French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Coudreuse, Sade, écrivain polymorphe
Novel and Narrative Prose
Review published in Acta Fabula (August-September 2016, vol. 17, no. 4) : "Sade in All His Genres" by Marie-Laure Delmas.
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Anne Coudreuse, Sade, a Polymorphic Writer
Paris : Honoré Champion, "Champion Essais" series, 2015.
EAN13 : 9782745329431
120 p.
Price 25 EUR
Publisher's overview:
The Marquis de Sade, who died two hundred years ago, remains very much alive within the dark legend that his life has become—especially, and above all, for those who have never read him and know him only through the scandalous echoes of his biography and pornographic work, with which they sometimes confuse it. This essay aims to consider him above all as a writer, analyzing—through the lens of curiosity—Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue, one of his best-known novels. Yet it does not limit itself to the most famous aspects of this corpus, also examining his frequently neglected plays, which were omitted from the Pléiade reedition of his works. The book explores apathy in Sade’s dramatic texts as a mirror of his novels, where it constitutes one of the defining traits of libertines, both in their practice and in their philosophical references. Sade is indeed a polymorphic writer, as the vibrancy of his style shines through in his correspondence, notably in his Letters to His Wife—studied here alongside his Unpublished Journal. This reveals an obsession with the "signals" of his liberation in a man who spent twenty-seven of his seventy-four years of life imprisoned under the monarchy, the Republic, the Consulate, and the Empire.
Anne Coudreuse is an HDR Senior Lecturer in 18th-century French Literature at Université Paris 13 Sorbonne Paris Cité and an honorary member of the Institut universitaire de France. She is the author of Le Goût des larmes au XVIIIe siècle (1999, reissued by Desjonquères, 2013) and Le Refus du pathos au XVIIIe siècle (Champion, 2001). She has edited the volume Les Mémoires : une question de genre ? (L’Harmattan, 2011) and co-edited three collective works: Pour une histoire de l’intime et de ses variations (L’Harmattan, 2009), Sade et les femmes : ailleurs et autrement (L’Harmattan, 2014), and Le Temps des femmes. Textes mémoriels des Lumières (Garnier, 2014). A columnist for the journal Les Moments littéraires, her research focuses on self-writing and the representation of the Enlightenment in contemporary literature.
This study focuses on the multifaceted literary output of the Marquis de Sade, moving beyond his enduring scandalous reputation to examine his work across diverse genres. By analyzing well-known novels alongside dramatic texts and personal correspondence, the book highlights the stylistic and philosophical coherence uniting his varied writings. Anne Coudreuse situates Sade within the intellectual currents of the eighteenth century, offering a nuanced perspective on a canonical author whose legacy continues to provoke debate among scholars of French literature and cultural history.
The volume will prove particularly useful for students, researchers, and readers interested in Enlightenment literature, eighteenth-century aesthetics, and the complex relationship between biography and literary creation. It addresses key questions regarding genre boundaries, the poetics of libertinage, and the representation of the self in confinement. By shedding light on lesser-known texts, such as his plays and unpublished journals, the book provides valuable tools for a broader reevaluation of Sade's contribution to literary history beyond his infamous transgressive reputation.