This is definitely the worst story I have ever read, and I’m not sure if I can even classify it as a story. I have honestly never read a book that my mind just refused to digest. The content was so revolting that I was subconsciously blocking it out as I read, and eventually I was nearly 50 pages into the book and I hardly understood the story. Marquis de Sade was in prison when he wrote this book, which is more than evident in his writing. He was depraved and likely had some kind of mental illness when he was writing this book. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of his life is that he was born into a wealthy family and had plenty of opportunity and privilege, but made repeated poor decisions and horrible actions, forcing him to flee from multiple countries and serve time in multiple prisons and an insane asylum, until he finally arrived in Bastille, where this horrific work was written. The fact that he didn’t just think about these horrific deeds, but ordered his wife to smuggle paper to him so he could actually commit to writing them down over the course of roughly 37 days, is perhaps the greatest example of his madness. Sane and healthy people might (hopefully never) think these horrific thoughts for a brief moment and be understandably ashamed afterwards, but he actually conceived these ideas and wrote them down for over a month. His personal thoughts also had an impact on the story. It is likely that when he wrote this book, at which point he was becoming obese and filthy in prison, he developed some kind of jealousy for youth whose lives were filled with beauty and opportunity. The four friends value youth and want to defile young people, and even elaborate that it is better for them to die young. More interesting is the fact that this was essentially his first draft. A large chunk of the story is written in list format, implying that he likely planned for this book to be much longer. Even the concept revolts me. For most of this text, Sade is trying to determine if he is a bad person. He is absolutely a vile individual.