The Depravity of the Marquis De Sade
episode
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
45 min
3 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 3 months ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the significance of the Marquis de Sade in history?
Do you want even more shocking and scandalous history? Like why the ancient Greek statues had such small manhoods or what went on behind closed doors in the Georgian era? Well sign up to History Hit where you can see me discover the scandalous side of history as well as hundreds of hours of original documentaries plus new releases every week covering everything from prehistoric Scotland to the Treaty of Versailles. Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. Hello, my lovely Betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. Welcome back to Betwixt the Sheets, the show where we look at the awful things people have done to each other and to, well, other things as well in the pursuit of pleasure.
That's right. We root around in the pants of history for your entertainment. But before we can do any of that, I do have to tell you, this is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things and adulty way of covering adult subjects needs to be an adult too. Do you feel safer? I feel safer. Right, let's do it. The 14th of July, 1789, and we are in revolutionary France. The Bastille is falling. The medieval fortress-turned-prison holds just a handful of prisoners as crowds of revolutionaries storm in, searching for gunpowder. And one aristocrat who survived the Bastille because he was whisked away mere weeks before it all happened was the infamous Macky de Sade. Yep, luck was with him and he is now imprisoned elsewhere.
But his most famous work, 120 Days of Sodom, written on small pieces of paper and glued together as a 39-foot scroll, remains hidden inside the wall of his former cell. When his wife comes to retrieve it, she finds the prison overrun and Saad believes it'll be lost forever. And apparently he wept tears of blood over it. But the work was not lost. No, like a bad penny, it keeps turning up. But not only did it turn up, it found its way into the hands of a publisher as well. Although many of you might wish that it hadn't been.
Hello and welcome back to Betwixt the Sheets, the history of sex, scandal and society with me, Kate Lister. As a historian, people often ask me which historical figures I would invite to a dream dinner party. Hmm, who would I? I think Nell Gwynn would be fun to have, and obviously Byron, just to ask him some serious questions.
How did the Marquis de Sade's upbringing influence his actions?
But what people don't ask is who would you absolutely not let in? Whose name would you not have on the list? And today's subject is surely one of those. The Marquis de Sade. The man who gave his name to sadism. Back in 18th century France, before the revolution, aristocrats had something of a free pass. It was one of the reasons they had the revolution in the first place. So what would you have to do as an aristocrat to be imprisoned for nearly half your lifetime? How bad did your behaviour have to be? He was first locked up at the age of 24 and then spent around 30 of his 74 years in jails and lunatic asylums. It was such a piece of work that his own mother-in-law requested his arrest on multiple occasions.
Are you intrigued? Well, I know I am, and I'm joined today by author and journalist Joel Warner to find out more about Saad and his infamous legacy. Deep breaths, everybody. Let's do this.
MUSIC PLAYS
Well, hello and welcome to Bitwigs The Sheets. It's only Joel Warner. How are you doing?
I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.
I'm thrilled that you are here because I can't believe it's taken us so long to actually have an episode about this man, the Marquis de Sade. My, you have written a biography. Well, you've written about Sade and a lot of it was biographical. Do you remember when you first met this atrocious human being?
Yeah.
Well, thankfully, I didn't actually meet him personally because I feel like I would probably not enjoy him in person. No, no. Probably not. So I think the average person, if you ask them about the Marquis de Sade, they probably would never have heard of him.
What crimes did the Marquis de Sade commit that led to his imprisonment?
I probably first heard about him thanks to the movie Quills.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the significance of the Marquis de Sade in history?
0:00–2:53
2
How did the Marquis de Sade's upbringing influence his actions?
2:53–4:41
3
What crimes did the Marquis de Sade commit that led to his imprisonment?
4:41–6:24
4
How did the political climate of France affect the Marquis de Sade's life?
6:24–8:06
5
What is the story behind Sade's infamous work, '120 Days of Sodom'?
8:06–9:32
6
How did the revolution impact the Marquis de Sade's fate?
9:32–11:18
7
What were the repercussions of Sade's actions after the revolution?
11:18–12:36
8
What is the legacy of the Marquis de Sade in modern culture?
12:36–45:21