120 Days of Sodom: Intro

The 120 days of Sodom is perhaps the most impure tale ever written. The author, Marquis de Sade was a Frenchman who lived in the 18th century. He raped women, killed children, was a prisoner multiple times, was rich, and committed acts of sacreligion. This book was originally written on odds and ends that Sade found around the prison, where he wrote the book. However, the book was never finished because the Bastille was stormed and it was preserved by individuals under the book was eventually copied and printed. Sade began life as a very rich kid, allowing him to escape from prison through bribes and allowed him to have more freedom of what he did when compared to the majority of the population at the time. This combined with the fact that France was at the time having a rebellion led to Sade having more freedom to do as he pleased. This meant that Sade would go on to commit terrible acts such as rape of children and adults as well as the killing of at least one child, although it is likely that he killed more given that there were human bones found in his yard. Sade had planned to write the 120 Days of Sodom long before he actually started to write it, although interestingly enough, Sade fell out of interest of the book after it seemed to have disappeared at the Bastille. This seemed odd to me given the amount of effort and preparation he had writing this book. Who would write about such a terrible and horrific event like Sade? Was he a monster who generally enjoyed writing about the atrocities committed or did he write this book as a statement about free speech and it’s implications? Based on way Sade puts the 4 main characters in this book as protagonists, I would say that Sade had no intention of writing the book as a statement piece towards what should and should not be allowed regarding the freedom of speech. Sade also mentioned how he felt as though he was becoming mentally-ill in prison from isolation, maybe leading him to be able to be able to write this book. Based on the actions Sade committed throughout his life, it seems likely that he wrote this book to highlight people he looks up to and to describe their lives as best as he could. There have been movies written on this book and this book remains one of the most controversial pieces of literature today for me and many others, which Sade likely did not initially intend for this book given how he did not seem to care how people viewed him because of how public he makes his affairs and crimes. This book was very disturbing to read and I would not read it again, but I feel like it is important to discuss how and why someone would write a book like this and what would drive them to write it so that people could understand the terrible crimes that people would commit and have committed.