Overview
āReading The Curse of the Marquis de Sade, with the Marquis, the sabotage of rare manuscript sales, and a massive Ponzi scheme at its center, felt like a twisty waterslide shooting through a sleazy and bizarre landscape. This book is wild.āāAdam McKay, Academy Awardāwinning filmmaker
Described as both āone of the most important novels ever writtenā and āthe gospel of evil,ā 120 Days of Sodom was written by the Marquis de Sade, a notorious eighteenth-century aristocrat who waged a campaign of mayhem and debauchery across France, evaded execution, and inspired the word āsadism,ā which came to mean receiving pleasure from pain. Despite all his crimes, Sade consideredĀ this work to be his greatest transgression.
The original manuscript of 120 Days of Sodom, a tiny scroll penned in the bowels of the Bastille in Paris, would embark on a centuries-spanning odyssey across Europe, passing from nineteenth-century banned book collectors to pioneering sex researchers to avant-garde artists before being hidden away from Nazi book burnings. In 2014, the world heralded its return to France when the scroll was purchased for millions by GĆ©rard LhĆ©ritier, the self-made son of a plumber who had used his savvy business skills to upend Franceās renowned rare-bookĀ market. But the sale opened the door to vendettas by the government, feuds among antiquarian booksellers, manuscript sales derailed by sabotage, a record-breaking lottery jackpot, and allegations of a decade-long billion-euro con, the specifics of which, if true, would make the scroll part of Franceās largest-ever Ponzi scheme.
Told with gripping reporting and flush with deceit and scandal, The Curse of the Marquis de Sade weaves together the sweeping odyssey of 120 Days of Sodom and the spectacular rise and fall of LhĆ©ritier, once the āking of manuscriptsā and now known to many as the Bernie Madoff of France. At its center isĀ an urgent question for all those who cherish the written word: As the age of handwriting comes to an end, what do we owe the original texts left behind?
This book title, The Curse of the Marquis de Sade (A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History), ISBN: 9780593135686, by Joel Warner, published by Crown (February 21, 2023) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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