French writer of luridly brilliant and depraved pornographic literature. Sade spent most of his life in prison for staging sexual orgies that embraced crimes of sado-masochistic violence. Considered to be an example of the many sexually depraved aristocrats, he managed to escape his jailers and exile himself to Italy. Upon returning to France in 1774, Sade embarked on more escapades. His mother-in-law obtained a lettre de cachet, a royal order for indefinite detention without trial against Sade in 1777. Five years in his 12 1/2 year jail term, he wrote “120 Days of Sodom,” a catalogue of sexual perversions, short stories, essays, plays, and the first draft to his novel “Justine.” In 1790, Sade was released from jail by orders of Robespierre during the French Revolution. In 1801, when his materials offended Napoleon and his regime, Sade was found to be criminally insane and sent to the Charenton asylum where he died. His name became synonymous with the license of deriving sexual pleasure from inflicting pain.
Sade came from an ancient nobility who were distant kin of the French royal family. His father was a diplomat and his mother a remote, self-absorbed woman who retreated to live in a Carmelite convent when Sade was four-years-old. The young boy attended a Jesuit boarding school in Paris and was raised by his relatives in the family estates of Province. He served in the French Army and became the lieutenant governor of four royal provinces.
After Sade married Renee-Pelagie de Montreuil on 17 May 1763 in Paris, he began his life of infidelities and sexual crimes. At first, his mother-in-law hid from her daughter the realities of Sade’s cavorting with actresses, courtesans and prostitutes. In 1768, he was jailed for “acts of blasphemy and sacrilege.” He escaped to his family’s chateau at La Coste to repair his reputation and his creditors. At the family home, Sade, his wife, and sister-in-law, Anne-Prospere de Montreuil indulged in sexual acts with other participants inspiring his later novels. In 1772, Sade, his valet and four prostitutes reveled in the practice of sodomy, whipping and copulating. He was charged in a Marseilles court but he was able to flee with his sister-in-law to Italy. Despite her husband’s relationship with her sister, his wife remained loyal and devoted to her husband, bearing him three children.
After returning from Italy in 1774, Sade continued to participate in orgies, hiring a male and five young females for sexual exploitation. Mme. de Montreuil sought revenge on her son-in-law for corrupting her favorite daughter, Anne-Prospere. She made every effort to bring Sade to court. In January 1777, she was able to set a trap for Sade in Paris. On 13 February 1777, the official French police arrested him with King Louis XVI’s letre de cachet and he was sent to Vincennes. His wife was refused permission to see her husband for almost five years. She spent her family allowance providing her husband with extravagant clothes, cosmetics and gourmet delicacies in prison. He grew jealous of her freedom and accused his wife of adultery. After an unhappy reunion in 1781, she went to live at the Convent of Sainte-Aure. Sade was removed to the Bastille in 1784 where he wrote many of his works from 1784-1789. On his release in 1790 on Good Friday, Sade went to live with his wife but she refused to share any part of his life. After 27 years of marriage, the couple divorced. He became involved with a young actress and worked for the revolutionary cause. He published his novels “Justine” in 1791 and “Juliette” in 1797.
His last 13 years were spent in the Charenton insane asylum where he died at age 74 on 2 December 1814.
Link to Wikipedia biography