Lever - Sade : a biography

This book made available by the Internet Archive.

To Evelyne

12. The Fugitive : 230

13. "My stupid childish amusements" : 248

14. Attempted Murder : 270

15. On the Run : 292

16. Time Stands Still: 1778-1790 : 307

II : CITIZEN, MAN OF LETTERS

17. Free!... : 357

18. A Playwright's Tribulations : 371

19. The Hermit of the Chaussee dAntin : 388

20. The Grand Illusion : 397

21. In Torment : 418

22. The Patriotic Farce : 434

23. The Prisons of Liberty : 452

24. At Bay : 469

25. Sade's Misfortunes : 491

26. Charenton : 512

27. Twilight : 532

Epilogue : 565

Notes : 571

Bibliography : 607

Index : 615

A Note

on the Translation

and Abridgment

This English edition is an abridgment of the original French. In making cuts I first eliminated materials primarily of interest to scholars, much of it in the extensive appendices and footnotes. Second, I shortened some of the many letters that Maurice Lever reproduced in full in the body of the text. The flavor of eighteenth-century correspondence is an important element in achieving the balance for which the author aimed, and I hope I have kept enough of that essential spice. Third, I eliminated some episodes that seemed less pertinent than others to the main sweep of the narrative. Occasionally it was necessary to interpolate a sentence or two to smooth a transition or fill a gap where part of the text had been deleted. Maurice Lever was kind enough to read the entire translation and approve the changes. I also wish to thank him for his help in translating problematic passages. It has been a pleasure to work with him. Titles of Sade's works are given in French. Some English translations are cited in the Bibliography.

Arthur Goldhammer

Preface

This book belongs, first of all, to the comte de Sade and his son Thibault de Sade, without whose help it could never have been written. "Sadologists" are well aware of their immense debt to the descendants of the "divine marquis." We owe it to the comte de Sade that a major part of his ancestor's work was retrieved from oblivion some time ago. With his cooperation Gilbert Lely was able to put together his well-known biographical corpus. And thanks to his confidence and generosity we are today able to rediscover the author of Justine. Xavier and Thibault de Sade placed at my disposal the entirety of their family archives, which contain a considerable number of unpublished letters and documents that open up wholly new perspectives on the life of the marquis de Sade. I should like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude and abiding friendship.

Au comble de la solitude, Un accent inconnu de grace et de fureur.

gilbert lely, Ma Civilisation

S A D E

A Biography

Prologue

The Star with Eight

Golden Rays

The origins of the house of Sade bristle with legend. Its very inception is said to have been miraculous: the line is supposed to have originated with one of the three magi. In his Histoire de Provence Cesar de Nos-tredame claims to have read somewhere that the family issued from the princes of Les Baux, who prided themselves on being directly descended from the Baitsnot the inhabitants of Baltic shores but the Bolds, priestly offspring of a redoubtable family of Visigoths. The arms of these princes featured a star with sixteen rays, a mysterious comet whose origins the heraldists cannot trace. By a surprising coincidence the same star served as the emblem of the gypsies of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, who brought it with them from the east. For the people of Provence there was not the shadow of a doubt: Balthasar had visited Les Baux. When? How? No one can say.

Also according to Nostredame, this luminous star was stripped of half its rays and "differently emblazoned" to distinguish the elder and cadet branches of the family. This, we are told, is the origin of the arms of the house of Sade: a star with eight golden rays on a field of gules. Of course no one ever took this fabulous explanation seriously: Nostredame had a weakness for legends. Nevertheless, the three magi remained fixed in the family's memory, and in the genealogy of the Sades we find several Gaspars and a few Balthasars but not a single Melchior.

S A D E

Benezet, the Little Shepherd

Another legend attaches to Louis de Sade, the first of the line. In the year of grace 1177, a child named Benezet (little Benedict) was tending his mother's sheep when a voice spoke to him from heaven. Greatly agitated, the shepherd lad raised his head: "I am Jesus Christ," said the voice, "and I command you to leave your flock and build me a bridge across the Rhone."

The child protested that he knew nothing of rivers or construction, but the voice insisted and promised to provide a guide and someone to tend the shepherd's sheep while he worked. So Benezet started on his way, and soon he met an angel disguised as a pilgrim, who took him to the banks of the Rhone. "Take this bark," the stranger told him, "and cross the river. Then go to Avignon and show yourself to the bishop and his people." Upon reaching the other bank of the river, the boy set off in search of the prelate and found him preaching to his flock. The bishop, after mocking the lad's tale, sent him to see the dreaded provost of the city, who also greeted the boy's story with laughter. "At my palace there is a stone," he said. "If you can move it, I will believe that you are capable of building a bridge." Pleased with this turn of events, Benezet returned to the bishop and told him he was ready to meet the test the provost had set him. "We shall see," said the bishop, who brought his people with him.

Whereupon Benezet, laying hold of a stone so large that thirty men could not have moved it, raised it up and set it down on the river's bank where the first arch of the bridge was to be placed. Dumbfounded, those who witnessed the event gave the child the money to begin work at once. It took no fewer than ten years to complete the famous pont d'Avignon.

Behind the legendary figure of the little shepherd is the first known representative of the Sade family: Louis de Sade, viguier (provost) of Avignon in 1177, who financed the construction of the bridge. His descendants took a keen interest in maintaining and restoring the work. In 1355 Hugues de Sade left a bequest of 2,000 gold florins for its repair, and that is why the Sade coat of arms can still be seen today on the bridge's first arch. 1