Welcome to the new term and I am really looking forward to a new term of Creative Media Production! Over the break between terms I have been reading a book by the Marquis de Sade which has just come out called 'The Curse of Marquis de Sade ' By Joel Warner
This book is really more about the manuscript of 120 Days of Sodom and who owned it and how it came to be in their hands. The book states; 'Locked away in a tower in the Bastille in 1785, Donatien Alphonse François furiously scribbled 157,000 words on 33 sheets of paper in just 37 days, his handwriting so cribbed that it was barely intelligible to the naked eye.' (Held, 2023) . The idea behind the book is that we jump back and forth through time from the origins of the text and the life the Marquis de Sade to the modern day and how the manuscript is treated and sold and the men who owned this precious scroll. De Sade; 'bragged, “the most impure tale ever written since the world began.” “120 Days of Sodom” chronicles four months of depravity involving multiple victims in a remote castle. Sade wrote in secret, by candlelight, covering the scroll in microscopic script.' (Birmingham, 2023). There is no doubting that the Marquis de Sade is depraved and 120 Days of Sodom is a litany of acts that become more and more horrifying, no individual reading this would not be affected by the tales told and many of these stories could be considered evil and they are certainly not for the faint-hearted or sensitive of stomach!
The enjoyment of this book really is the history of the manuscript that de Sade himself thought was lost after the storming of the Bastille in 1789. The issues with forbidden text and the idea that this was material that was quite appalling in some senses to read but strangely sought after but it had to be done without anyone knowing as it could be reputation damaging. Dickey states; 'Up until the 20th century, it’s not entirely clear that anyone had ever read the manuscript itself. Written in a tiny, cramped hand, it was barely legible—but the ambivalence toward the text seemed to go beyond that. The scroll’s owners seemed to treat it as if it were a slug of plutonium: Everyone understood that, on some level, it was incredibly valuable, but no one wanted to actually go near it.' (Dickey, 2023) This strange dichotomy is, I think, what makes this book such a fascinating read. the journey of this book is perhaps more interesting that the content of the manuscript itself.
References
Held, E. (2023) Review | how a notorious pornographic manuscript reshaped literary history, The Washington Post. WP Company. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/02/23/marquis-sade-curse-sodom-warner-review/ (Accessed: April 4, 2023).
Birmingham, K. (2023) The marquis de sade's filthy, pricey 40-foot scroll of depravity, The New York Times. The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/books/review/the-curse-of-the-marquis-de-sade-joel-warner.html (Accessed: April 4, 2023).
Dickey, C. (2023) The odd career of the world's most upsetting book, Slate Magazine. Slate. Available at: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/02/de-sade-days-of-sodom-joel-warner-review.html (Accessed: April 6, 2023).
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