For a third of his life, the notorious French aristocrat and free thinker, who miraculously escaped the guillotine twice, spent his days in prisons and asylums. A rebel, radical, and provocateur with a reputation as an anti-humanist of the Enlightenment era, he rejected the constraints of human freedom imposed by rational laws of morality, religion, or law. He did not acknowledge the supremacy of reason over feelings and entered history alongside a frightening behavioral phenomenon that bears his name. Today, the homeland that once banned the controversial philosopher, writer, and politician’s harmful books has spent an unprecedented sum to acquire his works, now recognized as a national treasure.
Noble Roots
A representative of the third generation of marquises, Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was born on June 2, 1740, in a Parisian castle, and by that fact alone, he became a count, as his family belonged to the so-called “nobility of the sword,” where titles were passed down from father to son.
It is known that the first aristocrat in this family was his grandfather, from whom the boy’s father inherited nobility – Jean-Baptiste Joseph François, Count de Sade, a hereditary viceroy in four provinces and an envoy at the court of the Elector of Cologne.
Donatien’s mother, Marie-Éléonore de Maillé-Brézé de Carman, was a lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Condé. According to family lore, the count’s dynasty also included Laura de Noves, known to the world as the muse and beloved of the poet Francesco Petrarch.
The parents of the Marquis de Sade
Such were the brilliant credentials of a man who would end his far-from-pious life in the Charenton psychiatric hospital. But many unpredictable events would unfold before December 2, 1814, including a change in the social order and the renunciation of noble status by a participant in the French Revolution.
The Taste of Pain
What might have led to the “exile” of little Donatien from the palace is something we may never know. The biography of the Marquis de Sade mentions a childhood fight with a friend, the young heir to the Condé title: after that incident, the five-year-old was sent by his parents to live permanently with relatives in Provence.
From 1745, his parents entrusted the “exile” to the care of his uncle, the Abbé d’Èbre-de-Sade. Donatien felt most at home in the spacious cellar of his uncle’s ancient castle, where he loved to spend time alone. For the next five years, his mother was replaced by a new acquaintance, Madame de Saint-Germain.
By the time he attended the Collège d’Arcueil in Paris, Donatien had not returned to his family home. Due to his parents’ divorce and his mother’s move to her family estate, the Jesuit student settled in the apartment of his tutor, Jacques Abbe, who would later become his steward.
In his desire to pursue a military career, the 14-year-old joined a cavalry school, became a second lieutenant in the royal infantry regiment within a year, a cornet in the carabiniers at 16, and a captain of the regiment at 19. After demonstrating bravery on the battlefields of the Seven Years’ War, the cavalryman left military service at 23 (as it turned out, not permanently) and discovered the pleasures of high society life in the capital.
New Experiences
From 1763, the young retiree set his sights on the daughter of the president of France’s tax chamber. However, instead of the younger sister, his father married him off to the older girl. With royal blessing, Donatien de Sade married Renée-Pélagie Cordier de Montre in 1763.
Yet, the pursuit of new experiences led the former groom to a brothel just six months later, where he found himself embroiled in a scandal and faced punishment for inappropriate behavior. Thus, the guest of the establishment found himself in his first two-week imprisonment. This would be the beginning of many such incarcerations, and the Marquis de Sade’s ideas about pleasure through inflicting pain and humiliation would later be termed “sadism.”
Overall, a man whose main principle was to push the limits of lust would spend over thirty years behind bars: specifically, ten years in the Bastille and thirteen years in a hospital ward. Most of his literary works, both pornographic and philosophical, would be written during his time in captivity.
Besides his adventures and immoral experiments, Donatien de Sade also engaged in mundane affairs. His career was propelled by his father’s death, after which he assumed his father’s position in 1764. At that time, the new royal governor also became a father himself: his wife gave birth to the marquis’s first child. Unfortunately, this fact did not strengthen their marital bond.
To Love or to Fight
“Accept me with my flaws, for I will not change,” the man told the unfortunate woman, and he kept his word. The Burgundy inspector Marais noted in a report that soon one should expect new “horrific deeds” from the Marquis de Sade, as he attempted to seduce “the girl from the opera” with an offer of support. Although the mentioned singer rejected the proposal, a scandal ensued.
In 1768, de Sade was convicted of raping another Frenchwoman. After spending some time in custody, the marquis changed three prisons and was released by royal decree after paying a fine of 100 louis d’or. Free from prosecution, the 30-year-old Major de Sade resumed military service and was promoted to colonel of cavalry the following year.
However, in 1772, the Marquis de Sade became embroiled in the “Marseille Affair,” which ended with a raid on his Provençal castle of Lacoste, accusations of sodomy, and the arrest of two participants in the act of debauchery – de Sade and his servant. Since several girls who participated in the orgy complained to the police about being poisoned by “stimulation candies,” the accused were sentenced to death for deliberately causing harm to health.
