Who was Marquis de Sade?
— Picture courtesy of Wikipedia by blogSpotter Marquis de Sade. The very mention of his name elicits laughter from some, and shocked disapproval from others. Sadism is a love that dare not speak its name, except maybe in the “alternatives” section of a singles web site. Marquis de Sade was in fact a French nobleman who lived from 1740 to 1814 – an aristocrat and also a prolific writer. His young life was unremarkable in some ways, promising in others. He went to Jesuit school as a young man and then served successfully as a Colonel in the Seven Years’ War. If only he had gone into the quiet retirement of a well-heeled Frenchman at this point, but he did not. He entered into writing and entertaining other libertine people instead. De Sade’s first brush with the law was when he kidnapped an English prostitute, Rose Keller, and imprisoned her in the dungeon room of his castle at Lacoste (now owned by fashion designer Pierre Cardin). She escaped and reported him to police – they immediate
