Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade

Thomas Wynn (University of Durham)

Ed. by Tim Unwin, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born 2 Jun 1740
Died 2 Dec 1814
Activity 1791-1814

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Other

Story-writer

Resources

Sade's Works

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Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, more commonly known as the marquis de Sade, was born in Paris in 1740. He spent much of his adult life in prison for acts of debauchery and for his writings, although he did actively participate in the French Revolution. He died in 1814 at the Charenton asylum outside Paris, where he had been held for over a decade. Sade's reputation has developed considerably since his death; known primarily during his lifetime and the nineteenth century as the author of obscene pornography, he was a case study for sexologists like Kraft-Ebing, who coined the term “sadism”. Sade was championed in the early twentieth century by Apollinaire and by the Surrealists, for whom he represented a liberated explorer of sexuality and of the imagination. Later writers such as…

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2978 words

Citation: Wynn, Thomas. "Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 November 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3901, accessed 22 November 2024.]