Noëlle Châtelet’s Fictional Interview with Marquis de Sade Published by Plon

Plon has published Noëlle Châtelet's 'Entretien avec le marquis de Sade', a fictional interview set on December 2, 1813, at the Pavillon des hommes in the hospice de Charenton, where Sade was serving his 26th year in prison. Châtelet, a philosopher, steps out of her own century to converse with Sade, whom she calls a 'philosophe des Lumières sombres' (philosopher of the dark Enlightenment). Drawing extensively on his writings, including many unpublished works, she aims to uncover who Sade was and the purpose behind his terrifying, unreasonable oeuvre. The fictional dialogue introduces readers to Sade's rich and complex thought, noting that his works were banned in France until the 1960s. Sade emerges as an Enlightenment philosopher who opposed the guillotine, calling the death penalty 'the most horrible of laws.' He condemns nature as a 'stepmother! A blind and imbecilic force!' and humanity as inherently vicious, even in virtue. For him, desire is the only valid motive for existence. Châtelet suggests Sade's work prefigures modern Western thought on the unconscious and psychoanalysis, with Sade concluding that 'the sweetest pleasures arise from the certainty of pain caused to others.'