Donasen Alfons Fransua de Sad

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, known to history as the Marquis de Sade (French: marquis de Sade), was a French writer, aristocrat, and philosopher. He was a preacher of absolute freedom, unrestricted by morality, religion, or law, and regarded the possibility of attaining supreme personal pleasure as the central value of life.

Sadism, sexual gratification obtained through causing pain or humiliation to another person, was named after him (in the works of the sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing) as sadism; later the words sadism and sadist came to be used in a broader sense as well.

The de Sade family bore a comital title. Donatien’s grandfather was the first in the family to receive the title of marquis and to be called “Marquis de Sade,” although in official documents he is more often referred to as the Marquis de Mazan (marquis de Mazan); the writer’s father was styled “Comte de Sade.” It is known that the de Sade family belonged to the noblesse d'épée, which allowed the father’s title to be passed on hereditarily to the son. Despite this, the transmission of the marquisate to de Sade’s father and to de Sade himself was never formally recorded, which casts doubt on his title as marquis rather than count. Disputes over whether Donatien was indeed a marquis continue to this day. In some documents from his lifetime he is called the Marquis de Sade (including the 1772 judgment of the parlement and a number of letters), in others a count (including the death certificate). He entered literary history precisely as the Marquis de Sade, regardless of whether he had the legal right to use this title.

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was born on 2 June 1740 in the Château de Condé in Paris. His father was Jean-Baptiste Joseph François, Count de Sade, who was the hereditary governor in the provinces of Bresse, Bugey, Valromey, and Gex. Before receiving this honorary title, he served as envoy at the court of the Elector of Cologne, and later as