Virtue

by Marquis de Sade, David Carter (Translation)

Herman and the noble and proud Ernestine, two young lovers, find themselves confronted with a pair of libertines who will stop at nothing—not even the confines of the law—to assuage their desires. Count Oxtiern, villainous and dissolute, and his accomplice Madame Scholtz, a widow of lusty temperament, will shrink from nothing, no lie, no treachery is beneath them in their quest for sexual fulfillment. But does crime really never pay? Or can virtue vanquish vice? This pair of stories showcases his profound moral and social principles, and sets this elegant critique of class prejudice apart from being a mere pornographic episode.

115 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1800

About the author

A preoccupation with sexual violence characterizes novels, plays, and short stories that Donatien Alphonse François, comte de Sade but known as marquis de Sade, of France wrote. After this writer derives the word sadism, the deriving of sexual gratification from fantasies or acts that involve causing other persons to suffer physical or mental pain.

This aristocrat, revolutionary politician, and philosopher exhibited famous libertine lifestyle.

His works include dialogues and political tracts; in his lifetime, he published some works under his own name and denied authorship of apparently anonymous other works. His best erotic works combined philosophical discourse with pornography and depicted fantasies with an emphasis on criminality and blasphemy against the Catholic Church. Morality, religion or law restrained not his "extreme freedom." Various prisons and an insane asylum incarcerated the aristocrat for 32 years of his life: ten years in the Bastile, another year elsewhere in Paris, a month in Conciergerie, two years in a fortress, a year in Madelonnettes, three years in Bicêtre, a year in Sainte-Pélagie, and 13 years in the Charenton asylum. During the French revolution, people elected this criminal as delegate to the National Convention. He wrote many of his works in prison.

Reviews

[Matt Sautman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading French Feminists recently (and more specifically their critiques of Sade and Réage) motivated me to pick up this slim volume to better ground their criticism against the mistreatment of women and the fetishization of that mistreatment. However, I must have picked up the wrong Marquis de Sade book as there is nothing in this volume that approaches the erotic or sadomasochistic. The volume is much more gothic in nature, and not quality gothic at that. The writing didn't impress me at all (but this could be a byproduct of the translation, not Sade's original prose). Instead this work has a moralist quality to it. Think Romeo and Juliet, except the tragic nature is slightly darker. It's not the worst book I've read. But I feel that my life hasn't changed at all from reading it.