The MARQUIS de SADE

Lacoste #Culture, #Histoire,

The Marquis de Sade

It is just after high school that I discovered for the first time Lacoste and its millenium old fort.

The Marquis de Sade was then completely unknown to me ... But the place pleased me! The situation of the castle, this luminous beauty of the Luberon inspired me at first sight. Years later, thanks to Pierre Cardin, the place became familiar to me and the so controversial personality of Marquis of Sade began to fascinate me ... His unbridled life, his burning writings call my imagination. To mark the bicentenary of his death, it seemed to me appropriate to celebrate in my own way Sade and tell the life of this man so extravagant, this man who has dedicated most of his life to darkness.

Know by us as a man of letters, novelist, philosopher and politician, Donatien Alphonse François de Sade is one of the masters of imagination and fantasy. However to study on the Marquis de Sade proves to be difficult, his life and his career are still largely mysterious. No authentic portrait; poor descriptions by his contemporaries. One of the key characteristics of his existence is his secluded life, convicted, lunatic, during which he wrote thousands of pages. But most of these products are now lost or destroyed.

Atheist, a strong proponent of eroticism, carried in an imaginary way and / or to actual acts of violence and cruelty, he is a kind of unconventional hero, an uncommon kind in our literature. Holder of manorial rights over the bodies and minds of his time, he had almost all powers over "his" people. Basically, he was not worse than many other lords. Often called the "divine marquis " ( in memory of Pietro Aretino, said "divine Aretino ," this Italian writer of the XVIth century was fond of libertine writing), his texts mock the society of his time and his symbols - marriage and religion.

The XIXth century, ferociously prude and bearer of moral values, did everything possible to smother these raffish writings.The first part of the XXth century was the same, crushed to digest two world wars. But in the 1950s, an extraordinary editor, Jean- Jacques Pauvert, achieve the publication of these works, despite the opposition of conservatives and bigots. Sade, as an archetype of literature, gave his name to a neologism, a type of literature and sexuality: sadism - synonymous with evil, perversion of cruelty, and translated into many languages. And yet, who is he exactly? This man was a soldier and a libertine, man of letters, author and director of theater, however he was relegated to the asylum at Charenton, he was all his life, a descendant of an august lineage, and also, in turn, sought to perpetuate his name and blood.

He found a balance in the Luberon, this earth of his castle of Lacoste, a haven of peace and salvation.

If Sade descended from the nobility of the sword, he was seduced by the bourgeois’ spirit of “ Les Lumières”. He created the concept of " pleasure". Finally, Donatien de Sade succeeded, both through his writings and his life, to cross the French political life, so rich in these times of Enlightenment and Revolution without attracting any sympathy ... Henry de Montherlant liked to say : " Making friends is an occupation for shopkeeper [...] . Making enemies is an aristocrat activity ! " With Donatien de Sade, we are in the high nobility.

Jean -Pascal Hesse