De Sade: Life and Works

Iwan Bloch, a pioneer of psycho-sexual studies alongside Krafft-Ebing, was the first biographer of the Marquis de Sade and also the discoverer in 1903 of de Sade's manuscript of The 120 Days Of Sodom, previously thought to be lost forever. Bloch's Life And Works Of De Sade, first published in 1899, remains one of the best accounts of the life of the "Divine Marquis" and is a fascinating biographical, historical and psychoanalytical work. Bloch first provides a shocking account of France in the time of de Sade, detailing its debaucheries, prostitution, pornography, crime and punishment before examining the Marquis' own life both in and out of prison. He also examines in depth de Sade's major works, including Justine, Juliette, Philosophy In The Boudoir and - in an appendix taken from Bloch's New Research On De Sade (1904) - The 120 Days Of Sodom. The closing part of Bloch's analysis is devoted to an examination of de Sade's psycho-sexual proclivities, establishing the term "sadism" and presenting one of the first major psychopathologies of this perversion and its prime purveyor.