Rating: 
Summary: Decent De Sade
Review: The 120 Days of Sodom is probably the worst book I have read by the Marquis de Sade. This is probably a great compliment to him as a writer because the book is still very good. The 120 Days is the book that is usually known as De Sade's masterpiece, although he personally preffered Justine, a better story. Anyway, the story is simple. Several wealthy libertines take a retreat to a secret castle to engage in sinister acts. There victims are specially chosen people who suit their particular tastes and in most cases have been abducted to get there. The story takes place over 30 days in which the libertines engage in every sexual indecency you can think of. The punishments for those who are do not perform adaquatly are violent and cruel and the book could easily be the most evil story ever conceived. This should not be a deterrant for any mature reader. Those who want to spite De Sade will have an easy time taking shots at the sexual superficialities of the book. Anyone who tries to read and understand the book will discover it to be rich in ingenius philisophical ideas. The 120 Days is, admittedly, an arduous task to get through and is not De Sade's best work. The story unfortunatly is predictable juggling sexual escapades with philisophical matters. De Sade's best work remains Eugenie de Franvale, Philosophy in the Bedroom and Justine. The short work in this book entitled Florville de Courval is the best part of the collection and makes the book worth buying instantly. It tells the tale of a poor women who's life has been plagued by misfortune, a theme dealt with in Justine. Her misfortunes accumulate at the ending into the ultimate in ironic finales. The story is only 75 pages long but is brilliant in every sense. De Sade is a great, if not misunderstood writer. The quality of the language and the conviction of his philosophies prove that to anyone who has ever dared to honestly read one of his books. Do not be afraid of the man's reputation. He is a smart man and if you give the guy the chance he'll prove it.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Strange But Typical Of The Times
Review: I must disagree with most of the reviews that I read. While it is boring because of its repitions on sex, it is typical of the times that it was written in. While I have not read this version, I have read another one which gave some historical information. It may have been the first issue. De Sade was something of a quandry to the reveloutionists. He supported them strongly, but was of the nobility. The only thing they could do with him was to confine him to an insane assylum, which they did. Many of the stories were preformed there as well as many of the pervisions. Life was cheap then and if any one died from the preformances, it was one less mouth to feed for the government and they did not cause the death. This whole book was filmed during WWII by the Nazis using Jewish prisoners and the film is in the archives of the Nurenburg tribunal which used it to convict the criminals that did it.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, Curious, Childish and then downright Boring....
Review: The preview to the actual text is quite interesting and the reason I even gave the book 2 stars. If the reader approaches this as an unfinished manuscript with at least 1/2 of it in draft form then this is not a bad book and I could even give it 3 stars. I would like to think that Sade did his manuscript in outline form to get the scenes etc. but may have originally thought to break it up into a series of short stories as opposed to one big novel. It reads that way and certainly would have been in keeping with the times and Sade's need for a steady income flow. Even he knew the monotonous, repetitious nature of the lewd acts would bore anyone reading it as a novel. I suspect since he was in prison it was a good way for him to compile his thoughts. I also don't know why everyone thinks that just because he wrote all this crazy stuff he necessarily wanted to do it. His predispositon was towards sodomy and selfishness not murder. It's like we would go around saying geez I think Stephen King and Dean Kootnz really want to murder people in the most hideous way since they write so much about it. I also find it hard to buy into the notion that Sade was going to use this manuscript of boring, boring, boringggggggggg..... sadism as a means to justify his lifestyle. He just liked to shock because it sold then like is sells now.
Rating:
Summary: Stimulating piece of work!!
Review: The general perception of the Marquis de Sade is that he was a complete pervert. This, probably his finest work, confirmed it! It was a very colourful account about an enjoyable holiday with his friends. Often amusing, always disgusting, this is well worth reading, if only to see what all the fuss was about.
Rating:
Summary: de Sade's the Man
Review: If you can get beyond all the sex stuff you'll find one amazing philosopher. The guy was in prison for his thoughts back then and yet they still shock us today. A mind bender. Not a great work of literary art perhaps but stimulating mental fodder for sure.
Rating: 
Summary: No artistic merit whatsoever
Review: Sade's style is pedestrian, monotonous - not dissimilar to Camus' I'etranger (although Camus used this matter of fact style as a vehicle for conveying the protagonist Meursault's lack of passion and creativity.) Sade, however lacks the ablilty to write, and if it were not for the graphic and highly contraversial subject matter of 120 days, this piece of junk would have been discarded ago.
Rating:
Summary: Are you ready to really think about what you are?
Review: Although this novel is unfinished, I still rank it as one of the greatest works of European literature. Because of Sade's reputation as a pornographer, you may come to this book expecting to be aroused. Forget it! This book is not pornography, it is Enlightenment philosophy developed to its furthest possible point. Sade sees "civilization" and "culture" as only the thinnest veneer overlaying our essentially animal natures. Sade's position on the horror of reproduction (which he sees as a merciless assault on the human imagination) and his evident disgust regarding the process of birth and the female body may offend and appall you - but remember, these are words, not deeds! If you can stomach what is being described in this book, it just may teach you how to see through society's gentle illusions of love, equality, and harmony to the just-barely-restrained impulses towards domination, lust and power beneath. Particularly for United States readers, cursed as we are with a relentlessly Puritan sexual code and ethic, 120 Days of Sodom might get you to think a little more carefully about what sex actually is, stripped of the emotions which we call love that romantic fancy encourages us to attache to our sexual contacts. A final word: although this book is disgusting, it is also a shock to received ideas both in the 18th century and today, and that alone makes it worth reading. It is also very, very funny - several of the character descriptions - which elucidate certain physical peculiarities which are so far away from ordinary experience or physiological possibility - had me chuckling for hours. This book is definitely not for everyone, but I recommend it nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: nausea...at its finest
Review: At parts I found this book to be stimulating. It made the mind wander. It was overall disgusting and filthy. A person with a great imagination and innocent mind should not read it. Although I could hardly stomach many of the horrible deeds commited in this book, I give it four stars for imagination and concentration on the subject at hand.
Rating:
Summary: The Torch of Creative Flame
Review: What Sade tells us in the 120 Days is that all artists (and humanity as a whole) are inherently free to create as they please without regard to any preconceived ideas of what beauty is. A truly radical work of the eighteenth century, this (incomplete) novel is a monumental achievement. A terrible, disturbing, and ultimately noble volume.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Tame Stuff
Review: I had to see what all the hubbub was about the infamous Marquis, only to find that his writing is pretty tame, reminds me of back in the Sixties when "Midnight Cowboy" had an X-Rating, today it would be PG-13, Same with De Sade, well Maybe an R rating.
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