Crimes of Love [Paperback]

Marquis de Sade (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2003

Who but the Marquis de Sade would write, not of the pain, tragedy, and joy of love, but of its crimes? Murder, seduction, and incest are among the cruel rewards for selfless love in these stories; tragedy, despair, and death the inevitable outcome. Sade's villains will stop at nothing to satisfy their depraved passions, and they in turn suffer under the thrall of love. Psychologically astute and defiantly unconventional, these tales show Sade at his best. A skilled and artful storyteller, he is also an intellectual who asks questions about society, about ourselves, and about life, for which we have yet to find the answers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[An] excellent new edition... A recommended introduction to the Sadean oeuvre for anyone genuinely interested in the ideas that won him enduring notoriety. Ruth Scurr, Times Literary Supplement --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Peter Owen Ltd (December 31, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0720611830
• ISBN-13: 978-0720611830
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 6.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,155,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating stories of love gone wrong, May 27, 2001

By 

Richard Crowder (St Louis MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crimes of Love (Paperback)

Like other eighteenth-century "libertine novels," especially Laclos's Dangerous Liaisons, The Crimes of Love tells us what happens when extremely virtuous characters collide with extremely evil ones. And as with other classic writers of the late eighteenth century, the French here is easy for foreign readers. But by contrast with the novels (and the real-life acts) that have given Sade such a bad reputation, these stories are economical and interest us far more through psychology than through cruelty or perversion. To the five entertaining stories he has selected, Michel Delon adds the author's "Idea on novels" and an informative dossier.

This review is based on the French edition published in Gallimard's Folio series. The only recent translation (out of print) was published in the textually unreliable Bantam Classics series. A new translation of these stories would be a worthy project for an intermediate or advanced student of French.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great with red wine, May 21, 2005

By 

S. Wittenkamp (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Crimes of Love (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. Generally, the stories are great. The first few tales are very, very good. Towards the end of the book, Sade loses steam, but that doesn't mean that the stories are any less imaginative. I guess I thought it was hard to follow up "Florville and Courval".

I would definitely recommend reading the "essay on novels" thoroughly before reading the stories. Also, read the explanatory notes! Sometimes, it is trivial biographical/historical information, but occasionally there is some very insightful analysis of the text that help explain the point Sade is trying to make. A few of the devices that Sade employs will seem like cliches, but it should be kept in mind that much of his writing is reactionary.

Finally, his stories should also be read in the context of France immediately after the revolution. As the biography points out, Sade escaped the guillotine on a technicality. Hence his disillusionment with liberal republican ideals.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the crimes of love . very good book, June 3, 2010

By 

inflames (fl) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Crimes of Love (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

read the book in highschool after i watched the movie quills. very good book actually very entertaining .