De Sade : a critical biography

Ronald Hayman

Ronald Hayman´s full account of Sade´s life and its historical background is complemented by an assessment of a man whose abilities as a writer and philosopher flowered in the forcing house of prison. The author does not shrink from the violent and disturbing aspects of Sade´s sexuality, but no-one is a sadist in the cradle, and this book tells the story of how Sade became a pervert and how solitary confinement made a man of action into a writer and thinker of great originality.