"One must do violence to the object of one's desire; when it surrenders, the pleasure is greater."
-120 Days of Sodom was written while Sade was imprisoned in the Bastille. This masterwork reads like a catalog of sexual depravity. Four storytellers spend a month telling tales which are grouped under the headings "simple passions", "complex passions", "criminal passions" and finally "murderous passions". It is important to note that even the "simple passions" section includes stories of urination, defecation, all the way to necrophilia.
The first 150 stories are complete, fully developed tales. The remaining 450 are less developed sketches of depravities. The book also contains selections from Les Crimes de l'Amour, Sade's play Oxtiern and his novella Ernestine, as well as critical commentary from Simone de Beauvoir and Pierre Klossowski.
By the unsinkable Marquis de Sade