Gothic Tales

A collection of witty, transgressive tales from the great Enlightenment thinker, best known for his inimitable blend of philosophy and scandalous sexuality

The Marquis de Sade is one of the select group of authors whose name has become an adjective, inspiring the word 'sadism' with his shocking works of philosophical fiction. But for all his scandalous reputation, Sade was a moralist and a philosopher above all, and the stories collected here show him in his full range, using his kinky imagination to poke fun at convention and decry social ills.

In the longer stories, 'Florville and Courval' and 'Eugénie de Franval', we see one of the greatest taboos of all - incest - employed to criticise the corrupt social order of the time. Shorter pieces such as 'The Horse-Chestnut Flower' and 'The Husband Who Played Priest', meanwhile, show Sade's sharp sense of humour at play. This collection reveals France's most infamous libertine as an author whose literary range and psychological insight can still astonish, centuries after he first shocked polite society.