Was de Sade inhuman?

The Marquis de Sade's first arrest and imprisonment was more the result of what he said or wrote than what he did. In fact, he spent almost 29 of his 74 years in prison. Yet he was never convicted of a single crime.

On the occasion of his first imprisonment, he was 23 years of age, and had been married off by his father just five months earlier to a wealthy heiress far below his rank. A complaint against him was made to the Paris police by a prostitute named Jeanne Testard because of sacrilegious pictures he showed her and dirty poems he read her from a book he kept in his room. He had also asked her to take an enema and to empty the contents of her bowel on a statuette of Jesus Christ, but she had refused. He wanted her to whip him, and, if she liked, to be whipped by him. But she also declined these acts.

Blasphemy or bravado?

No sexual act occurred between them. Almost all of de Sade's actions were verbal and symbolic. They are epitomised by the following account he told Testard about his meeting with another prostitute some weeks earlier, a story, he claimed, that proved that God does not exist: 'He [de Sade, said that he had] once had sexual union with a girl with whom he had taken Communion, that he had made off with the two Communion wafers, had shoved them into that girl's sexual parts, and that he had sexual congress with her, all the while saying: "If you are God, avenge yourself."'

De Sade's other exploits with prostitutes, documented in police and court records, also involved sacrilege and frenetic experimentation. In every society, there is always a privileged sexual class. Today, its members might include rock stars, famous athletes, and movie stars, whose escapades the public appears to watch with vicarious enjoyment. In 18th-century France, de Sade belonged to such a class. There were French noblemen like the Comte de Charolais, who took pleasure in killing and who did much worse things than de Sade ever did.

Infamous or victimised?

Yet de Sade was somehow singled out for unique punishment. After his first arrest over the Testard affair, knowing that he was now under surveillance by Inspector Marais of the Paris vice squad, de Sade might have been more cautious. On the contrary, detailed reports of his dealings with Paris prostitutes and with well-known actress-courtesans were regularly forwarded by Inspector Marais to Antoine de Sartine, the Lieutenant General of Police, and ultimately to the king. De Sade was infamous even before he was famous.

Madame de Montreuil, de Sade's social-climbing mother-in-law, tried to salvage his reputation. She had given de Sade her daughter and a large dowry. She managed to buy off one prostitute who charged that he had whipped her on Easter Sunday (a sacrilegious parody of the crucifixion). However, when de Sade seduced and ran off with Madame de Montreuil's favourite daughter, she decided to cut her losses. She had him imprisoned by means of a lettre de cachet.

As with Jeanne Testard, de Sade was oblivious to the effects his actions inevitably produced. It seemed as if he was punished every time he lowered his trousers. It may appear that he wanted such punishment. Wherever he went, he would seek out some adversary to challenge. 'If you are God,' he had shouted, 'avenge yourself.' God did not have to. There would always be Madame de Montreuil and Inspector Marais.

Corrupt or complex?

de Sade is a far more complicated, interesting, and instructing a person than most people imagine; he is not what people usually think of him. For example, there was certainly a romantic, idealistic side to de Sade. The furious imaginative plunge into the depths he paints in The 120 Days of Sodom derives its force and trajectory from outraged idealism and some sort of religious belief.

de Sade would have had no point in verbally taunting God unless part of de Sade believed God was listening. Even in his sexual life, where we readily call up de Sade's crazed face and lurid eyes – a mask of obscenity – most people are surprised to learn that he could be a very attentive, sweet, romantic lover. His sister-in-law would not have run away with him had he been a cruel lover.

de Sade was also the lover of famous actresses and dancers, who certainly could be choosy, and none of them ever complained. Indeed, he could not afford to give them the gifts and stipends they usually received from their rich admirers. One actress loaned de Sade a considerable sum, which he never repaid.

Perverse or protean?

de Sade was a protean figure. Perhaps now, we are in a very good position to understand him. We have passed through many revolutions in the previous century. Maybe we have fewer inhibitions and preconceived ideas than previous generations had. We may need fewer of them to get by. I hope we can see de Sade as a human being. He was never the man in the myth. Demythologising him will help us better to understand ourselves.

His main accomplishment was writing The 120 Days of Sodom. It portrayed the mind of man in its most extreme form, the very heart of darkness. He lists 600 perversions in an ascending order of complexity and depravity, beginning with the simplest – he opens with a priest whose only pleasure is in sucking the snot out of a girl's runny nose – and ends with multiple murders and acts of savagery that stagger the reader who has had the stomach to read that far. It is, I think, a worthwhile book to read. It challenges us to understand how far we are willing to face our deepest truths, to see ourselves in all our complexity, and to experience the force of a truth about humankind we would otherwise never have acquired.

The 20th century has seen the worst horrors men have done. It is all too easy to dump the details of these horrors into a mental folder called History, and then lose or forget it. It is impossible to read The 120 Days of Sodom without sensing why you were afraid to go on reading, or, if you do continue, it is impossible to finish the book without suffering an expansion of your awareness of evil and of yourself. De Sade teaches us what it is to be human.

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