Les crimes de l'amour / Précédé d'un avant-propos, suivi des idées sur les romans, de l'auteur des crimes de l'amour à Villeterque, d'une notice bio-bibliographique du marquis de Sade: l'homme et ses écrits et du discours prononcé par le marquis de Sade à la section des piques.

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

28718

Title

Les crimes de l'amour / Précédé d'un avant-propos, suivi des idées sur les romans, de l'auteur des crimes de l'amour à Villeterque, d'une notice bio-bibliographique du marquis de Sade: l'homme et ses écrits et du discours prononcé par le marquis de Sade à la section des piques.

Language

fr

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

This collection presents the Marquis de Sade's controversial works alongside his theoretical essays on literature and a historical narrative of the Amboise Conspiracy. It includes a biographical notice and a passionate speech honoring revolutionary martyrs Marat and Le Pelletier, offering a multifaceted view of the author's literary and political legacy.

Summary up to 500 words

This volume presents a curated selection of works by the Marquis de Sade, offering a glimpse into his controversial literary and political thought. The collection begins with an editor's note acknowledging Sade's notorious reputation for erotic-criminal monomania. While his major novels like *Justine* are often deemed unreadable due to their obscenity, this anthology provides a specimen of his output, including a historical novella, theoretical writings, a polemic against a critic, and a revolutionary speech. The narrative centerpiece is the historical novella *Juliette et Raunai*, which details the political intrigue and religious tensions in France leading up to the Amboise Conspiracy of 1560. The story explores the rivalry between the Guise family and the Protestant faction, the death of Henry II, and the ensuing civil unrest. Sade argues that religious intolerance fueled these conflicts, suggesting that true piety should not serve as a pretext for discord. He posits that envy and ambition were the true causes of the troubles, with religion merely acting as a mantle for discord. The collection also features Sade's theoretical writings, where he defends his right to depict vice and crime without moralizing. He asserts that showing evil in its raw horror is more instructive than embellishing it. Explicitly refuting accusations of immorality, he claims his works aim to make vice detestable rather than admirable, contrasting his approach with authors who might inadvertently glorify their villains. A significant portion is dedicated to a polemic against the critic Villeterque, whom Sade accuses of plagiarism and misrepresentation. Sade dismisses Villeterque's critiques as the ravings of a "folliculaire" (a pedantic critic) who has not read his works and relies on isolated, distorted phrases. Finally, the text concludes with a speech delivered by Sade at the Section des Piques in 1793. In this address, he eulogizes Marat and Le Pelletier as sublime martyrs of liberty, contrasting their selfless patriotism with the selfishness of ordinary men. He condemns the assassin of Marat as a monstrous hybrid, unworthy of any artistic representation. The work serves as both a literary anthology and a political statement from a complex historical figure, challenging readers to confront the raw nature of human vice and virtue.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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Categories

• Classics
• Romance