Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, better known as the Marquis de Sade and nicknamed the Divine Marquis (June 2, 1740, Paris – December 2, 1814, Charenton-Saint-Maurice), was a French aristocrat and writer of philosophy-laden and often violent pornography, as well as some strictly philosophical works. His is a philosophy of extreme freedom, unrestrained by ethics, religion or law, with the egotistical pursuit of personal pleasure being the highest principle. Much of his writing was done during the 29 years he was incarcerated.
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His name is pronounced as [ma'ki.d.saːd] (IPA); it is the origin of the word sadism. Sade was born in the Condé palace in Paris. His father was Comte Jean-Bastiste François Joseph de Sade and his mother was Marie-Eléonore de Maillé de Carman, who was a lady-in-waiting to the princess of Condé. Early on he was educated by his uncle, an Abbé (who would later be arrested in a brothel). Sade then attended a Jesuit lycée and went on to follow a military career. He participated in the Seven Years’ War. He returned from the war in 1763 and pursued a woman who rejected him; he then married Renée-Pelagie de Montreuil, daughter of a rich magistrate, in the same year. The marriage had been arranged by his father. They would eventually have three children together.
When his father died in January 1767, Sade assumed the title “Comte de Sade”, although he never used this title and continued to refer to himself as the “Marquis de Sade”.
