Sade Marquis de. The 120 Days of Sodom

The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinism (Les 120 journées de Sodome ou l'école du libertinage) is a novel by the French writer and nobleman Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade. Described as both pornographic and erotic, it was written in 1785. It tells the story of four wealthy male libertines who resolve to experience the ultimate sexual gratification in orgies. To do this, they seal themselves away for four months in an inaccessible castle in Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, France, with a harem of 46 victims, mostly young male and female teenagers, and engage four female brothel keepers to tell the stories of their lives and adventures. The women's narratives form an inspiration for the sexual abuse and torture of the victims, which gradually mounts in intensity and ends in their slaughter.The work remained unpublished until the early twentieth century.[5] In recent times it has been translated into many languages, including English, Japanese, Spanish, Russian and German. Due to its explicit nature and themes of sexual violence and extreme cruelty, it remains an extremely controversial book but one of very significant historical interest to book students and historians, however it has been banned by some governments.