From the premise, it's surprisingly less ambitious than 120 Days of Sodom, despite this being written a decade later. I also realized that Marquis de Sade wasn't making a parody, he was just a horny, sadistic libertine . _.

I will say his decadent prose remain forever-arousing. ( )

Judge this book by the cover.

This is probably the wickedest and the weirdest book I’ve read to date. I don’t recommend Marquis de Sade to anyone. Why did I read this trash? I wanted a challenge. I also read this because I’ve been interested in de Sade for some time now thanks to Grant Morrison’s Invisibles and the movie Quills. I was curious to see how de Sade wrote and how far he could push the envelope.

Philosophy in the Boudoir pushes the envelope to the max. Almost every sin and bad thought is in this short piece of work. One might feel bad or sick reading most of the passages. De Sade is intentionally offending you as a reader. This book promotes anarchy, atheism, and immoral acts. However, as a reader you have the power to read this book as a work of fiction.

I decided myself to read this book like something by Machiavelli. Oddly, this book reminded me of the Prince. I don’t know too much about de Sade’s life, but I wonder just how much of this he actually thought. Maybe he was just trying to offend his readers. You could say this is what happens when a philosopher writes porn. Can you even call this porn or erotica?

There is a ton of sex in this book. You could call this porn or erotica, but there is so much going on. It’s hard for me to place this book anywhere. There is a bit of philosophy mixed into this book, hence the title. I don’t agree with most of de Sade’s philosophy, but at times, he makes good points. I’m not atheist. I’m not fully Christian either. I question many things. This book flat out tells you God doesn’t exist. Unlike some other atheist books, this one didn’t bother me as much though.

I wonder if de Sade wrote the book today he’d be sent to prison. Today, you read all kinds of things and you even see them on screens. Porn movies didn’t exist during de Sade’s time. Most of the stuff in this book you can find on PornHub if you look long enough, that is, if you want to look that long. For the introduction of this book, de Sade was a human being. He liked dogs, gardened, was into architecture, played games, and actually had good hygiene (which I was a little suspired with). However, his sexual interest is where his flaws showed up. One could say he was insane.

Another reason I read this book is that I was told not to read Marquis de Sade. I don’t believe in censoring ones taste in books. People should read what they want to read. De Sade is a perfect example of this too. When I was in college, I did this huge project on banned books and book burning. I don’t remember bringing de Sade up, but ever since that project I’ve constantly thought about the topic. Should people read books they’re told no too? These days I leave it up to the reader. However, I don’t agree with people telling other not to read a book just because they didn’t agree with the context.

I know this review is long and I haven’t talked about the plot of this book as much or the characters, but I’m not going too. The cover of this book pretty much tells you what you’ll find in this book and then some. This is the book I’ll read, but I won’t fully talk about every little thing. I’m still trying to figure out what I just read myself. One thing about the characters though, for a porn, they were developed and interesting.

To end this review, I’ll state that this is one book that won’t be leaving my mind anytime soon. Marquis de Sade is one of the most dangerous and interesting authors, I’ve read. Will I read his other books? I’m not even sure. I just might. Not any time soon. De Sade is someone you read once and you still hesitate to read anything else by him.

Forgot to add that I give major props for Penguin to publish this and to use that cover too. Love they aren't afraid to publish stuff like this and make it affordable too. My only criticism with this edition is there are no notes or footnotes when needed. It would have been helpful at times. Nevertheless, the cover is shocking, but I like the art. ( )

Adaptation de Christine Letailleur

So if you don't like reading erotica or don't like books the use foul language you should stay away from the Marquis de Sade.

Furthermore, if you've ever wondered about the etymology of the word sadism, it's from this man.

This book is meant to shock you, to rock you to your core. He challenges religion, politics and everything under the sun, all while narrating an orgy. This book is totally depraved and utterly riddled with debauchery.

I sometimes found his rants on politics, religion and the state a little bit long and lengthy - I felt that some of his book was just purely for shock value, no other reason. There were some brilliant lines in this, though, that have stuck with me till this day.

It's not for everyone, but I enjoyed it - and this edition is also beautiful! (If a little sexually explicit.) ( )