Rating: 
Summary: A good intro
Review: "Juliette" remains my personal favorite, but this provides some of the background anyone should have before undertaking that novel. The selections here are excellent - including a timeline, and a small collection of letters that help provide some context. (Sade's letters tend to be more readable than his fiction.) This also includes some of his more personal and a few well known writings. A real treasure trove. There are those who wish to diefy Sade and those who wish to demonize him. (The reactions of the outraged are most amusing. For a terrifically hysterical rant by someone who hated him enough to read a whole lot of his work seek out feminist-unto-freakishness Andrea Dworkin's long essay.) Both sides seem to be missing the point. And anyone who finds Sade "poorly written" or "monotonous" is REALLY missing the point. (Which is not to say that they are wrong - on the contrary.) Those who go so far as to pronounce anyone who would defend his work "sick" are clearly oblivious to the meaning of even making such a statement. Sade's particular genius and facination are hard to pin down - which is why people will be arguing over his worth for centuries to come. This in itself is evidence of his worth.
Rating: 
Summary: It's funny how a book about eroticism has so many reviews...
Review: "The supreme value of his testimony lies in its ability to disturb us. It forces us to reexamine thoroughly the basic problem which haunts our age in different forms:the true relation between man and man." - Simone de Beauvoir"Justine is the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination." - Napoleon Bonaparte Was Napoleon really disturbed by these novels (or did he test out these static plots on his own)? How unsuccessful could this book really be if someone like Naploeon was repulsed by the story of 'Justine'? And why do so many people comment on this book, as opposed to other books that have a higher sales rank according to Amazon.com, when only a mere several thousand copies have been purchased? Aren't you curious?
Rating:
Summary: It's funny how a book about eroticism has so many reviews...
Review: "The supreme value of his testimony lies in its ability to disturb us. It forces uss to reexamine thoroughly the basic problem which haunts our age in different forms:the true relation between man and man." - Simone de Beauvoir "Justine is the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination." - Napoleon Bonaparte Was Napoleon really disturbed by these novels (or did he test out these static plots on his own)? How unsuccessful could this book really be if someone like Naploeon was repulsed by the story of 'Justine'? And why do so many people comment on this book, as opposed to other books that have a higher sales rank according to Amazon.com, when only a couple thousand copies have been purchased? Aren't you curious?
Rating:
Summary: A Suppressed Masterpiece of Black Humor.
Review: 'The Marquis de Sade - the complete Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and other writings.' Compiled and translated by Richard Seaver & Austryn Wainhouse with essays by Jean Paulhan of l'Academie Francaise & Maurice Blanchot. New York: Grove Press, 1990 (1965). 753 pp. Donatien-Alphonse-Francois, Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), was born in Paris into one of the most noble and ancient families of Provence. He was educated at first by his uncle, the tolerant, scholarly, and sophisticated Abbé de Sade, then by the Jesuits, and at the age of twenty-three married Renee-Pelagie de Montreuil, an intelligent and loving woman who bore him three children. The marriage, as was usual at the time, was arranged, and Sade would have much preferred to marry Renee's beautiful and vivacious younger sister, Anne-Prospere, a girl he later seduced. This led to the undying enmity of his mother-in-law, the powerful Madame de Montreuil, who through her influence at court was able to obtain a 'lettre de cachet' or Royal Warrant of arrest from the king, which led to Sade's first imprisonment. A variety of sexual escapades, and Madame de Montreuil's continuing enmity, were to lead to an incredibly harsh total of twenty-seven years of imprisonment, and he was eventually to die in the Charenton lunatic asylum where he had been sent, not because he was insane, since he was one of the most lucid thinkers of his age, but after incurring the wrath of Napoleon who had been led to believe that he was the anonymous author of the anti-Bonaparte satire, 'Zoloe,' a mediocre work which current opinion feels was probably not written by Sade. What were Sade's real crimes? Well, so far as I can