Sade: A Biography (A Harvest Book)

Rating:
Summary: Whip crack away
Review: Donatien Aldonse Francois, Marquis de Sade, had the dubious honour of being imprisoned by three entirely different French governments: the Old Regime, the First Republic, and the Empire. He also nearly survived them all, dying (in prison) in 1814. He wrote a fantastic amount - his first and most notorious book, The 120 Days of Sodom, was inscribed in microscopic writing on a gigantic roll of paper. Lever's biography steers carefully clear of both condemnation and canonisation, presenting the Marquis as an aristocratic anarchist - totally incapable of bowing to authority or of being "useful" in the robotic utilitarian fashion advocated by the Revolutionary authorities. Accused of no real crimes other than "immorality" and a rather trumped-up charge of assaulting a prostitute, he seems to have been incarcerated mostly thanks to the malignancy of his thoroughly unpleasant mother-in-law; and if Lever does not portray him as particularly likeable, he certainly comes across a!s having wit, plenty of principle and more than his share of guts. And it's hard for any writer to resist admiring a man who produced so much of interest under such adverse conditions. Lever has thoroughly studied the Marquis' letters (at one point he gives a hilarious list of the nicknames Sade bestowed on his wife) and the historical background, which makes for a long, fascinating epic, filled like the Marquis' books with power philosophy, lavatory humour and the invigorating crack of the whip.

Rating:
Summary: Prefers the easier way of condemnation
Review: Generally unsympathetic to both Sade and his works, Lever adopts a strongly moralistic stance, preferring the easier way of condemnation to the more difficult task of comprehension. He also seems to be more interested in political history than in Sade's literature or ideas, and unlike Guy Endore and Francine du Plessix Gray, both of whom have the enviable ability to breathe life into the interesting characters who surrounded Sade and bring them before us as real and believable people, Lever lacks this ability, and his biography, though full, scholarly, and up-to-date, might have been a little more lively. Despite its shortcomings, the serious student will want to have this book for the sheer mass of information it contains in its more than six hundred pages, and for its excellent notes and bibliography. Those who prefer insights to mere 'facts' will find themselves better served by Annie Le Brun.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating insight into French culture
Review: I read this book hoping to gain some insight into the pervasive cruelty in humans, which is so alien to me. I thought that in an examination of one of the most famous cruel people, the rottenness of humanity would make more sense to me. But alas, it didn't work. I give Lever credit for a thorough examination of Sade. The details of his life and actions are laid out, along with Lever's attempt to explain the thought process that went into those actions. Lever portrays Sade as both a product of his environment (growing up arond the politically and morally chaotic French revolution) and a uniquely twisted individual. That seems accurate. He makes clear that the material in Sade's most infamously "Sadistic" writing is almost all based on Sade's fantasy instead of a protrayal of his actions. Lever demurely doesn't give us excerpts of Sade's more salacious writings, and spares us the details of Sade's own salacious behaviour, except when those actions caused pivotal turns of fate in Sade's life. Lever attempted to explain Sade's psyche as thoroughly as anyone could hope to, yet through it all, Sade remained an alien character to me. When Lever at last described Sade's death, I didn't feel the slightest bit of sadness or sympathy. Sade was just a plain old jerk. The man's nature was so different from mine that no valiant effort at explanation could ever really make me understand him. Though I appreciate Lever's effort.

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Historical View of a Monster Unmade
Review: This book was my introduction to the Marquis de Sade. I was expecting (and hoping for) a narrative portrait of the cruel beast so often alluded to in popular culture and vernacular speech, along with a laundry list of his misdeeds. What I got instead was a fascinating life history of a man who was at best a product of his own culture and upbringing, an avaricious, often petty noble, who took the libertinage of many of the members of the Ancien Regime to incredible lengths; at worst he was a captive of his own twisted fantasies, a soul who arguably lacked the even the most basic of built-in moral "stop signs" that most members of society both acknowledge and use as guidance. The most interesting aspect of this voluminous work was the thorough narration of the familial, political and administrative twists and turns that Sade endured during his life. The accurate and detailed accounting of the buildup to the French Revolution was enthralling and unexpected. In summary, if I had thought I was beginning a nearly 600-page history of societal and governmental France, I doubt I would have made it past the Prologue. Having just finished the book, though, I can say that this is one of the most satisfying and informative reads I have ever undertaken.