to show the usefulness of adultery.

Incest is also a virtue! It serves freedom and strengthens the family love. Incestuous relations are found in all times and places. Again many examples are produced to show that incest bred strong races and was generally beneficial. This custom must be made a law because it has "fraternity" as a basis. But "sorority," too, must not be forgotten. Women have as much right as men.

Rape is also no crime and is less harmful than robbery. For the latter robs property irreparably and the former uses and returns the property. And besides it had to be done sometime or other, with or without the sanction of the church.

To punish pederasty is a barbarity for no "abnormity of taste" can be a crime. Just as little is tribadism a crime. Both practices are highly regarded by the aged. Marital people indeed highly praised them because they enhanced courage and bravery (Philosophy in the Boudoir II, 84-114).

Finally the fourth class, murder. There are two ways to view it, by natural and political law. From the standpoint of nature murder is no crime. There is no difference to nature between men, plants and animals. Man is born, grows, multiplies, dies and returns to the soil as all the other creatures of nature. It is just as great a crime to kill an animal. It is only our vanity that finds a distinction. Of what value can a creature be if its creation cost nature no trouble at all? The creative material of nature proceeds from the decomposition of other bodies. Destruction is a law of nature; but it is merely a change of form, the transition from one existence to another—the metempsychosis of Pythagoras. Therefore murder is no crime since a change is not destruction. As soon as an animal ceases to live other small animals are formed from it. Therefore it is logical to assert that we help the purposes of nature by assisting in the change of forms. It is due to natural impulses that one man kills another just like famine, disease and primal events. Nature has given us hatred, vengeance, and war. Therefore murder is no crime against nature.

From the social standpoint murder is also no crime. What matters a single member to society? The death of a man has no influence upon the entire population. Even if three-fourths of the people die out, there would be no change in the circumstances of the survivors.

How must murder be considered in a martial and republican state? A nation that has thrown off the tyrant's yoke to become a republic can maintain itself only by crime. All intellectual ideas in a republic are subjugated under the "physics of nature" and so the freest people give themselves most gladly to murder. De Sade here gave many examples. For example, in China the undesirable children are thrown into the sea and the famous traveler, Duhalde, estimated that the daily toll of victims was more than 30,000! Is it not wiser for a republic to stem the number of its citizens? In a monarchy population must be encouraged since the tyrants can become rich only by the number of inhabitants. Revolutions are only the results of overpopulation.
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Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:23 am

Jesus, Artisan of Hoaxes, Bandit of Homage, Robber of Affection, hear! Since the day when thou didst issue from the complaisant bowels of a Virgin, thou hast failed all thine engagements, belied all thy promises. Centuries have wept, awaiting thee, fugitive God, mute God! Thou wast to redeem man and thou hast not, thou wast to appear in thy glory, and thou sleepest. Go, lie, say to the wretch who appeals to thee, 'Hope, be patient, suffer; the hospital of souls will receive thee; the angels will assist thee; Heaven opens to thee.' Imposter! thou knowest well that the angels, disgusted at thine inertness, abandon thee! Thou wast to be the Interpreter of our plaints, the Chamberlain of our tears; thou wast to convey them to the Father and thou hast not done so, for this intercession would disturb thine eternal sleep of happy satiety.

“Thou hast forgotten the poverty thou didst preach, enamoured vassal of Banks! Thou hast seen the weak crushed beneath the press of profit; thou hast heard the death rattle of the timid, paralyzed by famine, of women disembowelled for a bit of bread, and thou hast caused the Chancery of thy Simoniacs, thy commercial representatives, thy Popes, to answer by dilatory excuses and evasive promises, sacristy Shyster, huckster God!

"Master, whose inconceivable ferocity engenders life and inflicts it on the innocent whom thou darest damn—in the name of what original sin?—whom thou darest punish—by the virtue of what covenants?—we would have thee confess thine impudent cheats, thine inexpiable crimes! We would drive deeper the nails into thy hands, press down the crown of thorns upon thy brow, bring blood and water from the dry wounds of thy sides.

"And that we can and will do by violating the quietude of thy body, Profaner of ample vices, Abstractor of stupid purities, cursed Nazarene, do-nothing King, coward God!"

"Amen!" trilled the soprano voices of the choir boys.

The Marquis de Sade gave evidence in his novels of being a fanatic Satanist. Many black masses appeared in Justine and Juliette. A mass in a monastery was fully described in Justine (II, 239). A Maiden, as the Holy Virgin, with arms raised to heaven, was bound in a niche in the church. Later she was laid naked on a great table, candles were lit, a crucifix decorated her buttocks, and "they celebrated on her buttocks the most absurd mysteries of Christianity." Then a mass was read on the same place. As soon as there was a Host of God, she seized the monk Ambrose and held fast to his member, whereby the believers in the Host were derided with the maddest expressions.
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Re: Marquis De Sade: His Life and Work, by Dr. Iwan Bloch

Postby admin » Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:23 am

A great Revolution is being prepared in this country. It has become tired of the crimes of our rulers, their cruelties, debaucheries and stupidities. It is tired of despotism and is getting ready to break its chains.
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