Laurence L. Bongie

A compelling view of the progress of a literary rogue through the low-life street scenes of eighteenth-century Paris.

The writings of the Marquis de Sade have recently attained notoriety in the canon of world literature. Now Sade himself is often celebrated as a heroic apostle of individual rights and a giant of philosophical thought. In this detailed investigative work, Laurence Bongie tests these claims and finds them unfounded and undeserved."A valuable correction to the perception of Sade as a profound thinker, a great writer, and a martyr to liberty. Drawing on original archival work, Bongie tries to illuminate Sade's childhood and his relationship with his parents. . . . Fluent and well-informed."—Library Journal"Mr. Bongie . . . has written an investigation focusing on one aspect of Sade's character and development, his heretofore neglected relationship with his aristocratic mother. . . . A profitable selection."—Richard Bernstein, New York Times"A welcome corrective. Bongie's book . . . aims to deflate the exalted claims made about the marquis by demonstrating that he was a monstrous character."—Scott Stossel, Boston Phoenix Literary Supplement

The writings of the Marquis de Sade have attained in recent years a widely acclaimed position in the canon of world literature. Sade himself, at one time discussed mainly in horrified whispers, is now often celebrated as a heroic apostle of individual rights, a giant of philosophical thought, and a martyr to freedom of conscience. This text puts these claims to a severe test and finds them clearly unfounded and undeserved. Laurence Bongie lays bare both the man and the writer, using newly discovered material in police archives to examine and reconstruct the complex relationship between the Marquis and his parents, particularly his mother. The documentation establishes the professional and sexual misconduct of Sade's diplomat father, leading to the anger and disappointment of Sade's mother, and to a troubled family dynamic that became a significant source of Sade's transgressive ideology, in both act and text. Bongie's research uncovers information on Sade's obscure preadolescent years and explores how it relates to Sade the author. He reminds the reader that it was not for his ideas but for his repeated involvement in criminal sexual assaults on women that Sade - the haughtiest of latter-day aristocrats, later a bogus revolutionary - ended up in the Bastille.

The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.