The Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales

Fülszöveg

W O R L D'S CLASSICS
The Marquis de Sade The Misfortunes of Virtue
and other early tales
Translated and edited by David Coward
'The scandalous, the long-ignored, the at last all but unnameable author,' Henry James
The name of the Marquis de Sade is synonymous with the blackest
corners of the human soul, a bjrword for all that is foulest in human conduct. In his bleak, claustrophobic universe, there is no God, no morality, no human affection, and no hope. Power is given to the strong and the strong are murderers, torturers, and tyrants. No quarter is given: compassion is the virtue of the weak.
Yet Sade was a man of savage intelligence wfio carried the philosophy of the French Enlightenment to its logical extreme. His writings effectively release the individual from all social and
moral constraint: for many, Sade is the Great Libertarian. The Victorians considered him 'Divine' and Apollinaire called him 'the freest spirit'; the Surrealists recognized him as a founding... Tovább

Fülszöveg

W O R L D'S CLASSICS
The Marquis de Sade The Misfortunes of Virtue
and other early tales
Translated and edited by David Coward
'The scandalous, the long-ignored, the at last all but unnameable author,' Henry James
The name of the Marquis de Sade is synonymous with the blackest
corners of the human soul, a bjrword for all that is foulest in human conduct. In his bleak, claustrophobic universe, there is no God, no morality, no human affection, and no hope. Power is given to the strong and the strong are murderers, torturers, and tyrants. No quarter is given: compassion is the virtue of the weak.
Yet Sade was a man of savage intelligence wfio carried the philosophy of the French Enlightenment to its logical extreme. His writings effectively release the individual from all social and
moral constraint: for many, Sade is the Great Libertarian. The Victorians considered him 'Divine' and Apollinaire called him 'the freest spirit'; the Surrealists recognized him as a founding father, and he is a key figure in the history of modernism and postmodernism. With Freud and Marx, Sade has been one of the crucial shaping influences on this century, and reactions to him continue to be extreme. But he has always been more talked about than read.
This selection of his early writings, some making their first appearance in English in this new translation by David Coward, reveals the full range of Sade's sobering moods and considerable talents. Vissza