An engraving depicting de Sade’s amusements
The libertines were saved only by their disappearance, not waiting for their delivery to the scaffold: according to the court’s verdict, de Sade was to be beheaded, and his servant hanged. In the absence of the accused, the executioners had to burn their effigies in the square. Meanwhile, the fugitives vanished into the Alps. And de Sade developed a passion for his wife’s sister.
The School of Debauchery
The news of the forbidden romance prompted de Sade’s mother-in-law to seek a Lettre de cachet for her son-in-law – an extrajudicial royal order for detention without justification. The marquis and his servant were arrested in the Savoy capital of Chambéry and imprisoned in a fortress, from which they escaped five months later with the help of the marquis’s legal wife.
For the next year, Donatien lived quietly in the family estate in Lacoste, trying not to draw attention for fear of another arrest. But his patience did not last long. After his wife’s secret departure, the libertine broke his solitude by abducting three local girls for sexual pleasures. The disappearance was quickly discovered, and the kidnapper was accused of intent to seduce.
Not waiting for another arrest, the Marquis de Sade fled to Italy, where he spent the troubled time studying occult sciences. Upon returning to Lacoste in 1776, the count hired young girls as servants, who quickly fled from his home. Only Catherine Tréille, whom the count called Justine, remained. Her father publicly demanded the release of the “prisoner” and even shot at her tormentor.
Before his next imprisonment, de Sade managed to visit his dying mother (on that trip, he was accompanied by his wife): the woman who had failed to provide love to her early-removed son spent her last days in solitude. And Donatien’s life continued according to the previous script, where accusations and prisons alternated in an unchanging sequence.
The Marquise and Marquis de Sade
The Misfortune of Virtue
In 1781, the imprisoned Marquis de Sade was finally allowed to meet Madame de Sade, but the visit ended with an outburst of jealousy and aggression from the man. This happened every time until the visits ceased. Exhausted by the toxic relationship, his wife took vows as a nun and prayed before the monastery icons for the salvation of the soul of the incorrigible sinner.
In 1785, the Bastille prisoner began writing his most famous novel, “120 Days of Sodom,” completing the work in just 37 days. The long roll of paper on which the text was written was hidden in his prison cell, as were his subsequent works: the 1787 novella “Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue” and the 1788 short story “Eugénie de Franval.” When the French were shaken by popular unrest in 1789, the Marquis de Sade called for the release of prisoners, shouting from his cell window that the jailers were tormenting the inmates. Donatien was punished for this stunt by being transferred to an asylum, while the manuscripts left in prison were stolen by guards and a crowd of revolutionaries during the storming of the Bastille.
The lifetime edition of the novel “Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue,” 1791
In 1790, Madame de Sade divorced her husband, who, under the name Louis Sade, joined the Protestants. His subsequent lovers included President de Flerier and the young actress Marie Constance Renel, who did not leave the mentally ill count until his death. The revolution facilitated the lifting of charges against the Marquis de Sade and the beginning of a new chapter in his life.
Another Reality
In 1791, de Sade managed to publish the novel “Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue.” That same year, his first play, “The Count Oxtiern, or The Consequences of Debauchery,” was staged at a Paris theater, and the management of the Comédie-Française invited the author of the play “Jean Lene, or The Siege of Beauvais” to read his work on stage. The books of the Marquis de Sade stirred society, and the production of the comedy “The Seducer” in 1792 was booed by the Jacobins.
After the proclamation of the First Republic, Donatien de Sade was appointed commissioner of cavalry, and at the same time, his ancestral estate was looted by rebels. In 1793, the people’s government overthrew the monarchy, executed King Louis XVI, and appointed the Marquis de Sade as a juror of the revolutionary tribunal. In this position, Donatien secured the acquittal of his relatives, who could have faced persecution at any moment. However, de Sade himself did not escape repression in the new reality.
The Paris police department issued an order for his arrest, and he was taken from his home to prison. The revolutionary tribunal again sentenced the pornographic count to death. But the sentence was not carried out due to the Thermidorian coup that occurred the next day. The Marquis de Sade emerged unscathed. At the beginning of 1800, a worker from the Versailles theater was granted citizenship, but under the threat of arrest for debts, he preferred to hide from persecution in a hospital.
In 1801, the writer was arrested for his pornographic works. In prison, he was accused of corrupting his fellow inmates, transferred to another correctional facility, and then sent back to treat his ailing mind. The 74-year-old libertine died in the asylum from an asthma attack. In 2021, France purchased the original manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s “120 Days of Sodom” for 4.55 million euros.
Read the story of another extraordinary historical figure whose name has become synonymous with the archetype of the lover-hero in our article about Giacomo Casanova.