15 h 28 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What lies behind a name that becomes a word for cruelty?
In The Marquis de Sade and His Time, Iwan Bloch looks beyond scandal to examine Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade. He places the French nobleman in the rich, deeply unequal world of eighteenth-century France, then follows a life marked by repeated arrests and long confinement under the monarchy, the Revolution and the regime that follows.
Bloch, a German physician and an early researcher in sexual science, treats Sade's writings as evidence. Novels, tales and philosophical dialogues become material for questions about desire, history and medicine. Justine, Juliette and The 120 Days of Sodom enter a study that asks what the sources can show, rather than what a notorious reputation suggests.
What you’ll discover
- An age of inequality See how Bloch places Sade within the wealth and power of the French aristocracy.
- Between prison and freedom Follow repeated arrests and long confinements across changing regimes in France.
- Fiction examined as evidence Explore how Bloch reads Sade's novels and dialogues for clues about desire and his age.
- Sexual science takes shape Encounter an early medical attempt to describe sexual behaviour through the case of Sade.
- Beyond a notorious name Consider the distance between legend, strong feelings and what the sources can support.
Who will love it
For readers curious about the history of sexual science, the French Revolution and its aftermath, or the way a notorious name is made.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Sade belongs to a particular age
- A life lived between prisons and freedom
- The books as a source of evidence
- Sade as a case for sexual science
- Legend, judgment and fair reading
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El marqués de Sade y su época
by Iwan Bloch · 1900
Bloch examines Sade's prisons and banned books to explore how scandal becomes a subject for science.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 5
Sade belongs to a particular age
Bloch begins by placing Sade in eighteenth century France. Sade was born into the aristocracy in 1740, in a society that was powerful, rich and deeply unequal. The old order was losing its hold, and the ideas of the Enlightenment were spreading among the educated.
Bloch argues that a man like Sade cannot be understood apart from this setting. The court and the aristocratic world around him were known for loose manners and for a cult of pleasure. Sade grew up among privileges that few were allowed to question.
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What is The Marquis de Sade and His Time about?
It is a scholarly study of the life, imprisonments and writings of the Marquis de Sade, set in the context of eighteenth century France and used by the author as a case in the study of sexual behaviour.
Who was Iwan Bloch?
Iwan Bloch was a German physician who helped found sexology as a science. He wrote on the history and study of human sexuality and sometimes used the pen name Eugen Duehren.
Where does the word sadism come from?
It comes from the name of the Marquis de Sade, whose novels describe cruelty as a source of pleasure. The term was coined in the nineteenth century and later used in medicine and psychology.
The author
Iwan Bloch
1872–1922 · German dermatologist and sexologist
Iwan Bloch was a German dermatologist and sexologist. He was born in Delmenhorst in 1872 and died in Berlin in 1922. He worked as a physician in Berlin. His writings included The Marquis de Sade and His Time and The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization.
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