American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
"Any scholar of Sade and any lover of literature will enjoy this collection of essays..."
Book Description
For the last two hundred years, the name of the Marquis de Sade has had a singular power to evoke graphic images of the torturous and often murderous practices that bear his name. Sade himself has been labeled a sadomasochistic pornographer, and his works of fiction are considered by some to be the basis for the ideas that led to the Nazi death camps. Must We Burn Sade? peels away the layers of this negative legacy. This intriguing collection of essays examines the literary, theatrical, political, social, and philosophical aspects of Sade's writing, demonstrating that Sade's most important work concentrates on the constant struggle in humanity between virtue and vice, which can only be resolved by the creative and destructive impulses of nature. Like no writer before him, Sade shows that desire exists within the matrix of good and evil. This collection reveals Sade's influences and motivations, providing an understanding of society's fear of him while at the same time acquitting him of the false accusations that have plagued his name and his writing for far too long. Sade's words demand that we rethink our relationship to history, that we challenge traditional notions of right and wrong, and that we see the world as it really is. These demands come full circle as the contributors to this volume force us to rethink Sade himself.
