Speculations on the Works of the Marquis de Sade

About the Book

This book offers a rational explanation of the anomalies of human behavior. It was inspired by a study of the works of Sade, which cover all aspects of human experience - the inner experience of the individual as well as the experience of the individual relative to other individuals, to groups and to the universe as a whole.

Part I summarizes, with specific references and quotations, all that Sade actually said about these aspects of human experience including his futile attempts, in the light of the religious philosophical, and scientific concepts of his time, to explain the anomalies he observed and described - the misfortunes of virtue and the prosperity of vice; murder; suicide; the connection of crime, cruelty, perversity, and sacrilege with sex; prostitution; adultery; incest; homosexuality; pederasty; despotism; war; anarchy; revolution, etc.

In Part II, Lorna Berman, starting with an assumption about he beginnings of the universe implicit in the work of Sade, and using only logic and simple arithmetic, expounds a theory about he operation of the universe - the formation of entities, the beginnings of life, propagation, the possibility of everlasting life, and the formation of groups - with a view to explaining the human anomalies portrayed by Sade.

In Part III, L. Berman explains the anomalies of human behavior in the light of her own theory (outlined in Part II), which reflects rather 20th century philosophical, religious and scientific sensitivities. The phenomena described in Part I are used as examples, since Sade's work constitutes one of the broadest descriptions of human nature ever written.

About the Author

Lorna Berman was born in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, where she received her primary education. She attended intermediate school in Alberta where she receive a scholarship in general proficiency.

She received her doctorate at the university of Toronto in French Language & Literature, the subject of her Ph.D. thesis being, "an Appraisal of the works of the Marquis de Sade and his Portrayal of Man."

She has been employed as a library assistant, factory worker, playground supervisor, chemistry lab assistant, secretary, office manager, and teacher.

She is the author of a textbook, French Readings in the Sciences, and the co-author of two books on the portrayal of old age in western literature, Images & Impressions of Old Age in the Great Works of Western Literature, 1987, and Portrayal of Old Age in Twentieth Century Canadian Novels, 1991.

Her publications on the Marquis de Sade include the following articles:

"Vital Statistics for the Marquis de Sade", 1961
"The Problem of Evil in Sade", 1963
"The Marquis de Sade and his Critics", 1968
"The Marquis de Sade and Religion", 1969
"The Marquis de Sade and Courtly Love', 1999

And the following book:

The Thought and Themes of the Marquis de Sade, 1971