author
marquis de Sade
1740–1814
A scandalous and unforgettable figure of the French Enlightenment, this writer became one of literature’s most controversial names. His novels, plays, and political writings continue to provoke debate about freedom, desire, power, and cruelty.
5 Audiobooks
Aline et Valcour, ou Le Roman Philosophique. Tome 3
by marquis de Sade
Aline et Valcour, ou Le Roman Philosophique. Tome 4
by marquis de Sade
Aline et Valcour, ou Le Roman Philosophique. Tome 2
by marquis de Sade
Aline et Valcour, ou Le Roman Philosophique. Tome 1
by marquis de Sade
About the author
Born in Paris on June 2, 1740, Donatien Alphonse François de Sade—better known as the Marquis de Sade—was a French nobleman, writer, and political figure. He served in the military and lived through the upheaval of the French Revolution, but his life was marked above all by repeated imprisonment and public scandal.
He is best known for works such as Justine, Juliette, and The 120 Days of Sodom, books that mixed fiction, philosophy, and extreme sexual violence in ways that shocked even his own era. His name gave rise to the word "sadism," and his writing has long been argued over: some readers see only transgression and cruelty, while others view him as an unsettling critic of hypocrisy, authority, and moral restraint.
De Sade died on December 2, 1814, at the asylum of Charenton. Though notorious in his lifetime and for many years after, he remains an important and deeply divisive figure in literary history, studied for both the disturbing content of his work and its lasting impact on modern thought and art.