gather, there weren't any. He was guilty of a number of ... indiscretions and frankly admitted to being a libertine - a man who felt that sex was something to celebrate and enjoy, and not the dirty and disgusting thing we have been taught. He also wrote a number of very profound, very obscene, very learned, and also very funny books, for what is regularly overlooked is that he was, in addition to his other talents, a great comic artist. The French critic Philippe Sollers, in fact, seems to feel that everything Sade wrote was intended as comic. And if we consider that the essence of great comedy lies in the truth of its portrayal of human nature, I think we arrive at the real reason for Sade having been demonized, imprisoned, and misrepresented as a monster - there is just too much truth in him, and society has a vested interest in suppressing the truth. An impressive array of outstanding personalities have written about Sade's work: Apollinaire, Maurice Heine, Gilbert Lely, Octavio Paz, Simone de Beauvoir, Georges Bataille, Pierre Klossowski, Roland Barthes, Maurice Blanchot, Yukio Mishima, Annie LeBrun, etc., and there are some who feel that if it were not for his reputation, his novel of 1795, 'Aline and Valcour,' would probably be rated every bit as highly as we rate such works as 'Don Quixote' or 'Gulliver's Travels.' Unfortunately, because in many of his works he dealt with taboo subjects in an often extreme way, and because his vision of man was less than flattering, his reputation as a libertine has been seized upon as an excuse to rigorously exclude him from him the Western literary canon, and one will search in vain for any mention of Sade in the Histories of Western Literature and Philosophy where he ought to figure prominently. This campaign of vilification and suppression has been so effective that it is possible to have a keen interest in literature and philosophy, and to read extensively for decades, without ever even suspecting that Sade is the one writer who is most worth reading since he so unique. Because of the extreme obscenity that we find in his writings they have always been a favorite target of censors, and it wasn't until the mid-sixties that unexpurgated editions of Sade's works became available in English translation in the United States. For those who would like to read the authentic texts, I can strongly recommend the present authoritative and critical English edition. It has a full introduction, critical essays, bibliographies, etc., and is beautifully translated: There are a lot of other 'Sade' books on the market, or books that pretend to be giving you Sade, but the present ediition contains the only authoritative and uncut English translations of his major works. As for earlier translations, some of them tend to be rather expensive, possibly because they have usually been issued in limited editions and book dealers have a nasty habit of classifying them as Erotica.... In fact, Sade is not not really erotically stimulating at all. My own feeling is that his descriptions of sexual high jinks are intended more to provoke laughter than to excite, and anyone who goes to him for titillation is going to come away disappointed. Roald Dahl, the famous writer of children's books, pointed out somewhere that children love the grotesque, the exaggerated, the monstrous, the ugly, the dirty; they find such things hilarious. I think there's more than a bit of this in Sade, and perhaps buried deep down in all of us too. Sade was able to see into the depths of the subconscious mind, and for anyone who is interested in understanding who and what we really are he is unsurpassed.
Rating:
Summary: Virtue loses to vileness
Review: Although other works by Sade are included in this volume, _Justine_ and _Philosophy in the Bedroom_ are the best known of the collection.
_Philosophy in the Bedroom_ is the about two men and a woman who quite thoroughly pervert a fifteen year old virgin. The most notable thing about this story is that a substantial portion of it describes Sade's sociopolitical philosophy.
_Justine_ is the story of a young woman who lives a life governed by virtue. As she goes through life, she encounters a series of evil people who use and abuse her. Even though she continues to believe in virtue, she is continually beaten down, while those who inflict evil upon her continually prosper.
Though an interesting read, Sade tends to get tediously repetitive when trying to justify (over and over) perversion in the context of Nature. And yes, this is as nasty and sexually perverse as one might expect, covering practices ranging from sadism to autoerotic asphyxiation.
Rating:
Summary: The sweetest taboo?
