Author(s): Marquis de Sade

Fiction

The Marquis De Sade lived from 1740 to 1814. His major works were written and some of them published between 1780 and 1800. For the best part of two centuries his status was as author of notorious pornographic novels, a sexual pervert who spent much of his life in prison and whose name was unmentionable in polite society. It is only in recent times that the Marquis has come to be seen as one of the most misunderstood writers of his day. The stories in this collection are among the most accessible of Sade's fiction. They range form the dramatic novella Eugenie de Franval in which a father's criminal passion for his beautiful daughter leads to intrigue, abduction and murder - to comic tales such as 'The Husband Who Played Priest', concerning a lecherous monk who finds an ingenious way to combine clerical duties and secular pleasures. Sade's gifts as a humourist are much in evidence as is his particular delight in unusual marital situations. Whether he's writing bawdy, exuberant comedy or high tragedy, Sade is essentially a moralist, and his exploration of the darker side of human nature remains as relevant to our society as it was to his own. There is one thing to be said for classics - there is a reason they remain with us - this is a qualtiy read!