The 120 Days of Sodom

Sade's 1791 novel follows a young woman who holds to her virtue while the world punishes her for it. The book that made his reputation and the clearest statement of his argument about nature, morality and power.

Marquis de Sade

A 1795 work built as seven dialogues, part libertine fiction and part philosophical treatise. It includes the pamphlet Yet Another Effort, Frenchmen, where Sade sets out his case against religion and law.

Marquis de Sade

A short dialogue in which a dying man refuses the last rites and argues for nature as the only authority. Nine pages that carry the core of Sade's atheism, and the quickest way into his thinking.

Marquis de Sade

Will McMorran examines what reading fictional violence does to a reader, using Sade's work as the test case. An open access study that traces how these books have been read, censored and translated over two centuries.

Will McMorran