Crimes of Passion, by Marquis De Sade

Crimes of Passion, by Marquis De Sade. 1965 Castle Books first edition hardcover hardcover. 128 pages, very nice condition, no DJ.

Sadism is defined as the seeking of sexual gratification through cruelty. The term derives, of course, from the name of the Marquis de Sade- whose actual life was as satanic as anything he ever wrote- and who composed his most notorious works in prison, where he had been sentenced for a succession of crimes. Crimes of Passion contains all his familiar obsessions: contempt for conventional morality, the triumph of vice over virtue, and indulgence in the psychopathological acts of murder, incest, perversion and sadism. What lifts these stories above their present-day imitators is not only their literary elegance but- oddly enough- De Sade's own unique, if perverse, moral tone.