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Sade’s Marquise de Gange

The Conflict between Good and Evil, Faith and Irreligion, in Sade’s Marquise de Gange

Mary Trouille, Illinois State University

Volume 17, no. 1, October 2004

©McMaster University, 2015. All articles published on the Eighteenth-Century Fiction website are protected by copyright held by Eighteenth-Century Fiction, a journal published by the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University.

ABSTRACT

In the biography Sade Vivant, in a chapter titled “Bonnes intentions, bonne conduite” concerning the last years of Sade’s life, Pauvert maintains that the marquis’s writing gradually lost its aggressively subversive quality during his long confinement at Charenton: “Même en 1807, […] je pense que Sade n’était déjà plus en mesure de s’attaquer aux puissances sociales que sont la religion et la morale […] avec une aussi radicale subversion qu’il l’avait fait dans La Philosophie dans le boudoir ou dans Juliette. En 1811, encore moins; en 1812, il n’est plus question du tout […]. Charenton n’a fait qu’aggraver ce que l’âge, une santé déficiente et la pression de la société avaient entamé à Sainte-Pélagie et à Bicêtre.” Pauvert contends that, weighed down by age, infirmity, and his long imprisonment, Sade underwent a conversion of sorts to conformity — to conventional morality and religion. He suggests that Sade not only “sold out” but even fully embraced his role of reformed atheist and penitent ex-pornographer: “On ne parle pas impunément, pendant tant d’années, si « respecteusement de tout ce qu’on respecte ». On ne rend pas impunément le pain bénit à la grand-messe pour donner le change. On ne crache pas impunément à toute occasion sur « les infâmes romans » qu’on vous accuse d’avoir commis […] . Tout se passe après tant d’années comme si, contraint à une comédie perpétuelle, le vieil acteur avait fini par être avalé par son rôle.” Commenting specifically on the three historical novels Sade wrote towards the end of his stay at Charenton, Pauvert adds: “Plus rien de clandestin, de scandaleux, de subversif.”

Other ECF articles on the topic of “Sade” include:

Shocked Sensibility: The Nerves, the Will, and Altered States in Sade’s L’Histoire de Juliette
by SEAN QUINLAN (ECF 25.3, Spring 2013)

Communal Sexuality: Mutual Pleasure in Sade’s La Philosophie dans le boudoir
by KATE PARKER (ECF 25.2, Winter 2012-13)

“Mais où est le cul?”: Life and Form in Sade’s Les Infortunes de la vertu and La Nouvelle Justine
by OLIVIER DELERS (ECF 22.4, Summer 2010)

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