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"One
must do violence to the object of one's desire; when it surrenders,
the pleasure is greater." -120 Days of Sodom was written while
Sade was imprisoned in the Bastille. This masterwork reads like
a catalog of sexual depravity. Four storytellers spend a month telling
tales which are grouped under the headings "simple passions",
"complex passions", "criminal passions" and
finally "murderous passions". It is important to note
that even the "simple passions" section includes stories
of urination, defecation, all the way to necrophilia. The first
150 stories are complete, fully developed tales. The remaining 450
are less developed sketches of depravities. The book also contains
selections from Les Crimes de l'Amour, Sade's play Oxtiern and his
novella Ernestine as well as critical commentary from Simone de
Beauvoir and Pierre Klossowski.
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