The context of the 120 days of sodom and the life of Marquis De Sade was far more interesting for me to read about than the book. You can see how similar some of the actions that he performed to some of the characters in his book. Marquis was born into a rich French family and eventually rose to prominence with being in the French military but was eventually discharged. While he eventually got married, he would be involved in several sexual scandals over the years that would greatly hurt the De Sade name. The most infamous of these was named the little girl’s affair. With the consent of his wife, De Sade took a young male secretary and 5 girls all aged around 15, and engaged in a series of orgies with them. It is very probable that these orgies included sexual intercourse and flagellation. In another scandal titled the Marseilles scandal, Sade and his manservant traveled to see four prostitutes. The orgies included sodomy and flagellation and De Sade also preceded to offer the prostitutes aniseed-flavored pastilles laced with Spanish fly. After the police investigated a warrant for his arrest he narrowly escaped. Marquis eventually was arrested and brought to prison where he started to write the 120 days of Sodom. He was transferred out of the prison he was in and brought into an insane asylum a few days before the storming of the Bastille. He gave some speeches to aid the revolution but was also accused of moderationism by many. He was also put up to guillotine at one point but was saved by chance. Before his death, he was released from prison and wrote many plays some were accepted. He was then put back into prison which was where he stayed until his death. After his death, his eldest son burned much of his unpublished work, so it is not known how much depravity the world missed out on.