Review: Am I missing something here? 28 reviews, and only one alludes to these stories being satirical.
I haven't read a biography of the man, but my assumption reading Justine is that Sade was a satirist, excoriating the upper class in particular, and in general men, maybe humanity, for its gross hypocrisy, cruelty and selfishness.
I didn't feel he was celebrating 'sadism' in the least. The tone is certainly misanthropic however, and I felt a sense of both glee and disgust as he beats you over the head with the gross hypocrisy of 'polite society'.
The stories are at times sexy; graphic sexual depictions often are. But they typically are horrifific as well. I don't know whether the man was into abusive sex or not, but it seems clear that the underlying message is very cynical: virtue is for the naive and self-important (or at least mindless virtue, as the protagonist is a bit of an airhead), and be wary in particular of 'respectable society', or power. These stories having been written during the time of revolution in France, could he have been the only one espousing this point of view? This was the enlightenment, not the middle ages. I assume it was not morality, but the mirror of truth, that outraged those who tried to suppress his works.
As we seem to be a few steps from goose steps (or something more dangerously oblique) we could use this type of satire today! That is, socio-political messages wrapped in a titilating package for mass consumption, guilty or otherwise. (regarding fascism, here is a link worth pondering -(...)
The only other story I've read so far is "Dialogue", which I thought was one of the best examinations of the church that I have read. Sade again conveys a sense of outrage at the hypocrisy rather than the supposed values of christianity. If you are looking for a nihilistic rant that assaults compassion as pathetic weakness and individual action as unassailable no matter the consequence to others, turn to the Nietsche/Rand/Freidman school.
Sade's perspective seems firmly grounded in the enlightenment, only, it is a couple hundred years ahead of it's time with it's 'in your face' attitude.
Even so, I think the stories are dark fables rather than irreverence for the sake of being provocative.
Remember, the enlightenment was followed by a conservative religious backlash. So read this book while you can!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: Bizarre, but interesting. No wonder they put him in an asylum.
Rating:
Summary: look past the "objectionable" theme and reep the rewards
Review: de sade is a philosopher who uses the medium of literature to convey his message (hang on, see the difference when i compare similar, philosophy-laden texts). those who can look past the subject matter, which de Sade used to deture the "weak" and also for a metaphor for his philosophies, will gain great insight and ideas that would later reemerge in Rand (esp. her theory of Objectivism), Nietzsche, Sartre, etc. JUSTINE is often compared to the layout of CANDIDE, and i will support the comparison. once again, great work that surpasses Camus (yes its that potent and effective!, though i do highly recommend THE STRANGER) in incorporating philosophy with literature
Rating:
Summary: For a limited audience.
Review: De Sade's work is ambiguous, and so is this book. It could be described as a 'poem# to sadomasochism, and if you are into this sort of thing buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated
Review: Despite the fact that de Sade's works have become virtually cult classics because of their raw descriptions of sex, I found these books to be sort of boring. Although the obsession with various and sundry sexual proclivities does add to the overall interest and weirdness factor, it's not enough to save these books, either. Basically, when it comes to sex, for de Sade it comes down to the "four B's"--somebody is always being ..., buggered, blown, or beaten. Big deal. You can get this on videotape. You can probably get it in an R-rated movie these days. Some of the political philosophy is interesting in the historical context of the time, but if you want real philosophy, instead of parlor-level simplifications, I suggest you read works of real political philosophy, such as Plato's Republic or Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies, for example, instead of an amateur's afternoon thoughts. Unfortunately, de Sade seems to be at his most profound when his pants are around his ankles (or should I say pantaloons?) Anyway, de Sade and the emperor Tiberius would have made an interesting sexual "tag- team" for Masters and Johnson to research, perhaps, but a profound author he's not. I will say one nice thing about de Sade, which is that he does know how to turn a literary phrase once in a while, but that's about it. Give this over-heated and libidinous libertine the cold shoulder.
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